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Utah's high schools and colleges soon will be able to track students through college graduation.

The state now subscribes to "StudentTracker," a new service provided by the Virginia-based National Student Clearinghouse. It allows educators to monitor high school and college graduation, university admissions applications, transfers, dropouts and other students' enrollment patterns, according to David Feitz, deputy director for Utah Higher Education Assistance Authority (UHEAA).

"Schools are under pressure to track students' success . . . how many go to college and successfully graduate," Feitz told the Board of Regents during a meeting Friday at Salt Lake Community College. "This will give them real data. It's a powerful enrollment [verification] tool."

For example, StudentTracker will enable Kearns High School to identify what percentage of its graduating students who enrolled in college passed the state's Utah Basic Skills Competency Test (UBSCT) and what percentage did not, Feitz said.

The clearinghouse database contains records on more than 75 million current and former students at 2,800 colleges and universities in the United States. The database is updated several times a year with enrollment records received from participating institutions.

Regents Chairman Nolan Karras would like to see a tracking service that goes beyond college graduation. He proposed an "outcome-based" measurement, showing which jobs students got with specific degrees and whether those jobs were in Utah.

UHEAA - the regents' financial arm - is making StudentTracker available at no cost to high schools, school districts, colleges and not-for-profit private schools, such as Brigham Young University, Westminster College, the LDS Business College and BYU-Idaho.

UHEAA has subscribed to the national service since 1993. It pays approximately $50,000 annually to track students who receive financial aid and leave college without earning degrees. Students who borrow money for college then drop out have higher rates of loan defaults, studies show.

StudentTracker will be made available to high schools and colleges in mid-February. However, before schools start using the new service, UHEAA will hold four workshops so administrators can learn how to access the database and comply with confidentially rules under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).

Kay Harward, associate vice president for enrollment management, said StudentTracker is a "logical extension" of services provided by the national clearinghouse. "It will be useful for us."

In other action, the regents on Friday:

* Approved a new master's degree in forensic science at Southern Utah University. The board also approved Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees in political science at Utah Valley State College - part of the Orem-based school's move toward becoming a full-fledged four-year university. The new degrees begin during the 2006 fall semester.