Find your district's high school graduates

A first-of-its-kind report released Thursday by the Colorado Department of Higher Education shows two-thirds of the state’s high school graduates had enrolled in college a year later, with 45 percent staying in Colorado and 22 percent leaving the state.

The data is unusual in that officials were able to track students leaving Colorado. That also allowed them to nail down the number of high school graduates who weren’t in college a year later at 33 percent.

It’s a one-year snapshot for the Class of 2009 that reveals broad gaps in college attainment and achievement by ethnicity, by gender and by school district. For example, only two metro-area districts – Boulder and Littleton – saw more than 80 percent of their graduates in college anywhere a year later. Adams 14-Commerce City’s college-going rate was 29 percent. Denver’s was 55 percent.

Click in the search box below to find your district’s figures and go here to see more details by ethnicity, by gender and by school district. Read EdNews’ related story on the report.

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Click here to load this Caspio Online Database.Search tips and data notes

  • To compare districts, hit “Ctrl” and click on as many names as you’d like to see.
  • Clicking the “Details” button brings up more information about the numbers, including whether students staying in Colorado attended two-year, four-year or private schools.
  • Can’t find a school? Think your school data is in error? Email us at EdNews@EdNewsColorado.org and we’ll check it out.
  • Data is from pages 16-24 of this Colorado Department of Higher Education report.
  • If you prefer your data in a spreadsheet format, go here.
  • Additional databases, including remediation rates in college, can be found in the EdNews’ Data Center and on this Colorado Department of Higher Education website.

Overall findings for the Colorado Class of 2009

  • Of the 50,174 high school graduates in spring 2009, 33,484 – or 67% – enrolled in a college or university during the 2009-10 school year.
  • Most of those – or 22,657 graduates – enrolled in a Colorado public college or university while 10,827 enrolled in either a non-public college in Colorado or an out-of-state institution.
  • More female graduates enrolled in a college or university than did male graduates – 70% of females vs. 65% of males.
  • The average cumulative GPA for the 2009 graduates enrolled in a Colorado college or university in 2009-10 was 2.65.
  • Of the Class of 2009 enrolling in a Colorado college or university, 75% had completed more than 15 credit hours of coursework by the end of spring 2010.

Findings on ethnicity

  • Asians and white students had the highest college-going rates at 78% and 72% respectively, followed by African-Americans at 66%, Hispanics at 49% and Native Americans at 48%.
  • African-American students were the most likely to attend college out-of-state, with 26% doing so, followed by white students with an out-of-state rate of 24%.
  • Asian graduates were more than three times as likely to enroll at four-year institutions than at two-year institutions. Similarly, more than twice as many white graduates enrolled at four-year institutions than two-year institutions. But the gap for African-American, Hispanic and Native American graduates is much smaller.
  • Of those enrolling in a Colorado college or university, Asian students had the highest average GPA at 2.72, followed by white students at 2.70, Native American students at 2.58, Hispanic students at 2.49 and African-American students at 2.29.
  • Asian students had the highest average number of credit hours completed by the end of their first year of college, with 29 credits, followed by whites at 28 credits, Hispanics at 22 credits and Native American and African-American students at 20 credits.
  • African-American and Hispanic students were nearly twice as likely to have significant financial need, as evidenced by their receipt of a Pell grant, compared to white students.

Findings on gender

  • More female than male graduates attended institutions out of state or at a non-public Colorado institution.
  • Of those graduates enrolling in a Colorado college or university, female students had a higher average GPA, at 2.77, than did male students, at 2.52.
  • Female graduates enrolling in a Colorado college or university had accumulated a higher average number of credits, at 28, than had male students, at 26, by the end of the first year of college.

Colorado’s 20 largest districts ranked by college-going rate

  • Littleton – 81%
  • Academy 20 – 80%
  • Boulder – 80%
  • Douglas County – 77%
  • Fort Collins – 76%
  • Jeffco – 76%
  • Cherry Creek – 75%
  • Falcon – 71%
  • St. Vrain – 70%
  • Thompson/Loveland – 65%
  • Pueblo City – 63%
  • Greeley – 63%
  • Adams 12-Five Star – 62%
  • Colorado Springs – 58%
  • Mesa/Grand Junction – 57%
  • Denver – 55%
  • Brighton – 54%
  • Harrison – 51%
  • Aurora – 46%
  • Charter School Institute – no data

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