Future College Persistence and Completion Reports to Include Breakouts by Race and Ethnic Groups
By Afet Dundar, Associate Director of Research Services, National Student Clearinghouse Research Center
In the past three years, the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center’s annual college completions and persistence and retention reports have become nationally recognized as critical resources for policymakers and institutions, as well as the broader education community. These are the only reports that include part-time and transfer students, counting all successful student outcomes even when they occur at a transfer institution.
Now, with the support of Lumina Foundation, the Research Center plans to publish the reports – for the first time – with breakdowns of these outcomes by race and ethnicity. The purpose of the initiative is to help better understand college persistence and completion among students of different racial and ethnic groups. The next completions report will come out November 2016, and the persistence and retention report will be released in April 2017.
“Only through the cooperation of institutions to provide these critical data will it be possible to produce college success outcomes by race and ethnicity. We believe that this new study will provide vital insights to the entire education community.”
As part of the study, the Research Center plans to collect race and ethnicity data from a nationally representative sample of 800 institutions by June 30, 2016. Currently, 45 percent of the institutions are already providing the necessary data with their regular Clearinghouse files. An institution’s data will not be identified in any reports. As an organization with a proven record in privacy and security, the Clearinghouse is committed to protecting the institution’s data.
Institutions involved will be eligible to receive annual benchmarking reports that compare the results of their students to those of state and national averages for similar institutions, and to measure their institution’s progress over time. The Research Center will work with AACRAO to provide workshops, webinars and information sessions at upcoming AACRAO conferences to help make the best use of these reports. These offerings will provide insights and examples for putting the data analyses directly into practice to help institutions make the best use of these reports.
Only through the cooperation of institutions to provide these critical data will it be possible to produce college success outcomes by race and ethnicity. We believe that this new study will provide vital insights to the entire education community.
Together, we can improve educational outcomes for current and future generations of students!
Questions? Contact our research team.
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