To and Through Data Methodology

The de-identified student-level data from HESC included:

• Pell eligibility; and
• National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) high school code and name.

Matched student-level NSC data included:

• Institutional enrollment—including, but not limited to, institutional sector, enrollment begin and end date; and
• Graduation/certificate completion—including, but not limited to, institutional sector, date of graduation/certification, and degree/credential earned.

School- and district-level data on the share of students who are low-income in 2016-2017 are from New York State Education Department’s (NYSED) publicly available Enrollment Data Archive. 

School- and district-level data on the share of students who are low-income in 2016-17 are from New York State Education Department’s (NYSED) publicly available Enrollment Data Archive. 

School-level data on total graduates for the 2016-17 school year are from NYSED’s publicly available Report Card Databases. District- and statewide-level data reflect the aggregate sum of all schools in the district/state. 

School-level geolocation data are from New York State GIS data files.  

In our analysis, “high school graduates” are 2016-17 first-time TAP recipients aged 19 or younger as of July 1 of the respective academic year, who reported either never attending college or attending some college, whose HESC-provided NCES high school code and/or name were successfully matched to a NYSED public school Basic Education Data System (BEDS) code, and who enrolled in a higher education institution in the following fall. 

High school graduates who enroll later than fall, attend college out-of-state, attend college in New York without receiving TAP grants, enter the military, or directly enter the workforce are not captured in the data set. High school graduates who were not able to be matched to a New York high school because of data limitations are not captured in the data set. 

“Return for spring” is based on the number of TAP recipients that were matched to a New York State public high school based on their NCES high school code or name, enrolled in a higher education institution in fall of 2017, and returned for the following spring. 

“Return for second year” is based on the number of TAP recipients that were matched to a New York State public high school based on their NCES high school code or name, enrolled in a higher education institution in the fall 2017, and returned the following fall. 

“On-time graduation rate” is defined depending on the type of degree(s) earned, as follows: within two years of initial enrollment for associate degrees and within four years of initial enrollment for bachelor’s degrees. Degrees other than associate and bachelor’s degrees are not included in this data set. A student earning multiple degrees is counted as an on-time graduate if any of their associate or bachelor’s degrees meet the on-time definition. 

“150% graduation rate” is defined depending on the type of degree(s) earned, as follows: within three years of initial enrollment for associate degrees/certifications and within six years of initial enrollment for bachelor’s degrees. Degrees other than associate degrees and bachelor’s degrees are not included in this data set. A student who graduated on-time is counted in the 150% graduation rate. A student earning multiple degrees is counted in the 150% graduation rate if any of their associate or bachelor’s degrees meet the 150% definition. 

“Graduate in six years” is based on completion of an associate degree or a bachelor’s degree within six academic years of initial enrollment.

Similar schools and high performers:

The college outcomes for “similar schools” reflect the weighted average of public high schools within five groupings based on the percent of students who are low-income: 0% to 20%, more than 20% to 40%, more than 40% to 60%, more than 60% to 80%, and more than 80%. 

The percent of students who are low-income at each public high school was calculated using NYSED’s school-level data on the total enrollment of “economically disadvantaged” students and total school-wide enrollment. Schools not meeting the minimum n-size threshold of at least 10 students enrolling in a higher education institution or whose share of students who are low-income could not be calculated were excluded from the analysis. 

The college outcomes for “high performers” is based on the weighted average of all schools meeting the minimum n-size threshold of at least 10 students enrolling in a higher education institution that are in the top 10% for on-time college graduation. 

For the purposes of this analysis, our universe of schools was any New York State public school that reported graduates for the 2016-17 school year according to the NYSED’s Public School Enrollment Data Archive and/or public schools that were included in HESC’s TAP recipient data and were successfully matched to a NYSED BEDS code based on NCES name and/or code. 

For the 2016-17 analysis, the total public school universe was 1,251 schools with at least one student enrolled in Grade 12 that were found in the NYSED Public School Enrollment Data Archive. Schools that are no longer open in the 2023-2024 school year, that had fewer than 10 graduates enrolled in a postsecondary program, or did not report high school graduation data were excluded. Of those 1,251 schools, 975 (78%) were found in our data set and included in our analysis.