Press Release

More Than 1,000 High Schools Participate In The Clearinghouse

Unique StudentTracker Program Helps Educators Gauge College Success of High School Graduates

HERNDON, VA, July 12, 2006 - The National Student Clearinghouse, the nation's trusted source for student degree and enrollment verification, today announced that participation in its StudentTracker for High Schools program has surpassed 1,000 high schools nationwide. The program extends the Clearinghouse's popular StudentTracker educational research service to high school districts, allowing them to more accurately measure the college success of their graduates. Participating high schools have a combined enrollment of nearly three million students and graduate more than 200,000 students each year. The 165 participating school districts comprise some of the nation's largest school districts, including Chicago Public Schools, Houston Independent School District and Los Angeles Unified School District, as well as all school districts in Utah.

Participants provide the Clearinghouse with electronic files of their high school diploma recipients. The Clearinghouse then matches the information against its national database, which contains records on 75 million college students. These records are updated frequently by more than 2,800 post-secondary institutions that enroll over 91% of all US college students. Each StudentTracker for High Schools participant receives a comprehensive annual report containing the names of the colleges its high school graduates attended, institution type (e.g., two-year, four-year, etc.), attendance dates, enrollment status*, degrees earned, and major courses of study. With this information, districts and high schools can measure the effectiveness of their college preparation efforts. A sample report is available at www.studentclearinghouse.org/highschools/pdfs/ST_sample_report.pdf.

Recently, Chicago Public Schools (CPS), which has used StudentTracker since 2004, found that the college enrollment of its 2005 high school graduates had increased two percent compared to that of its 2004 graduates. Prior to 2004, CPS relied on data from senior surveys, which only indicates students' plans to go to college not whether they really enrolled or not. "It's encouraging to see an increase in college enrollment among our students. It is especially gratifying to note that some of our schools have increased their college enrollment rates by as much as 15% from 2004 to 2005. We would not have been able to identify these gains without StudentTracker which provides us with real college enrollment data," said Arne Duncan, CEO of Chicago Public Schools, "StudentTracker enables the Department of Postsecondary Education & Student Development to more accurately assess and improve its' postsecondary programs, such as GEARUP, AVID, and Summer Quest, which aim to increase CPS' students preparation and access to higher education as well as assists schools in evaluating and improving their postsecondary preparation planning and guidance."

StudentTracker is fully compliant with FERPA, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. High school districts that are interested in participating or receiving additional information, can contact the Clearinghouse at 703-742-4200. A full list of StudentTracker for High Schools participants is available at www.studentclearinghouse.org/highschools/pdfs/HSDistricts_list.pdf. 

*Enrollment status (i.e., full, half, less than half) is included for colleges that list this item as directory information.

About The National Student Clearinghouse®

The National Student Clearinghouse (a non-profit formed in 1993) is the unique and trusted source for higher education enrollment and degree verifications. The Clearinghouse serves as a single point of contact for the collection and timely exchange of accurate and comprehensive enrollment, degree and certificate records on behalf of its more than 3,300 participating higher education institutions, which represent over 92% of the national enrollment.

Through its verification and reporting services, the Clearinghouse saves higher education institutions cumulatively more than a hundred million dollars annually. Most Clearinghouse services are provided to colleges and universities at little or no charge, including enhanced transcript and research services, enabling institutions to redistribute limited staff and budget resources to more important student service efforts. All Clearinghouse services are operated in full compliance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).

In addition, the Clearinghouse provides accurate FERPA compliant verifications to student loan providers, employers, student credit issuers, student health insurance providers, the U.S. Department of Education, and others who access its registry more than 100 million times annually.

For more information, visit www.studentclearinghouse.org.

For Questions About This Press Release Only, Contact:
Kathleen Dugan
Marketing Director
703-742-4208
dugan@studentclearinghouse.org

For Help With or Questions About Any Clearinghouse Service, Contact:
703-742-4200
service@studentclearinghouse.org