Statewide overview
Where students go after high school
Each high school graduating class is followed forward into college and training enrollment, persistence, completion, and early-career earnings — by linking K-12 records, in- and out-of-state college-enrollment records, and employment & wage records into one privacy-protected dataset.
Topic 1
Pathways right after high school
Each graduate’s primary destination within 12 months — university, community college, an apprenticeship or career-technical (CTE) program, employment, or military service.
View data table
Topic 2
Enrollment, retention & completion
Each class followed through three milestones: enrolling within 12 months, persisting to a second year at any institution, and completing a credential within 150% of normal program time (6 years for a bachelor’s, 3 for an associate).
The pathway funnel
Trend by graduating class
Topic 3
Median wages by highest credential
Median wage roughly five years after high school, by the highest credential a student has earned — from employment & wage records. Earnings rise at every rung of the credential ladder.
View data table
Equity lens
Outcomes by student group — naming the gaps
Every outcome can be broken out by student identity and experience. Surfacing these differences — instead of averaging them away — is how the data advances equity for the communities it serves.
Built to advance equity. The dashboard is designed to make outcome gaps for historically underserved students visible, trackable, and actionable — so districts, agencies, and communities can work to close them.
Explore the map
Place by place
Outcomes vary across communities. Explore by county or region — the same levels available in the downloadable datasets below.
Counties, ranked
Data & methods
Sources, definitions, privacy & accessibility
Where the data comes from
State K-12 education records
High school graduating classes, student characteristics, and CTE / dual-credit participation.
National college-enrollment records
In- and out-of-state postsecondary enrollment, persistence, and completion — covering the large majority of U.S. enrollments.
State higher-education records
Community college, public university, private career-school, and equivalency completion records.
State employment & wage records
Quarterly employment and wage records used for median-earnings outcomes.
These sources are linked and de-identified in a secure cloud data environment to build the integrated, privacy-protected dataset behind this dashboard.
Where these figures come from
The numbers on this dashboard are illustrative sample data modeled on Utah statewide statistics from the public sources below — representative of the real market, not a live data feed:
- High school graduation rates & graduate counts — Utah State Board of Education (USBE).
- College-going, persistence, completion & attainment — Utah System of Higher Education (USHE).
- Median earnings by education level — U.S. Census Bureau, ACS Table S1501 (Utah, 2023), compiled by the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute.
- Wages & labor market — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (Utah OEWS) and the Utah Dept. of Workforce Services.
- County locations — U.S. Census Bureau Gazetteer.
Key definitions
Privacy & suppression
To comply with FERPA and state student-privacy law, any cell representing fewer than 10 students is suppressed (shown as “—”). Complementary suppression is applied so suppressed values can’t be recovered from published totals. Downloadable datasets carry the same protections.
Accessibility
Designed to meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA: full keyboard operability, screen-reader labels and text alternatives for every chart, color choices tested for color-vision deficiency, no meaning conveyed by color alone, visible focus, and reflow for desktop and mobile. Every visualization has a “View data table” equivalent, and the map is paired with a sortable, accessible table.
Frequently asked questions
Why might a number show “—”?
To protect student privacy. When a group includes fewer than 10 students, the value is hidden. This happens most often for small communities or small student groups — it is not an error.
Are students who left the state for college counted?
Yes. Out-of-state enrollment and completion are captured through national college-enrollment records, so a student who enrolls anywhere in the U.S. is still counted on their pathway.
Is this real student data?
No. This is a representative concept built by Operi to demonstrate design, structure, and capability. All figures are illustrative sample data — representative of the field, but not drawn from any real agency or person.