Schools

College Attendance Rate Well Above National Average for D207

A study shows that 82 percent Maine Township High School D207's class of 2012 attending college. Largest number attend Oakton Community College.

By Michelle Martin

About 82 percent of Maine Township High School District 207’s 2012 graduates are enrolled in a two- or four-year college or university, according to a report on StudentTracker data presented at the district’s July school board meeting.

That beats the national average for college enrollment by 14 percent, according to the report from Barbara Dill-Varga, the district’s assistant superintendent for curriculum. What’s more, the report shows a trend of modest increases in college enrollment over the past few years.

Find out what's happening in Niles-Morton Grovewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

While more than half – 57 percent of the class of 2012 – enrolled at four-year institutions. The largest number of students, 346, enrolled at Oakton Community College.

The rate of college enrollment is a little higher than Dill-Varga expected before the district signed up for StudentTracker two years ago, although its lower than what the district reported when it relied on graduating seniors to share their plans.

Find out what's happening in Niles-Morton Grovewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“Then, a student might have told us that they planned to go to a certain college, but come fall, they wouldn’t be enrolled there, and we would never know that,” Dill-Varga explained. “Circumstances change.”

That could mean that a student decided they couldn’t afford to attend, or they moved or family circumstances changed, she said.

StudentTracker uses data provided by colleges and universities to the National Student Clearinghouse about students who are actually enrolled. It does have a small cost – a few hundred dollars per school. But it is less than the cost of the time district staff used to spend compiling the old reports, Dill-Varga said, and more accurate and more useful.

It’s even more useful when analyzing the enrollment patterns of classes from several years past, Dill-Varga said, because it’s possible to see whether students who did not enroll in college immediately after graduation ever did. It appears that those who are going to do so show up within about two years of graduation, Dill-Varga said, and whether students who enroll go on to graduate.

Those figures are available for District 207 classes from 2003-2006. In the class of 2005, for example, nearly 55 of all graduates had earned a college degree by 2012.

“This is another measure of success for us,” Dill-Varga said. “We have always looked at things like ACT scores, but that’s about getting to college. This is about what they do when they get there.”

 

 


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here