State Superintendent Tony Thurmond Announces New Report for College-Going Rates of California High School Students

SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond has announced the release of a first-of-its-kind report that provides detailed information on California students that enroll in college after completing a public high school.

The College-Going Report (CGR) features data showing college enrollment broken down by student group and postsecondary institutions at the state, county, district, and school levels. The CGR is available on the California Department of Education’s DataQuest site and includes downloadable files for the 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17, and 2017–18 academic years.

“I am pleased that we are able to provide this information for the first time, and that it gives us a great metric to show the progress our students are making as they advance to college and career,” Thurmond said. “This data is especially helpful for districts and schools, who can evaluate their programs to increase college-readiness and work towards closing the achievement gap as we address major issues such as college affordability, improved reading levels, reduced absenteeism, and increased access to STEAM and computer science programs.”

According to the CGR report, in 2017–18, there were 439,211 California public high school students who completed high school, of which 282,740 enrolled in college within 12 months of completing high school for a college-going rate of 64.4 percent. Of the high school completers in 2017–18, students identified as Asian had a college-going rate of 83.9 percent, followed by white at 70.4 percent, African American at 59.7 percent, Pacific Islander at 58.7 percent and Hispanic/Latino at 57.6 percent. Students who identified as two or more races showed a college-going rate of 69.5 percent.

One highlight of the report shows the importance of California Community Colleges for students statewide. In 2017–18, more than 35 percent of all California high school completers enrolled at a community college, while approximately 12 percent enrolled at a CSU campus from high school and approximately 7 percent enrolled at a UC campus.  

Similar to other recent DataQuest reports, the new CGR reports also include expandable filter sections. Within those sections, users will find the following sub-sections that include a number of useful report options and data filters:
Report Selection: Within this area, users can change the report, select a county, district, or school, and change the report year.

• Data Type Options: Within this area, users can choose how the data are configured or viewed within the report; either by Race/Ethnicity, Student Group, or Multi-Year. The report default is by Race/Ethnicity.
• Report Filters: Within this area, users can apply a variety of school type filters (i.e., charter/non-charter and alternative/regular schools), demographic and student group filters, high school completer type filters, and college enrollment time frame filters.
• Display Options: Within this area, users can change data displayed by default as number to be displayed as percentages.

The new CGR report was made possible thanks to a collaboration between the CDE, the California Student Aid Commission (CSAC) and the University of California, Davis (UC Davis). The CSAC contributed a one-time funding allocation of $200,000 for the purchase of National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) data used in the CGR reports.

UC Davis, as part of a five-year research partnership with the CDE, has released the first of several reports using the NSC data. The report is published by Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE) and is entitled “Where California High School Students Attend College (PDF).”

 The CDE will provide summary reports directly to districts in order to show how graduates are matriculating in post-secondary institutions around the country. To find the new CGR reports, go to the CDE’s DataQuest website.

# # # #

Tony Thurmond — State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Communications Division, Room 5602, 916-319-0818, Fax 916-319-0100