Student Pathways

Why We Created This Chart

ERDC often receives questions about how its P20W data can be used to follow students across their educational and career pathways. To illustrate the breadth of our P20W data system and the various pathways of students across time, the Student Pathways chart below displays trajectories for one cohort of approximately 77,000 students who were in public kindergarten in the 2006-07 school year. Using ERDC’s P20W data system, this visualization demonstrates transitions from early learning through high school graduation, postsecondary education, and workforce entry.  

How to Read This Chart

To read this chart, follow the streams from left to right across school years to see how students moved from kindergarten through high school, postsecondary education, and into the workforce. The chart includes a subset of school years aligned with typical education milestones and transitions from 2006 on the left side of the chart to 2024 on the right side of the chart.  

Expected progression milestones if students follow a typical educational pathway: 

  • 2013: 6th grade  

  • 2016: 9th grade  

  • 2019: High school completion 

  • 2020: Enrolling in first year of college 

  • 2021: Graduating from a two-year college program  

  • 2023: Graduating from a four-year college program 

Note that many students do not follow this linear path. For example, as early as 2013, about 3,840 students who were in kindergarten in the 2007 school year had not yet progressed to 6th grade by 2013. Later, in 2020, about 35,000 students are observed as enrolled in college, while the remaining students enter the workforce, already earned a postsecondary degree, just earned their high school diploma, are still in high school, or are not observed in the data.

For further chart details and data notes, see information below the chart.

Student Pathways Chart

Chart Details

 

  • School years aligned with typical education milestones and transitions are at the bottom of the chart. These years reflect spring of the school year, e.g. 2006 is the 2005-06 school year.  
  • The thickness of each pathway is proportional to the number of students who shared that pathway from one identified school year to the next. Thicker pathways illustrate that many students follow that path while thinner pathways represent fewer students. As noted above, this pathway diagram is based on about 77,000 kindergartners in the 2007 school year. 
  • Hovering over a milestone marker (or “node” represented by the colored boxes labeled Elementary, Middle, High, etc.) will show a tooltip that defines the number of paths that flow into and out of milestone. For example, hovering over the “High” node in 2016 identifies 2 paths that flow into high school. Students either come from (1) middle school in 2013 to high school in 2016 or (2) from missing in the data in 2013 to observed in high school in 2016. There are 6 paths out from the 2016 high school node. Students who were in high school in 2016 are observed in 2019 as (1) as still in high school, (2) obtaining a high school diploma, (3) enrolled in postsecondary, (4) obtaining a postsecondary degree, (5) in the workforce, or (6) missing in the data.  
  • Hovering over a pathway between milestone markers will show a tooltip that defines the pathway (e.g. from Elementary school in 2007 to Middle school in 2013) and the number of students represented in that path.  
Data Notes

 

  • Pathways with fewer than 200 students are excluded. 
  • Those who are in postsecondary and K-12 (i.e. dual enrolled students) are categorized in high school. 
  • Postsecondary nodes capture public/private, in-state/out-of-state, and 4-year/CTC institutions. ERDC’s private institution and out-of-state institution data is currently only available for students who graduated from a public K-12 school. 
  • Students in the missing categories during K-12 years might have moved to a private school, home school, or out of state. Students who are missing in one year can reappear in the data in another year if they re-emerge in a public school, institution, or in the workforce  
  • Students who enter the workforce in the same year they earn a degree are categorized as obtaining a postsecondary degree for that year. 
  • Workforce data capture employees who work at UI employers in Washington, and thus excludes those who are self-employed, gig workers, in federal employment, or in the military as well as those who are employed outside of Washington.