Wisconsin Longitudinal Data System (LDS)

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Postsecondary Enrollment Data & Reporting: LEA Opportunities

As part of our Longitudinal Data System (LDS) Project, the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) began pursuing opportunities to include data about the postsecondary enrollment and completion of our state’s high school graduates into the LDS data warehouse. As of May 2010 the DPI has secured a state-wide contract with the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC), a unique organization that is able to provide postsecondary enrollment and degree verification data from over 3,300 postsecondary institutions around the country. The contract enables DPI to obtain postsecondary enrollment and completion data for Wisconsin graduates to integrate into the LDS.

Our contract will also provide the opportunity for each district and/or high school to take advantage of StudentTracker, a service which provides postsecondary enrollment and completion data on high school graduates, at no cost to the district or school. See below for more information on the process to enable LEAs to initialize their relationship and begin using StudentTracker for local analysis.

The National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) will provide

a plethora of aggregate reports detailing the post-secondary trends of your specific students.
a list of postsecondary institutions where your students most often enrolled immediately after high school.
individual student data to integrate within your local data systems.
training and support during the file exchange process.

The NSC will provide the following postsecondary data elements for each student

College Information: College Code, College Name, College State
College Characteristics: 2-year/4-year, Public/Private
Student Enrollment: Enrollment Begin, Enrollment End, Enrollment Status
Graduation Information: Graduated Status, Graduation Date, Degree Title, Major, College Sequence

The student data can be used to answer questions such as

Where do our high school graduates enroll in college?
When do they enroll in college?
How long do their education efforts persist?
Do they graduate from college?
What degrees do they earn?

Getting Started with the National Student Clearinghouse

Individual High School File Submissions


1. To begin, download and complete the State of Wisconsin StudentTracker for High Schools Agreement.
   • Carefully review and understand the terms of the agreement.
   • Be sure to add an implementation contact on the first page of the agreement. This is the person the Clearinghouse will contact to begin the data exchange relationship.
   • After completing and sending the agreement form for your individual high school, you will receive a username and password to submit files at an individual school level.
   
   
2. Send the form to the NSC by Fax, E-Mail, or Mail.
   
   • Fax
     703-742-4234
   • E-Mail
     service@studentclearinghouse.org
   • Mail
     Customer Support
     National Student Clearinghouse
     2300 Dulles Station Boulevard, Suite 300
     Herndon, VA 20171
     
   
   Customer Service Hours: Mon-Thurs 9am-7pm & Fri 9am-5pm ET
   
   
3. Once the form is received by the NSC and your account is created, the NSC will call your implementation contact with more information on how to create a file for submission, the file submission process, and what information will included in the return file.

District File Submissions

A district can also sign an agreement with the NSC to submit files at the district level. The district relationship is in addition to, or in lieu of, individual school agreements and file submissions.


1. To begin, download and complete the State of Wisconsin StudentTracker for High Schools Agreement.
   • Carefully review and understand the terms of the agreement.
   • Be sure to list in Attachment 1 all participating high schools within your district. Listing the participating high schools in your district will enable you to submit, at a district level, data to the Clearinghouse for those schools.
   • Be sure to add an implementation contact on the first page of the agreement. This is the person the Clearinghouse will contact to begin the data exchange relationship.
   • After completing and sending the agreement form for your district, you will receive a separate username and password to submit files at the district level.
   
   
2. Send the form to the NSC by Fax, E-Mail, or Mail.
   
   • Fax
     703-742-4234
   • E-Mail
     service@studentclearinghouse.org
   • Mail
     Customer Support
     National Student Clearinghouse
     2300 Dulles Station Boulevard, Suite 300
     Herndon, VA 20171
     
   
   Customer Service Hours: Mon-Thurs 9am-7pm & Fri 9am-5pm ET
   
   
3. Once the form is received by the NSC and your account is created, the NSC will call your implementation contact with more information on how to create a file for submission, the file submission process, and what information will be included in the return file.

Frequently Asked Questions

If you have a general question regarding the State of Wisconsin statewide StudentTracker contract, or a more specific question on the StudentTracker for High Schools Agreement, please view the Frequently Asked Questions document.

Feedback

We would love to hear from you regarding your experience with using the NSC and the data StudentTracker provides to you! Please submit questions and/or feedback to ldshelp@dpi.wi.gov. Information submitted will help us prepare a data guidance document. Thank you!

File Submission Guidance

1. Identify a student cohort to include in the initial submission file. This could be one file per graduating class.
2. Determine how to submit summer school graduates or early graduates.
3. Determine how to incorporate the student detail into your local system. Remember that each student could have multiple enrollment records returned.
4. Discuss tracking students after receiving the initial enrollment information from the first file submission. For how long after graduation should a student be submitted to the Clearinghouse to track postsecondary enrollment? If they do not enroll after a certain time, are they no longer submitted for tracking? If they do enroll, how long after the first enrollment should they be tracked to see how long they persist and if they earn a degree?

National Student Clearinghouse Information

National Student Clearinghouse Website
StudentTracker for High Schools
StudentTracker Implementation Guide
Creating StudentTracker Graduates Files Using Excel
StudentTracker FAQs

Additional Communications

Date	Channel	Communication
May 26, 2010	Postsecondary Enrollment Data & Reporting: LEA Opportunities Memo	Message from the Assistant Superintendent for Libraries, Technology, & Community Learning regarding the process for LEAs and/or Districts to initialize their relationship and begin working with the Clearinghouse to use StudentTracker.
May 25, 2010	ConnectEd Article	Article on ConnectEd regarding the process for LEAs and/or Districts to initialize their relationship and begin working with the Clearinghouse to use StudentTracker.
April 8, 2010	Bi-Weekly Mailing	Message from the State Superintendent regarding local use of the National Student Clearinghouse.

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If you are having trouble accessing the tool or you need additional help, please view Helpdesk Information.

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Last updated on 10/4/2011 11:56:29 AM