Massachusetts High School Graduates Attending College by Student Group, 2004 Onward

Massachusetts public high school graduates enrolling into higher education institutions are tracked by student group since 2004. The data is based on point-in-time matching with National Student Clearinghouse enrollment records and includes counts and percentages for college attendance, institution type, and location. The dataset is published by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and was last updated in May 2026.

Use Cases

• Analyzing enrollment rate trends over time using SY, ATTEND_COLL_PCT, and STU_GRP.
• Comparing post-secondary institution type preferences using PUB_4YR_PCT, PRIV_2YR_PCT, PUB_2YR_PCT, and PRIV_4YR_PCT.
• Investigating in-state versus out-of-state college attendance patterns using IN_OUT_STATE, MA_COMM_COLL_PCT, MA_ST_UNIV_PCT, and MA_UMASS_PCT.
• Assessing district-level performance differences using DIST_NAME, HS_GRAD_CNT, and ATTEND_COLL_CNT.

Strengths

• Longitudinal coverage starting from 2004, providing over two decades of trend data.
• Includes detailed breakdowns by institution type (public/private, 2-year/4-year) and location (in-state/out-of-state).
• Data is matched with the National Student Clearinghouse, a recognized source for post-secondary enrollment verification.

Limitations

• Enrollments of fewer than 15 students are suppressed, which may obscure trends for smaller student groups or schools.
• The definition of economic disadvantage changed over time (Economically Disadvantaged 2015-2021, Low Income before and after), complicating longitudinal analysis of that student group.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale statistical modeling.

Provenance

Source

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), via educationtocareer.data.mass.gov.

Collection Method

Point-in-time matching of public high school graduate records with higher education enrollment data from the National Student Clearinghouse.

Time Range

2004 onward.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-13 18:51:32.

Geography

Massachusetts, United States.