The summer after high school graduation is a critical transition time for high school graduates. Recent SDP research has shown that the percentage of SDP graduates who enroll in a college or university the following year—what we call the first-fall college matriculation rate—varies greatly between demographic groups, even among students with similar educational characteristics. The “summer melt” phenomenon (or the rate at which students who said they intended to pursue post-secondary education as seniors did not enroll in college the following fall) also varies among student subgroups. Because understanding summer melt is an important part of supporting students as they pursue their educational goals, this brief answers the following research questions for the SDP senior classes of 2017, 2018, and 2019:

1. At what rate do high school seniors intend to pursue post-secondary education within one year of graduation?
2. At what rate do high school seniors experience summer melt?
3. At what rates do different subgroups (as defined by gender, race/ethnicity, IEP status, EL status, and GPA at graduation) intend to pursue post-secondary education within one year of graduation?
4. At what rates do different subgroups (as defined by gender, race/ethnicity, IEP status, EL status, and GPA at graduation) experience summer melt?

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