The Clearinghouse Approach

Since 1993, the National Student Clearinghouse has been a non-profit education partner to the nation’s colleges and universities, providing them with critical educational reporting, verification and research services. Our approach to data collection and processing makes the Clearinghouse uniquely able to serve as a valuable source for longitudinal and other studies on educational progress.

The Clearinghouse approach is:

SUSTAINABLE

The Clearinghouse is not subject to state or federal appropriations. Our data process is fully supported through the administrative outsourcing services we provide to our participating institutions.

OPTIMIZED

The Clearinghouse meets state and federal accountability and assessment needs. In addition, we compile our data so that it is accessible to institutions, enabling them to make meaningful changes based upon their unique needs and characteristics.

EFFICIENT

The Clearinghouse method yields accountability and assessment data while delivering programs to institutions that allow them to control administrative costs and improve the service they provide to their students and alumni.

FLEXIBLE

The Clearinghouse captures data from all types and sizes of institutions (e.g., international, private, public, trade, vocational, etc.) and is wellpositioned to capture information from the education and workforce data providers of the future.

TRUSTED & NEUTRAL

The Clearinghouse has served the higher education community as a nonadvocacy third-party agent for more than 15 years. As their longstanding partner, our participating institutions trust the Clearinghouse to maintain the integrity of their student records on our system and respect their role as data owner. This in turn enables the Clearinghouse to effectively separate data collection from outcomes assessment further reinforcing our position as a neutral provider of student educational performance data.

FERPA COMPLIANT

The Clearinghouse protects student privacy through the compliance of all its services, including its StudentTracker research service, with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). In addition, we are diligent about staying abreast of important regulatory changes to ensure continued compliance.