By Bill DeBaun, Senior Director, Data and Strategic Initiatives
Reading time: Three minutes
The high school class of 2024’s immediate college enrollment rate changed very little from the class of 2023’s, and enrollment, persistence, and completion gaps based on income levels and demographics remain unfortunately stubborn. These are the big takeaways
from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center’s (NSCRC) recently released High School Benchmarks report. An interactive dashboard displays the data and allows for exploration
of the three key postsecondary outcomes.
This is the 13th iteration of the High School Benchmarks report, which is particularly valuable because sources on the postsecondary outcomes of high school graduates are particularly (and surprisingly) difficult to find in the United States.
National College Attainment Network (NCAN) members can use this data for benchmarking their own outcomes and better understanding the national postsecondary outcomes landscape. Other practitioners and policymakers would also do well to bookmark this
report.
This year’s report considers first-fall (immediate) college enrollment for the high school graduating class of 2024, persistence for the class of 2022, and completion for the class of 2018. The NSCRC disaggregates these outcomes across high school income,
minority, and locale-centric characterizations.
The report notes “differences in immediate fall enrollment remained stable across nearly all high school characteristics for the high school graduating classes of 2023 and 2024.”
Good news from this year’s report is that the class of 2024’s postsecondary enrollment didn’t decline given the well-documented difficulties with the 2024-25 award year Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), which saw high school seniors’
FAFSA completions decline 11.6% by June 30, 2024. Movement in FAFSA completion and college enrollment have been closely associated historically, but at least for the class of 2024 the association seems not to have held given the increase in 18-year-old
freshman enrollment in the fall 2024 semester and the stable findings in the High School Benchmarks report.
Despite this, the report shows the same stubborn gaps that have long plagued the transition from high school to college. Graduates from higher-income high schools continued to enroll at much higher rates than their peers from low-income high schools.
The pattern is even starker when comparing high- and low-poverty schools: just one-quarter of graduates from high-poverty high schools completed a postsecondary credential within six years, compared to more than half of graduates from low-poverty
schools.
Ultimately, if just 60% of students are immediately enrolling in college following high school graduation and just 60% of those students are completing within six years, the United States has a lot of work to do to produce students with the education and training credentials the United States needs.
For those who like to dig deeper into the data, a detailed appendix allows for the consideration of high schools’ sectors and categories.
The High School Benchmarks series provides practitioners with the best nationally representative yardstick for immediate enrollment, persistence, and completion, disaggregated by high school income, poverty, minority enrollment, and locale. For NCAN members,
the findings reinforce both the stubborn inequities in our systems and the urgency of interventions (e.g., expanding FAFSA completion support, building advising capacity, or strengthening persistence strategies) that can make a difference for students
navigating their postsecondary paths.
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