Acceptance to Next Institution Benchmark


​​The importance of additional education and training post high school has increased significantly in the last decade. The high school diploma is no longer sufficient in the 21st century. Tacoma Public Schools recognizes there are multiple pathways to success after high school – four-year university, community/technical college, apprenticeship or military service. And we’re committed to ensuring every student meets the entrance requirements that grant them access to post-secondary options.​

In fact, TPS is the first school district in Washington to create a comprehensive process for monitoring student acceptance to post-secondary education. The High School and Beyond Plan is created by each student and ensures readiness for the next step after high school, by including verification that the student applied for, and was accepted into, their post-secondary choice. Verified Acceptance to Next Institution strengthens our culture of college-going and post-secondary planning by infusing an expectation that every Tacoma student can and will be successful in their life after high school.

Developing plans for life after graduation while still in high school is important to a smooth transition to the next phase of students' lives. ​​Helping students plan their next steps and monitoring how many students are acting on their plans is important to determining our students' success.

Tacoma Public Schools plan4college.me website offers students and parents lots of help in planning for life after high school.​​

 

Time of Year Benchmark is Viewed

What’s Displayed by Benchmark

Between start of new school year, and before end of 1st semester

Only displays previous school years’ annual data

After end of 1st semester, but before end of 2nd semester

Default view displays only 1st semester data for all years (allows a common mid-year timeframe for comparison)

After end of 2nd semester, but before start of new school year

Default view displays annual data for all years.

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 Open View Benchmark

Understanding the Data

This annual benchmark displays the percentage of high school students who have documented acceptance at a post-high institution or program.

School staff document students' verified acceptance in the student information system which updates the data warehouse nightly.

The data can be viewed by district, school, and race. The data maybe further filtered by gender, English Language Learner status, free and reduced lunch status, special education status, and race.

Logic

  • Number of students with documented verified acceptance divided by the number of enrolled high students.
  • Students must be active.
  • Student must have verified acceptance from a next institution (Community College, University, Military, Apprentice Program, etc).
  • Students can be accepted to multiple institutions or programs.

Data Retrieval Schedule

​The data is updated nightly; however, the display of the most recent school year's data occurs by July 6 annually.

Input From

Data Warehouse​​