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Founded in 1993, the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) is a unique non-profit organization that serves as an invaluable academic and administrative resource. As a central source for student enrollment, performance, and degree information, educators, academic researchers, and policymakers use NSC data to explore the effects of various programs or policies on postsecondary attendance, persistence, and attainment. In fact, most school districts and offices of institutional research have come to rely on the NSC for its ability to provide time- and cost-saving benefits.

Over the past twenty years, the NSC has steadily expanded its scope and member participation. Today, there are more than 3,600 participating institutions representing 98% of all students enrolled in public and private two- and four-year colleges and universities across the United States. NSC makes member information available to the full education community; member institutions then use this data in their own activities (e.g. research efforts, outreach programs, recruitment, and much more), all in full compliance with FERPA. It is an extensive and uncommon resource designed to help facilitate institutional compliance, educational research, and administrative reporting.

So how can members of the ATE community take advantage of the NSC and its various components? Below are some highlights of what we think will provide helpful data and services for understanding the needs of your students, institution, and community:

The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center is the research arm of the NSC. It publishes a series of enrollment, persistence, and attainment reports highlighting the latest trends in education. The NSC’s unique ability to track students longitudinally through their academic journey makes these reports powerful and informative studies that can easily be integrated into status reports on ATE project or center work, or community college demographics as a whole. Snapshot Reports, in particular, will vamp up a presentation or report with data collected from periodic investigations on such topics as enrollment, interstate mobility, and degree pathways.

The StudentTracker allows access to the NSC database of more than 80 million current and former students in order to improve the college’s educational research results and recruiting efforts. In addition, the StudentTracker for Outreach lets college faculty and staff accurately track the post-secondary enrollment and degrees of their program participants nationwide. An Eligibility Checklist makes it easy to find out whether or not your program, organization, project, or center can participate in the StudentTracker for Outreach service.

We would love to hear how you or your institution are taking advantage of the National Student Clearinghouse! Send an email to: info@atecentral.net