School Year-Over-Year (YOY) Retention Business Rules

Definition: Percent of enrolled students who remain enrolled in the same school from one year to the next year

Periodicity (time period): Annual (previous school year to current school year)

Default Cut Point: n/a

Default Performance Levels: n/a - there are not performance levels for this metric

Default Dataset Filter: n/a

Required Configurations

• Admin User: For accurate calculation, "Exit Codes" for "Graduated" and (if used) "Completed Highest Grade in Elementary and Middle School" must be configured in Data Configuration Settings -> Metric Configurations

Possible Configurations:

• Admin User: Additional "Exit Codes" can be configured (e.g. Other Exclusions) can be set in Data Configuration Settings -> Metric Configurations
• Schoolzilla Support: none

District and School Metric Calculation:

The dates included in the subsequent time period and initial time period are based upon the dates selected for the Enrollment Windows in Official Enrollment Rules in Data Configuration Settings.

Notes:

1. Includes students that have graduated (we determine this based on Exit Code groupings).
2. Includes 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 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. 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." We determine the school's highest grade in a given school year, using the maximum grade level of any student who was enrolled at that school during the year.
3. If a student had multiple enrollment records over the course of one year, we use the school where the student was enrolled during the "official enrollment window," excluding those records that do not meet minimum enrollment thresholds, or that might be deemed "No Show" enrollments (unless you have elected to include these).
4. 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 initial enrollment cohort and not count in the numerator or denominator.
5. Students that do not meet minimum enrollment thresholds in Official Enrollment Rules configurations (Minimum Days Enrolled), or that might be deemed "No Show" enrollments (unless you have elected to include these), will be excluded from the initial enrollment cohort and not count in the numerator or denominator.

Student Level Metric Calculation: n/a - Our Students and Student Profile only show currently enrolled students

Source: Student information system

Update frequency: Nightly 

Additional Notes:

• The school YOY retention metric is 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 2019-2020 returned to the school for the 2020-2021 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).
• "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.
• We do not recommend using the "Current Grade Level" demographic group for this metric 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.
• Because of how we currently determine the highest grade level at a school in a given year, the school year-over-year retention metric does not support cases where:
• Districts are not using an exit code to indicate that a student has "Completed Highest Grade in Elementary or Middle School", and
• A school is offering a new "highest" grade level each school year (e.g. expanding from K-1 to K-2).