The Impact of the National Student Clearinghouse: Making a Difference in a Year Like No Other

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The Impact of the National Student Clearinghouse: Making a Difference in a Year Like No Other

HERNDON, VA – (AUGUST 3, 2021) – During the 2020-21 academic year, COVID-19 had a dramatic influence on the education community, and like many others, created the need for the National Student Clearinghouse to transition its entire operations to an online environment. This was accomplished while helping other K20 institutions meet reporting and student service obligations with minimal impact to the learner, institutions, or the federal government.

The Clearinghouse’s 2020 Annual Impact Report released today shows how learners, education institutions, public policy makers and employers benefited from our services last year:

2.3 billion transactions processed saving schools hundreds of thousands of hours so they can focus on serving learners.
$750+ million saved by educators from our services, enabling them to deliver increased value to learners nationwide.
500 million+ records queried providing clients with actionable insights about learner outcomes related to persistence, retention, and educational achievements.
20 million enrollment and degree verifications performed for student service providers offering discounts and more to students, and by employers and background screeners shortening the time candidates waited and worried before receiving job offers.
9.5 million errors resolved before enrollment data was transmitted to lenders, servicers, and the U.S. Department of Education, preventing millions of students from receiving erroneous delinquency and default notices.
284,000 support requests resolved— all free of charge — by our Customer Care team members, who smoothly transitioned to remote work during COVID-19 and continued to serve our customers successfully.
Nearly 860 schools, enrolling more than 1.9 million students, can now provide their graduates with instant verification of their diplomas.
180 webinars held virtually and attended by more than 8,400 education leaders.
150 school districts, consortia, and high schools have been relieved of time-consuming diploma verification and can focus on other priorities.

“During the 2020-21 academic year, we all know that COVID-19 had a dramatic influence on the education community. The Clearinghouse employees, embracing our non-profit mission, rose to meet the moment and delivered with significant impact to the K20-W education, public policy, and workforce communities, when they needed it most,” said Rick Torres, President and CEO, National Student Clearinghouse.

Funders interested in supporting our efforts to strengthen the nation’s education system to better serve all learners, may contact us online.

About the National Student Clearinghouse^®

The National Student Clearinghouse, a nonprofit formed in 1993, is the trusted source for and leading provider of higher education verifications and electronic education record exchanges. Besides working with nearly 3,600 postsecondary institutions, the Clearinghouse also provides thousands of high schools and districts with continuing collegiate enrollment, progression, and completion statistics on their alumni. For more details, visit studentclearinghouse.org.

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National Student Clearinghouse and the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center Announce New Board Members

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National Student Clearinghouse and the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center Announce New Board Members

HERNDON, VA – (JULY 20, 2021) – The National Student Clearinghouse and the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center announced today new members to each of their respective Board of Directors. In addition, Dr. Anne Bryant, Executive Director Emerita, National School Boards Association, was named board chair, and Michael Collins, Vice President, Jobs for the Future and Chair of the Research Center Board, was chosen as board vice chair.

The Clearinghouse is governed by a board of directors comprised of a cross-section of the constituencies that it serves, including representatives from educational institutions, educational associations, and the education finance industry. The makeup of the Clearinghouse’s board reflects its status as a trusted, neutral, and reliable source for educational information and services.

New Clearinghouse board members:

Dr. Jack E. Daniels, III, President, Madison Area Technical College

Dr. Sharon Morrissey, Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic & Workforce Programs, Virginia Community College System

New Research Center board members:

Dr. Sharon Morrissey, Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic & Workforce Programs, Virginia Community College System

Dr. Carissa Moffat Miller, Chief Executive Officer, Council of Chief State School Officers, and current Clearinghouse Board member

Quotes:

Dr. Anne Bryant, Executive Director Emerita, National School Boards Association

For more than 28 years, the Clearinghouse has provided data and analysis for more than 3,600 colleges and universities, the U.S. Government, and the public at large. Now, as the nation faces extraordinary challenges, we welcome the opportunity to meet the new demands across the K-20 and the workforce continuum. I am honored to serve as the Chair of the Clearinghouse Board of Directors, and we welcome Dr. Daniels and Dr. Morrissey to the National Student Clearinghouse boards.

Dr. Daniels, president of Madison Area Technical College, brings a wealth of experience, leadership, and commitment to the educational attainment of students. His expertise includes strategic and master planning, Economic Development, and Community engagement.

Dr. Morrissey, Senior Vice Chancellor for the Virginia Community College system, has a vast and deep understanding of community colleges and the role they play in Workforce Development. Given the Clearinghouse’s increasing role in the workforce credentialing arena, she will contribute greatly to our strategic thinking and planning.

Rick Torres, President and CEO, National Student Clearinghouse

The Clearinghouse’s goal of data and information democratization has never been more relevant than it is today. To accomplish this end, we are accelerating the evolution of our data custodial role and information provision capacities to extend well beyond traditional education to provide a more holistic data driven view of education, skills, and workforce pathways to better directly serve lifelong learners, and institutions of learning and enterprise.

With that in mind, we enthusiastically welcome these national leaders serving the community college and technical college eco-systems in the United States. Their insights will greatly help inform how our mission of access to the most relevant data by participants in the Clearinghouse can be enhanced via further data extensions and analytical services. I look forward to their insights in support of moving the Clearinghouse’s mission forward.

Doug Shapiro, Executive Director of the Research Center

The Research Center is very grateful to Dr. Morrissey and Dr. Moffat Miller for volunteering to serve on our board. Because of their extensive experience in research and education, the Research Center will greatly benefit from their input in our efforts to help secondary and postsecondary education leaders navigate the current environment post-pandemic and beyond.

Dr. Jack E. Daniels, III, President, Madison Area Technical College

I am honored to be selected as a Board member to the National Student Clearinghouse. The Clearinghouse provides a great service to education institutions in providing accurate data that is essential in enrollment and program planning as institutions push the completion agenda at their respective colleges and universities. Providing input and guidance to this process and data analysis is extremely important and I welcome that opportunity.

Dr. Sharon Morrissey, Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic & Workforce Programs, Virginia Community College System

I look forward to representing community colleges on the Clearinghouse and Research Center Boards to support the Clearinghouse’s ongoing goal of providing disaggregated data to inform institutions about students’ increasingly complex education journeys, including credit for prior learning, stackable credentials, industry-recognized certifications, and lifelong learning.

About the National Student Clearinghouse^®

The National Student Clearinghouse, a nonprofit formed in 1993, is the trusted source for and leading provider of higher education verifications and electronic education record exchanges.

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 3,600 participating higher education institutions, which represent 98 percent of all students in public and private U.S. institutions. The Clearinghouse also provides thousands of high schools and districts with continuing collegiate enrollment, progression, and completion statistics on their alumni.

Through its verification, electronic exchange, and reporting services, the Clearinghouse saves the education community cumulatively over $750 million 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. Clearinghouse services are designed to facilitate an institution’s compliance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, The Higher Education Act, and other applicable laws. The Clearinghouse has signed the Student Privacy Pledge and is the first recipient of ikeepsafe.org’s FERPA compliance badge, which was awarded to its StudentTracker for High Schools service.

For more information, visit www.studentclearinghouse.org.

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College Persistence Rate Drops An Unprecedented 2 Percentage Points

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College Persistence Rate Drops An Unprecedented 2 Percentage Points

Of 2.6 Million First-Time Freshmen, 74% Returned for Their Second Year

HERNDON, VA – (JULY 8, 2021) – The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center reported today that of the 2.6 million students who entered college as first-time freshmen in fall 2019, 74 percent returned to college for their second year. This rate represents a pandemic-related, unprecedented one-year drop of two percentage points in this important early student success indicator.

“We can now add increased attrition of 2019 freshmen to the severe impacts of the pandemic,” said Doug Shapiro, Executive Director of the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. “These losses erase recent improvements that colleges have made in keeping learners on track early. They will ripple through higher education for years.”

Highlights from the 2021 Persistence and Retention Report include:

There was a marked decline in first-year persistence rate in fall 2020 after remaining stable for the past four years. The overall persistence rate dropped two percentage points to 73.9 percent for fall 2019 beginning college students, its lowest level since 2012.
Community colleges showed the steepest persistence rate decline over last year of all institution sectors (down 3.5 percentage points to 58.5%).
The persistence rate gaps by race and ethnicity in the 2019 cohort remain as wide as in the previous cohort years, with approximately a 22-percentage point gap between the highest (86.5% for Asian students) and the lowest (64.9% for Black students). White (79.3%) and Latinx (68.6%) students reflect a gap of nearly 11 percentage points. The overall first-year persistence rate fell the most among Latinx students (down 3.2 percentage points from 71.8% to 68.6%).
Retention rates declined the most in the community college sector (down 2.1 percentage points to 51.6%) whereas the rates went up in the public four-year college sector (up 0.7 percentage points to 76.3%).
Freshmen transferring out in their first year dropped somewhat more than those remaining at their starting institution (-1.2 percentage points vs. -0.7 percentage points). This pattern reflects constrained student mobility during the pandemic as documented in our COVID-19 transfer report.
Bachelor’s degree-seeking students in liberal arts majors had the largest persistence rate drop (down 1.6 percentage points to 88.1%). But biological and biomedical sciences and health care majors increased 1.4 and 1.8 percentage points to 82.3 and 78.9 percent, respectively, in their retention rates.

The Persistence and Retention report series examines first-year persistence and retention rates for beginning postsecondary students. Persistence rate is measured by the percentage of students who return to college at any institution for their second year, while retention rate is by the percentage of students who return to the same institution. Students attaining a credential in their first year are accounted for in persistence and retention rates.

The report is designed to help institutions understand trends and patterns in this important early success indicator, and identify disparities by institutional type, state, degree level, starting enrollment intensity, major field, and student demographic characteristics such as age, gender, and race and ethnicity.

About the National Student Clearinghouse^® Research Center™

The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center is the research arm of the National Student Clearinghouse. The Research Center collaborates with higher education institutions, states, school districts, high schools, and educational organizations as part of a national effort to better inform education leaders and policymakers. Through accurate longitudinal data outcomes reporting, the Research Center enables better educational policy decisions leading to improved student outcomes.

The Research Center currently collects data from more than 3,600 postsecondary institutions, which represent 97 percent of the nation’s postsecondary enrollments in degree-granting institutions, as of fall 2019. Clearinghouse data track enrollments nationally and are not limited by institutional and state boundaries. To learn more, visit https://nscresearchcenter.org.

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NAIA Selects National Student Clearinghouse Transcript Service to Benefit Students and Alumni for Student-Athlete Eligibility

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NAIA Selects National Student Clearinghouse Transcript Service to Benefit Students and Alumni for Student-Athlete Eligibility

KANSAS CITY, MO and HERNDON, VA – (JUNE 30, 2021) – The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) and the National Student Clearinghouse announced today that the NAIA will enhance its student-athlete eligibility process via the Clearinghouse’s Transcript Ordering Service for Education Organizations. The Clearinghouse specializes in providing outsourced secure, electronic transcript fulfillment and delivery services to more than 1,200 postsecondary institutions in the United States.

“We’re thrilled to partner with the National Student Clearinghouse as the official transcript provider of the NAIA,” said NAIA President and CEO Jim Carr. “The Clearinghouse sets the industry standard for transcript fulfillment and data collection, easing the process for both our member institutions and student-athletes. This is definitely a win-win for all involved.”

With the Clearinghouse, the NAIA will be able to upgrade and automate their student-athlete eligibility lifecycle,” said Pepe Carreras, Vice President of Education Services, National Student Clearinghouse. “The NAIA will not only provide student athletes with the safest, fastest way to transmit their transcripts for validation of athletic program eligibility, but also realize a substantial reduction in administrative costs and overhead. We appreciate the NAIA selecting the Clearinghouse as its strategic partner for Transcript Ordering and fulfillment.”

NAIA and the Clearinghouse will be able to offer students and alumni the following and more:

Electronic transcript delivery in 15 minutes or less
Fulfillment and delivery after office hours and on holidays
Immediate fulfillment of transcript requirements for jobs and grad school
Instant notification if an order is completed, canceled or an error exists

Learn more about the Clearinghouse’s easy, fast, mobile transcript services.

ABOUT NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF INTERCOLLEGIATE ATHLETICS (NAIA) The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), headquartered in Kansas City, Mo., is a governing body of small athletics programs that are dedicated to character-driven intercollegiate athletics. NAIA members provide more than 77,000 student-athletes with opportunities to play college sports, earn $800 million in scholarships and compete in 27 national championships. www.naia.org | @NAIA

About the National Student Clearinghouse^®

The National Student Clearinghouse, a nonprofit formed in 1993, is the trusted source for and leading provider of higher education verifications and electronic education record exchanges. Besides working with nearly 3,600 postsecondary institutions, the Clearinghouse also provides thousands of high schools and districts with continuing collegiate enrollment, progression, and completion statistics on their alumni. For more details, visit studentclearinghouse.org or @NSClearinghouse.

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Spring 2021 College Enrollment Declines 603,000 to 16.9 Million Students

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Spring 2021 College Enrollment Declines 603,000 to 16.9 Million Students

Steepest Enrollment Drop in a Decade

HERNDON, VA – (JUNE 10, 2021) – This spring’s overall college enrollment fell to 16.9 million students from 17.5 million, marking a one-year decline of 3.5% or 603,000 students, according to a new report by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. This is seven times worse than the decline a year earlier, and the largest decline in year-over-year percent change and student headcount since spring 2011, which is the first year the Research Center published enrollment data. The second steepest enrollment decline was recorded in Fall 2020.

Undergraduate students accounted for the entire decline, with a 4.9% drop or 727,000 students. In contrast, graduate enrollment jumped by 4.6 percent, adding more than 124,000 students. Every institution sector saw an undergraduate enrollment drop this spring, including for-profit four-year colleges which had shown the only positive numbers in the fall. Community colleges remain hardest hit by far, however, declining 9.5% or 476,000 fewer students. More than 65% of the total undergraduate enrollment losses this spring occurred in the community college sector.

“The final estimates for spring enrollment confirm the pandemic’s severe impact on students and colleges this year,” said Doug Shapiro, Executive Director, National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. “How long that impact lasts will depend on how many of the missing students, particularly at community colleges, will be able to make their way back to school for the coming fall.”

California led the nation in enrollment loss by headcount with a decrease of nearly 123,000 students. New Mexico declined the most by percentage by dropping 11.4%. Michigan placed in the top five states for both declining enrollment (-29,189) and percentage drop (-6.4%). Meanwhile, only seven states increased enrollments, with New Hampshire rising 10.8% or 18,153 students. Newly added this year, state-level spring enrollments are broken out by institution sector. See tables 8a and 8b in the report.

Traditional college-age students, 18 to 24, declined 5% or more than 524,000 students, including a steep loss of 13.2% or more than 365,000 students at community colleges. Adult students, 25 or older, show a 1.2% decline or nearly 75,000 students.

Enrollment among male students continued to fall greater than female students. Men declined by 5.5% or 400,000 students and women dropped 2% or 203,000 students compared with last spring.

Business, Healthcare, and Liberal Arts continue to be the most common undergraduate majors for both four-year and two-year college students. For year-over-year percent change, Computer Sciences and Psychology showed the largest enrollment growth at four-year colleges, +3% and +4.8%, respectively.

Among two-year college major fields with more than 100,000 students, enrollment fell most in Visual & Performing Arts (-18.1%); Security & Protective Services (-16.7%); Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies (-14.1%); and Liberal Arts & General Studies (-13.8%). Psychology and Legal Professions were the only growing fields for two-year college students this spring, +0.8% and +4.8%, respectively.

Top 5 States with Largest One-Year Decreases by Enrollment Numbers:

California -122,752 or -5.3%

New York -52,041 or -5.2%

Michigan -29,189 or -6.4%

Illinois -28,422 or -5.0%

Pennsylvania -22,738 or -3.8%

Top 5 States with Largest One-Year Declines by Percent Change in Enrollment:

New Mexico -11.4% or -11,453

Delaware -7.7% or -4,193

Michigan -6.4% or -29,189

Kansas -6.3% or -10,419

Wyoming -6.2% or -1,728

Only 7 States Showing Enrollment Increases from Last Spring:

New Hampshire 10.8% or 18,152 students

Utah 4.7% or 16,178 students

West Virginia 2.8% or 3,675 students

Nebraska 2.4% or 2,934 students

Virginia 1.3% or 6,060 students

Idaho 0.4% or 363 students

Maryland 0.7% or 2,223 students

The Current Term Enrollment Estimates Report Series is published in the spring and the fall of each year by the Research Center. It provides national enrollment estimates by institutional sector, enrollment intensity, age group, gender, major field as well as state-level enrollment estimates. Starting in fall 2020, state-level enrollment data are also shown by institution sector.

About the National Student Clearinghouse^® Research Center™

The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center is the research arm of the National Student Clearinghouse. The Research Center collaborates with higher education institutions, states, school districts, high schools, and educational organizations as part of a national effort to better inform education leaders and policymakers. Through accurate longitudinal data outcomes reporting, the Research Center enables better educational policy decisions leading to improved student outcomes.

The Research Center currently collects data from more than 3,600 postsecondary institutions, which represent 97 percent of the nation’s postsecondary enrollments in degree-granting institutions, as of 2019. Clearinghouse data track enrollments nationally and are not limited by institutional and state boundaries. To learn more, visit https://nscresearchcenter.org.

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