The three outcome numbers accredited sonography programs publish, what each one actually measures, and how to read them without being misled.
Accredited sonography programs are required to publish their results, which is a genuine advantage for a prospective student — the data is there to be read. But a number is only as useful as its definition, and one of these numbers is defined more generously than it first appears. This page explains the three published outcomes and how to read each one honestly.
Where the numbers live
Each program accredited through the Joint Review Committee on Education in Diagnostic Medical Sonography (JRC-DMS) must post its outcomes on its own website, using a standardized JRC-DMS template, updated annually and consistent with its most recent annual report (JRC-DMS Standards Interpretive Guide, 2025). Because the template is standardized, the same three numbers can be compared across programs — and a program that cannot produce a current outcomes sheet has told you something by that absence.
The three numbers
Student retention. The share of a starting cohort that completes the program. Accredited programs are expected to retain at least 70 percent of a cohort — meaning attrition of no more than 30 percent (JRC-DMS, 2025). A retention number well below that, cohort after cohort, is worth asking about.
Credentialing success. The share of graduates who take and pass the credentialing exam within one year of graduating, calculated as the graduates who pass divided by the graduates who attempt (JRC-DMS, 2025). Programs are expected to reach at least a 60 percent overall take-and-pass rate. This is the number most often labeled “exam pass rate” in marketing. Read it as graduates who both took and passed within a year — not the pass rate of test-takers alone, which can look higher.
Job placement. The share of graduates placed after finishing. The figure deserves the closest reading, because JRC-DMS defines “positive placement” broadly: a graduate counts as positively placed if they are employed full- or part-time in the profession or a related field, are continuing their education, or are serving in the military (JRC-DMS, 2025). A high placement percentage therefore does not necessarily mean most graduates got a sonographer job — it may include related-field work, further schooling, and military service. The honest way to use the number is to ask the program how its placement figure is counted.
Reading them together
No single number tells the whole story, and the definitions matter as much as the values. Strong retention with weak credentialing success can signal a program that keeps students enrolled but does not prepare them to pass. A high placement figure paired with a generous definition may say less than it appears to. The useful move is to look at all three across several recent cohorts and to ask, for each, exactly how it was measured. How to Evaluate a Sonography Program covers the rest of what to check.
Last verified: 2026-06-14. Outcome thresholds and definitions are set by the accreditor and change; confirm current details with JRC-DMS and the program directly. This page is informational and does not endorse or evaluate specific programs.