By Bill DeBaun, Senior Director, Data and Strategic Initiatives
Reading time: Seven minutes
As the National College Attainment Network (NCAN) continues our work to support better data sharing across the education ecosystem, we’re closely tracking how states leverage their contracts with the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC)
to provide postsecondary outcomes data to K-12 local education agencies (LEAs).
The short answer: most states have a state-level NSC contract, and more than half make that data available to districts and schools (and the public), but far fewer than half are proactively provisioning postsecondary outcomes data directly to the districts
and schools who can incorporate it into the advising students receive about education after high school.
NCAN has long believed:
The postsecondary outcomes data from the NSC is an invaluable resource for the field that more practitioners should use to advise students.
This data isn’t as widely accessible or used as we would like it to be, in part because the analytical capacity of local education agencies varies widely.
Many state education agencies contract with the NSC to obtain the outcomes data for all recent graduates within the state.
State agencies, through statewide longitudinal data systems (SLDS) and other capacities, can achieve analytics economies of scale. Once analyzed, the data can be sent to districts and schools and inform postsecondary advising practices.
Why This Matters
It’s hard to improve what you don’t measure. Measuring students’ postsecondary success doesn’t start when they cross the high school graduation stage, far from it. To create better outcomes, districts need to know:
Are our graduates enrolling in college?
Where are our graduates enrolling in college?
Are they staying enrolled?
Are they completing a credential?
And, critically, how do these outcomes vary across student groups?
These questions are critical to ask for past and present classes, but they also impact future high school classes.
For K-12 districts to build effective college and career readiness programming, they need to know how their graduates fare after high school.
Postsecondary outcomes data, especially when shared regularly and at the school or district level, helps practitioners understand whether their efforts are leading to enrollment, persistence, and completion in higher education. It also helps identify
equity gaps and target resources more strategically.
That’s where the NSC comes in. They track postsecondary enrollment, persistence, and completion for more than 97% of students nationally, across both public and private institutions and across state lines. (Many statewide longitudinal data systems [SLDS]
collect data from in-state public institutions, but getting data on private and out-of-state institutions is trickier.) Despite the comprehensive nature of the NSC’s data, too many districts lack meaningful, actionable access to them.
Districts and high schools can obtain postsecondary outcomes via NSC's StudentTracker for High Schools. But not enough are equipped to clean, process, analyze,
and apply those data to practice. The diagram below visualizes these different steps districts and schools have to take.
According to recent data from the RAND Corporation’s American School Leader Panel (ASLP), nearly 40% of school leaders report not having access
to postsecondary enrollment data in an electronic management system, and nearly 30% reported they did not intend to use postsecondary enrollment data in the current school year.
This is why state-level contracts matter: They offer economies of scale and the potential for equitable, proactive data sharing.
In February 2025, NCAN hosted a convening on postsecondary data sharing, and we heard firsthand how critical this information is for helping districts understand the long-term outcomes of their
students and how much variation exists in access and use. We also learned how state-level agencies and organizations are facilitating that access and use.
To support that conversation, NCAN collected data on the status of NSC contracts across the United States and their current efforts to make postsecondary outcomes data available to K-12 practitioners. The results are a mixed bag that reveals important
patterns and promising movement.
In the map above, states are categorized into one of six statuses when it comes to the state-level NSC contract and data sharing activities. You can roll over a state on the map to find out more about how and whether it is sharing its postsecondary
outcomes data from NSC with districts and schools.
It’s important to note that the map above, and the counts below, reflect our understanding as of about June 1, 2025. Consider this a snapshot in time, not a status set in stone. We also know that many states also share data through channels like their statewide longitudinal data systems (SLDS). Have
updates to make to a state’s status? I’d love to chat at debaunb@ncan.org.
Established (16 states): The state proactively provisions data obtained from the statewide NSC contract to districts and schools. This data may be sent to LEAs or appear in a data portal with appropriate FERPA
protections. LEAs do not need to make a request for these data, the state will provision it in some form, either in the aggregate (district or high school level) or at the student level, as part of an established process. States usually provide
periodic TA/PD opportunities to LEAs for using data.
Progressing (22 states): The state has least one statewide NSC contract, which mainly populates state report cards, a state postsecondary outcomes dashboard, or another public-facing resource. LEAs may be able to obtain postsecondary
outcomes data but might have to make a request to do so or might only be able to receive school-level data.
Planning (five states): The state has at least one statewide NSC contract, but the data largely are for federal reporting accountability or populating an SLDS. There’s no clear mechanism for an LEA to obtain
postsecondary outcomes data, either in the aggregate or at the student level.
Insufficient Information (five states): We’ve been unable to collect enough information to understand if/how a state is using a statewide NSC contract.
No Contract (three states): Our current understanding is that a state-level NSC contract is not held by a state-level department or agency.
What’s Working in States?
The landscape analysis broadly categorizes states by how they’re sharing their very valuable NSC data, but the specifics, predictably, vary from state to state. Last year, NCAN shared a brief from Quality Information Partners (QIP) and three case studies of state exemplars:
Michigan's MI School Data Portal: Michigan’s MI School Data portal provide
postsecondary outcomes data visualizations and reports at the district, school, or college levels. The portal highlights the importance of stakeholder collaboration and specific uses of postsecondary outcomes data for decision-making, enhancing
programs, empowering educators, and driving statewide education goals.
Minnesota's Regional Coaching Network: Minnesota’s Regional Coaching Network helps educators access, interpret, and use
data to improve postsecondary and workforce outcomes for their students.
North Carolina's Targeted Support for Districts: This case study highlights the training and technical assistance provided to district
and school staff and examples of how school counselors use data to map student pathways and trajectories to identify trends, patterns, and potential areas for improvement in career and college readiness and postsecondary outcomes.
QIP has a community of practice around postsecondary outcomes data sharing to talk about strategies like these. Interested individuals and organizations should sign up for the forum to learn alongside their peers.
The Case for Proactive State Leadership
States that provision data, invest in professional development that focuses on using data to inform high-quality postsecondary advising, and streamline practitioners access are laying the groundwork for helping students find their next, best step after
high school. States can reduce burdens on districts and ensure more equitable access to insights that can shape programming. With student-level NSC data, districts can disaggregate by race, gender, income, GPA, program participation and more. This
helps to identify and close gaps in postsecondary access and success.
NCAN isn’t done talking about how states can lead in this area. Not by a long shot. In a future post, we’ll focus on the conditions and processes by which states already do this data sharing and suggest how more states can do the same. We’ll also look
at how states with multiple contracts can better coordinate across governmental agencies, potentially avoiding duplication, streamlining data sharing, and making timely data available to more stakeholders.
In the meantime, have questions about state-level data sharing, NSC contracts, or ways to help practitioners make better use of this data for advising? I’d love to hear from you at debaunb@ncan.org.
The author is grateful to Alessandra Cipriani-Detres, Senior Associate, Strategic Initiatives at NCAN; Dr. Kate Akers, Vice President, Policy Implementation and Best Practices at the Data Quality Campaign; and Kimberly Hanauer, Founder and CEO at Unlock Education, for their assistance with this landscape analysis and work in this area.
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