This may help students graduate on time and overcome student debt, but some are worried about being tracked.

USA Today reports.

Colleges use student data to predict future dropouts

At the start of this upcoming school year, the U.S. government will roll out its own ranking of national colleges and universities.

The framework for this new college rankings system was presented at the end of 2014 at the direction of the Obama administration as a way to confront the growing problems within higher education in America — most notably, the epidemic of student debt.

The ratings system is not supposed to be like those made by U.S. News and World Report or similar publications, but is instead described by the department website as “a ratings system that is clear, fair and focused on a few key critical measures of institutional performance, while accounting for the diversity and complexity of the nation’s rich system of higher education.”

With outcomes being a key component of the Department of Education’s new rankings framework and states beginning to allot funding based on performance, graduation rates are becoming more important than ever.

Even students are considering the implications of a poor graduation rate.