As of July 2021, the number of former students in the U.S. who stopped out without completing their academic pursuit and getting a credential reached 40.4 million, a 3.6% increase from the previous year, according to a new report from the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) Research Center.
Dr. Doug Shapiro
This demographic, the Some College, No Credential (SCNC) population, grew by 1.4 million, the report noted. This growth – observed in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. – was attributed to the continued postsecondary education disinterest of near all of the 39 million SCNC students last identified (over 94%) and the additional 2.3 million newly identified SCNC students.
The second annual progress report, “Some College, No Credential Student Outcomes” analyzes data from the 2021-22 academic year, detailing SCNC student growth on a state-by-state basis.
“This year’s report suggests that there is an increasingly missed opportunity for states and institutions to re-engage with SCNC students even as the SCNC population is growing,” the report noted.
U.S. territories had by far the biggest increase of students who stopped out of school (10.3%), followed by Delaware (7.9%) and Arizona (6.6%). Oregon saw the least SCNC growth with 2.3%.
According to the report, annual re-enrollment also decreased (2.4 to 2.1%), along with student completion rate within a year of re-enrolling (6.4 to 6.2%). And fewer SCNC students re-enrolled (8.4%), earned a credential within a year after re-enrolling (11.8%), or persevered into a second year of school (4.3%) than the previous year.
In general, demographic characteristics of the SCNC population have stayed mostly the same. A small majority of the population were composed of women, 18.5 million, compared with 18.3 million men.
