First Year Credit Accumulation Rate Benchmarking Dashboard

Table of Contents

The First Year Credit Accumulation Rate Benchmarking Dashboard provides a view of how successful students are at completing enough credits in their first academic year of enrollment to progress toward on-time completion as compared to benchmarking institutions. It can help institutions determine whether students are gaining academic momentum early on so they can plan interventions to help students succeed.

Students Included

The dashboard only includes first-year and transfer-in students who have attempted at least one credit in their first academic year. It does not include students who have not attempted any credits in their first academic year. The dashboard calculates each student’s first year individually, not according to the institution’s academic year, and it includes summer and intersession terms.

The dashboard only includes students with an attendance status of either full-time or part-time. It does not include students with an attendance status of “Unknown.” The Clearinghouse determines if a student is full-time or part-time based on the total number of credits the student attempted during their first term. We collect information from institutions each academic term to determine the number of credits required for full-time vs. part-time.

Credit Accumulation Threshold

The default credit accumulation threshold is 15 per year for part-time students and 30 per year for full-time students. You can adjust the threshold to 12 for part-time students and 24 for full-time students using the credit threshold buttons.

Credit Accumulation Rate

The dashboard calculates an institution’s credit accumulation rate as the total number of students who met their credit accumulation threshold in their first academic year divided by the total number of students, not including students with an attendance status of “Unknown.”

Dashboard Sections

Benchmarking dashboard visualizations will not load until the Data Source selections are made.

Chart Settings cannot be edited until Data Sources are applied. See Benchmarking Data Sources for details.

Summary

The summary at the top of the dashboard states the percentage of students who met their credit accumulation threshold in their first academic year at the cohort institution compared to the benchmarking institutions.

Total Achieving Credit Threshold

This section shows the number and percentage of students who met their credit accumulation threshold in their first academic year at the cohort institution and benchmarking institutions. The orange box contains data for the cohort institution; the blue box contains data for the benchmarking institutions.

Total Credit Accumulation Rate by Dimension

This section shows the credit accumulation rate of the cohort institution and benchmarking institutions by dimension.

The cohort institution is represented by an orange line, and the benchmarking institutions are represented by a blue line. Once you select a dimension, you can click a category to view more detailed information in the Credit Accumulation Rate by Dimension for Category section of the dashboard.

Credit Accumulation Rate by Dimension for Category

This section shows the credit accumulation rate for the cohort institution and benchmarking institutions by the selected dimension for the selected category.

For each year, the cohort institution data is shown on the left in orange, and the benchmarking data is shown on the right in blue.

Chart Settings

You can use Chart Settings to select the cohort and refine the students the dashboard includes. Chart Settings are global and apply to the entire dashboard.

Click the Chart Settings Edit button to make or modify the filter selections and dimension breakdown. See Using the Dashboard for more information.

Benchmarking Data Sources

You can use this section to refine the list of institutions the dashboard uses for benchmarking. These selections apply to the entire dashboard. When you first open the dashboard, you must select benchmarking data sources in order for the data to show.

If you would like to apply both global filters and benchmarking filters, select the benchmarking data sources first, then apply the global filters.

Click Edit on the Data Sources menu.
If your account is part of a system of institutions or a third-party organization, select a cohort institution from the Institution drop-down.
Select your benchmarking institutions from the participating PDP institutions by filtering and/or searching. See below for details.

You can use filtering in combination with searching. For example, if you find a few institutions by searching and want to add more with similar institutional characteristics, you can use filters to find and select them.
To add a single institution to your benchmarking institutions list, click the Add button. To add all of the filtered institutions to your list, click the Add All button.
To remove a single institution from your benchmarking institutions list, click the Remove button. To remove all institutions from your list, click the Remove All button.
When finished, click Apply Settings.

You must select five benchmarking institutions to save your selections. If you selected fewer than five institutions, the Apply Settings button will be disabled, and you will not be able to save your selections.

Searching for Benchmarking Institutions

You can search for an institution by name or OPEID.

Click in the Search box. If you have not applied any filters, you will see a list of all available PDP participating institutions.
Start typing an institution name or OPEID to narrow down the list.
Select the institution(s) you would like to add to your benchmarking institutions list.

Filtering Benchmarking Institutions

You can use the benchmarking filters to select institution(s) that meet certain criteria by selecting or deselecting values from Filters menu. The filters will be applied to the list of filtered institutions as you select them.

State: State in which the institution(s) are located
Carnegie: Institution(s) classified by the Carnegie Classification system – rolled up
HBCU: Historically black colleges and universities
HSI: Hispanic-serving institutions
Institution Type: 4-Year, 2-Year, or All
Public/Private: Public, Private, or All

Credit Thresholds

You can use the credit threshold filter in the Dashboard Settings to filter the data on the dashboard by credit accumulation threshold: 15/30 Credit Threshold or 12/24 Credit Threshold. The credit threshold filters apply to the entire dashboard.

Dimensions

Select a dimension from the Select Dimension drop-down in Chart Settings to filter the data in the Total Credit Accumulation Rate by Dimension line graph by student group: Overall, Race/Ethnicity, Gender, Age Group, GPA Range, or Credential Type Sought. Dimensions only apply to the Total Credit Accumulation Rate by Dimension section of the dashboard.

Troubleshooting No Data

There are two reasons why the Credit Accumulation Rate Benchmarking Dashboard might not show any data:

Not Enough Benchmarking Institutions: The dashboard requires at least five benchmarking institutions be selected to show benchmarking data. You may have filtered the benchmarking institutions down to fewer than five. Remove one or more benchmarking filters.
Not Enough Cohort Students: The dashboard requires at least 11 students before it shows student outcomes data. You may have filtered the students in the selected cohorts down to fewer than 11. Remove one or more global filters.

Knowledge Base

Students Included

Credit Accumulation Threshold

Credit Accumulation Rate