District Year-Over-Year Retention and School Year-Over-Year Retention metrics help track student enrollment trends year-over-year. Note: Images below contains fake data for demo purposes only.
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How do I set up these metrics?
Note: Please read the detailed business rules for each metric as well: district year-over-year retention business rules and school year-over-year retention business rules.
1) Configure your Official Enrollment Rules
- In Schoolzilla, go to Settings > Data Configuration Settings > Metric Configurations.
- Select Official Enrollment Rules from the left-hand side.
- Specify the enrollment criteria that a student must meet to be included (minimum days enrolled, enrollment window, and how to handle no shows). We utilize the minimum enrollment threshold, and year-specific enrollment window configurations you have set to determine which school and enrollment record should count for the purposes of comparison.
- We've provided default values for each option.
2) Group your Exit Codes
- In Schoolzilla, go to Settings > Data Configuration Settings > Metric Configurations > Exit Codes.
- Select Exit Codes from the left-hand side.
- Assign your Exit Codes (sourced from your student information system) to one of the standard categories.
- There is a category for "Completed Highest Grade in Elementary or Middle School. "If you do not have an exit code that only indicates if a student completed the highest grade in the school (other than graduated), then leave this group empty. Students that have completed the highest grade in a school (or skipped the highest grade) are considered retained for the school version of this metric. We identify this first by considering any student who has an exit code that has been grouped in the "Completed Highest Grade in Elementary or Middle School" category as having completed that school. If empty, the metric will instead identify if a student was enrolled in the school's highest grade and was enrolled on the school's latest date in session for the year, and consider that student as "completed."
- If a student's most recent enrollment record has an exit code that has been grouped as "Other Exclusions" – e.g., students who have emigrated or passed away – the student will be excluded from the retention metrics (not count in the numerator or denominator).
FAQ
Where is my current year value?
- Both district and school year-over-year retention are calculated on a lagging basis. The most recent value of this metric will always be one year less than the current school year. For example, the 2019-2020 value of this metric is based on retention outcomes for the 2019-2020 enrollment cohort (i.e., what percent of students from 19-20 returned to the school/district for the 20-21 enrollment window). We do not yet support a year-to-date version of this metric (i.e., what is student retention from the beginning of the current school year to current date).
Can I look at this data on a month-to-month basis?
- No, both of these metrics are calculated on an annual basis. Trend line views will show comparisons from year to year, with the year being the initial enrollment cohort. The Enrollment metric trend line indicates fluctuations in enrollment.
Is there a student-level value?
- No, these metrics are not calculated at the student-level. Values for these metrics will not be visible on the Our Students page as that dashboard only shows students who are currently enrolled.
Why is there no stacked bar view?
- We do not set performance levels for these metrics. As such, metric tiles will not render the stacked bar view.
How should exit codes that indicate a student has completed their academic program be grouped?
- We would recommend grouping exit codes of this type as "Graduated" for the purposes of the Year-Over-Year Retention Metric reporting. This is because students grouped as "graduates" will be counted as retained for both the school and district versions of the metric.
What are some examples of how students are counted in these metrics?
- Example 1: Harry transfers in after the Enrollment End Date specified in Data Configuration. He would not be counted in either metric at all.
- Example 2: Hermione was enrolled at Hogwarts Elementary between the Official Enrollment start and end dates. She completed 5th grade, the school’s highest grade. However, she did not re-enroll at Hogwarts Middle School next year. She would not be counted for as retained for the District YOY metric, but she would be considered retained for the School YOY metric.
- Example 3: Draco was enrolled at Hogwarts Elementary during the Official Enrollment Window (starting Oct 1). He stayed for the minimum number of days, but then transferred to Voldemort Academy outside of the district. He left Voldemort Academy in the middle of the year. In August of the next school year, he re-enrolled in the district at Snape Academy. Draco would be considered not retained for the School YOY retention metric. He would be considered as retained for the District YOY retention metric because he was most recently enrolled within the district.
How should I interpret grade level breakdowns?
- When the "Grade Level at the Time" demographic group is selected, the values reflect the grades levels that students who are in the initial cohort and their grade level at the time of the initial year. For example, if the value shows that 50% third grade students were retained in district, it means that of students who were in third grade in year one remained in the district for year two.
- We do not recommend using the "Current Grade Level" demographic group because this adds a filter for currently enrolled students only. Because of the currently enrolled filter, the values will be 100% or very close to it. With the addition of the currently enrolled filter, the metric then is looking at your students who were enrolled in the previous year AND are currently enrolled and determining which ones meet the official enrollment rules.