The academic choices you make as a teenager can shape the rest of your life: If you take high school classes for college credit, you're more likely to go to college ; and if you take at least 12 credits of classes during your first year there, you're more likely to finish your degree .

These and insights from thousands of other studies can all be traced to a trove of data the federal government started collecting more than 50 years ago. But earlier this year, that effort came to a halt.

Researchers, educators and policymakers have relied on this data to form conclusions and shape policy about American education — everything from how high school counselors should be spending their days to when students should start taking higher-level math classes.

On a single day in February, the Tr

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