Mar 25, 2021, 4:55 PM
(From Inside Higher Ed) New data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center indicates the drop-off in high school graduates immediately matriculating to college this fall may not be as dramatic as initially reported. An earlier report estimated a 22% decrease among recent graduates, a figure the Clearinghouse now says is the result of a "process error" that overestimated the degree of change. Immediate college enrollment fell by an unprecedented 6.8 percent this fall, compared with a 1.5 percent year-over-year decline in fall 2019. While a 6.8 percent decline is far better than an earlier estimate of 21.7 percent, it is still 4.5 times larger than the 2019, pre-pandemic rate. Moreover, low-poverty schools saw a 2.9% drop this fall compared to a 1.4% decrease the prior year. These declines stand to widen the gap in college enrollment between these schools.
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