This dashboard provides a view of retention and persistence rates for students who attended your institution as first-time or transfer-in students over time, giving you a term-to-term view of six consecutive student cohorts within their first two academic years.

Watch the video below to learn more about the Retention and Persistence Term-to-Term Dashboard.

How It Works

• Retention = How many students are still enrolled or have earned a degree from your institution before the end of that term
• Persistence = How many students are still enrolled or have completed a credential at another institution in that term

The dashboard first checks whether a student has attempted credits at your institution in the given term using the data submitted in your institution’s course data file. If you did not submit the student in your institution’s course data file in that term, the dashboard then checks The Clearinghouse’s other enrollment and degree reporting services. If the student was submitted through another Clearinghouse service as having been enrolled at your institution in that term, the dashboard will classify the student as retained. If another institution has submitted an enrollment record for the student, the dashboard will classify the student as persisted.

Since retention and persistence are measured over a student’s first two academic years, a student could be retained in the first term of their second year and then persisted at another institution in a subsequent term.

Dashboard Sections

Main Page

The main page is divided into four quadrants, and each quadrant provides different insights into your institution’s outcomes.

Select a cohort term in the Select Cohort Term drop-down in the top-right quadrant. The dashboard only groups students who started at the same time of year for this metric. For example, if you filter by the fall cohort term, you will only see students who started in the fall. Select a cohort from the drop-down in the bottom right quadrant to focus on the cohort you are interested in tracking over their college career. The Cohort Term filter defaults to Fall. The Cohort filter defaults to your most recent cohort.

Student Retained, Persisted, Not Enrolled

This section provides a high-level overview of how your institution’s retention and persistence rates have changed from one cohort to the next. The stacked columns represent the total number of students in each cohort. Each segment shows the percentage of students in each cohort who were either retained, persisted, or not enrolled during their second year.

Students Not Enrolled by Dimension

This section displays students who were not retained or persisted disaggregated by dimension. This information is useful for contextualizing the size and prevalence of certain groups of students who are encountering trouble early on. The color and size of each bar represent the percentage of students who are not enrolled in their second year. A darker color and a larger size indicate a larger percentage of students who are not enrolled. Hover over a bar to view additional information about the percentage of students in each cohort as well as those of a particular demographic who are not enrolled.

Retention and Persistence by Dimension

This section allows you to view your institution’s overall retention or persistence rate across cohorts and dimensions. The line graph represents the cohort and term you selected over time from their first term enrolled through the end of their second academic year.

Use Cases

Impact of Pell Grants on Transfer-In Student Retention-Persistence Rates

Watch the video below to learn how to use the Retention and Persistence Term-to-Term dashboard to measure the impact of Pell Grants on transfer-in student retention and persistence rates.

Understanding Fall-to-Spring Retention Rates for First-Time Students

Watch the video below to learn how to use the Retention and Persistence Term-to-Term dashboard to understand the fall-to-spring retention rates for first-time students.