Understanding “Summer Melt” with StudentTracker for High Schools

By Michele Gralak, Senior Product Manager, National Student Clearinghouse

According to research about “summer melt,” as many as one in five high school graduates who intend to enroll in college don’t arrive in the fall.

Many high schools have a data gap. They don’t have trustworthy enrollment data to identify their “summer melt.” Two key questions to ask yourself about “summer melt, include:

• What percentage of “summer melt” does your school encounter?
• Are you aware of summer melt trends year over year at your high school?

To answer these questions, you need accurate data. StudentTracker for High Schools can address this data gap.

The StudentTracker for High Schools service helps high schools and school districts more accurately gauge the college success of their graduates. Our service matches your high school’s graduates with our database of college enrollment records, covering 98 percent of enrolled students nationwide.

The StudentTracker aggregate reports include a trends report on first fall enrollment that can be broken out by different demographic data (gender, race/ethnicity, economic disadvantage) if you provide the data. The student-level detail report will provide enrollment records for those students that the Clearinghouse has in its database and are not blocked.

It all comes back to verified, trustworthy enrollment records from the colleges and universities. With StudentTracker for High Schools, you have the enrollment data to assess and reduce “summer melt.”

“StudentTracker for High Schools is a service designed to help high schools and school districts more accurately gauge the college success of their graduates.”

Michele Gralak
Senior Product Manager, National Student Clearinghouse

Additional Resources:

• Learn more about StudentTracker for High Schools