The Postsecondary Trends by High School File is a PDF summary of data, graphs, and tables showing enrollment, credit accumulation, remedial coursework, and degree attainment along with demographic breakdowns for each high school graduating class.
Educators can use this package to evaluate whether their postsecondary initiatives are fostering new pathways to college education. Users with access to the secure Student Pathways data file can drill down to individual student information so that analysis can be enriched with the personal profiles of students.
At the conclusion of each PDF summary is an appendix with simple description of the reports, graphs, and terminology, along with a more generalized Notes page with direct links to the reports on MI School Data and additional documentation.
The report is updated in the spring. See the Recently Posted Reports page for when the report was last updated.
Historical Changes
- When viewing trend data for College Remedial Coursework, the line is broken between the 2010-11 and the 2011-12 high school graduating classes to highlight a collection enhancement for remedial coursework. Graduating classes prior to 2011-12 use remedial postsecondary data that was pilot data and may or may not be complete.
Location Options
Locations Setting options: Statewide, ISD, District and School
Logged-in Users
Users with secure access who are logged in can see unsuppressed numbers for the entities for which they have been specifically authorized.
The Postsecondary Trends by High School File is composed of data CEPI collects from Michigan public colleges and universities, as well as data from the National Student Clearinghouse StudentTracker for out-of-state and independent colleges. CEPI collects data from all Michigan public community colleges, public colleges and universities, and from some independent colleges using the Student Transcript and Academic Record Repository Collection within MSDS. STARR uses the same student Unique Identification Codes that our K-12 systems use. By using matched STARR and NSC StudentTracker data, the resulting reports are as robust and accurate as possible.
Michigan acquires NSC StudentTracker student-level records by a matching process, which includes the first name, middle name, last name, suffix, and date of birth. If a student’s name or date of birth in the NSC StudentTracker does not exactly match the state’s record, a match may not be made. Another limitation is that most, but not all, colleges and universities provide data to NSC. Both situations can result in lower enrollment information.
The package includes data from the following Postsecondary Outcomes reports:
- College Enrollment by High School (including the within 6 months timeframe)
- College Enrollment Destination (including the within 6 months timeframe)
- On-Track College Progress
- College Remedial Coursework
- College Progression by Graduating Class
This package only tracks undergraduate postsecondary enrollment and achievements for high school graduates. Dual enrolled students or students participating in Early/Middle College programs are not included until they complete high school.
Note: The Postsecondary Trends by High School File is filled with data aggregated from the individual-level Postsecondary Student Data File. This is a secure data file (only available to logged-in users) and requires some expertise with spreadsheets and data files. If authorized, users can request the file be emailed to them by logging in and navigating to the Postsecondary section along the top of the site.
If you have questions not addressed here or in the linked resources, please contact CEPI customer support at cepi@michigan.gov.
Disclosure Avoidance
To protect the privacy of individual students, CEPI uses data suppression rules whenever report settings would yield fewer than 10 students in a given group. Secure users can log in to view unsuppressed data for their authorized location.
Report Labels
See the glossary for additional terms and acronyms used on MI School Data.
