Semester-to-Semester Student Retention Tracking

Hi Megabytze 

Retention is term-to-term instead date-to-date.

So instead of
Days
Date differences

You can use
TermID as an ordered time index
Cohort = first enrolled TermID
Offset = how many terms after cohort

This is exactly how customer cohort analysis works, just replace month with term.

Model Setup
Relationships
Enrollment[TermID] → Term[TermID] (Many-to-One)
No need to use Term Start/End Date for retention logic

Required columns
From Enrollment:
StudentID
TermID
Cohort TermID (first term the student enrolled)

If you don’t have Cohort TermID, create it
Cohort TermID =
CALCULATE(
MIN(Enrollment[TermID]),
ALLEXCEPT(Enrollment, Enrollment[StudentID])
)

Create “Term Offset” (This Replaces Month 1, Month 2…)

In Enrollment
Term Offset =
Enrollment[TermID] - Enrollment[Cohort TermID]

This gives:
0 = cohort term
1 = next semester
2 = semester after that

Base Measures
Students in Cohort (Denominator)
Cohort Size =
CALCULATE(
DISTINCTCOUNT(Enrollment[StudentID]),
Enrollment[Term Offset] = 0
)

Retained Students (Numerator)
Retained Students =
DISTINCTCOUNT(Enrollment[StudentID])

Retention % Measure
Retention % =
DIVIDE(
[Retained Students],
[Cohort Size]
)

Build the Matrix Visual
Rows
Term[Cohort] or Enrollment[CohortTermID]

Columns
Enrollment[Term Offset]

Rename as
Term 1
Term 2
Term 3

Values
Retention %
(or Retained Students for the count version)

This will look exactly like your customer retention example, but by semester.

Please mark it as a solution with headup if this helps you. Thank You!