<p>In our state, home schoolers do not register. We do not even have to register to graduate. And there are a lot of home schoolers, maybe around 10%, which might be high, but some have said it is that high. Even if it were 5%, that still is a big number. Since we do not register or anything, how do they determine the number of kids graduating here? Do they just guess? Or do they omit the home schoolers in Texas and other states that have a lot of home schoolers?</p>
<p>My understanding is that they base NMSF on the number of students who take the PSAT and state that they are juniors.</p>
<p>The majority of high schoolers do not even take the PSAT. I heard that Kentucky has successfully boosted its number of NMSF by requiring all public school juniors to take the PSAT.</p>
<p>Someone else posted on another thread that it was actually based on the number of grads, not just the number of those taking the test. Thing, where we live, the only people taking the PSAT are the ones who earned over 180 in the 10th grade year (when it did not count). So, by 11th grade, way way less are taking the PSAT. That would really run the scores up if so few take it.</p>
<p>National Merit Scholarship Corporation doesn’t state their exact process, but we know that the percentage of NMSF/NMF are somehow tied to the percentage of that state’s HS graduates compared to the nation. That’s why states like TX & CA have many more NMSF’s than a state like Idaho. I have no solid proof of this, but I believe NMSC uses the number of HS graduates reported to the US Dept. of Education; that’s one of the reasons why it takes till the end of July to report who is NMSF; some states don’t graduate till the end of June so the numbers aren’t available earlier. And it takes even longer to report. </p>
<p>You can always look at IPEDS to see HS graduation numbers but they’re delayed by a year or two.</p>
<p>From the National Merit Corporation web site, “Of the 1.5 million entrants, some 50,000 with the highest PSAT/NMSQT® Selection Index scores (critical reading + mathematics + writing skills scores) qualify for recognition in the National Merit® Scholarship Program.”</p>
<p>Ref.: [National</a> Merit Scholarship Corporation - NMSP](<a href=“http://www.nationalmerit.org/nmsp.php]National”>http://www.nationalmerit.org/nmsp.php)</p>
<p>There are 1.5 million “entrants”, otherwise known as juniors who take the PSAT (and are American citizens). The number of graduates in a state does not factor in.</p>
<p>Pg 6 of this document explains how the state allocations are determined. It says ‘less than one percent’ which is true, actually closer to one-half of one percent.</p>
<p>They don’t explain what is their source of # of graduating seniors, though.</p>
<p><a href=“http://nationalmerit.org/student_guide.pdf[/url]”>http://nationalmerit.org/student_guide.pdf</a></p>
<p>I believe RobD and celesteroberts are correct.
I think the OP is concerned about how the 16,000 NMSF slots are allocated to the states. This is done in proportion to a state’s share of the nation’s graduating high school seniors. (For example: If state X has 6.3% of the the nation’s HS senior graduates, it will be allocated .063 x 16,000 = 1008 NMSF slots. The top 1008 junior scorers in X will then be designated NMSF, with some fudging for ties, I am sure.) One effect of this is that states with relatively higher graduation rates have larger numbers of NMSF’s in proportion to their overall high school populations. The number of PSAT test-takers is not a factor in the allocation of NMSF spots.</p>
<p>NMSF does not say what their official data source is – probably the USDE, as was speculated. I’d suspect that USDE has regulations that cover how home-schoolers are treated with regard to graduation statistics.</p>