Academy operations
Retention rate
Definition
Retention rate is the share of students enrolled in a chess academy at the start of a term who are still enrolled at the start of the next term, tracked batch by batch rather than academy-wide. Academy owners get it by dividing continuing students by starting enrollment; ChessCore surfaces the count so a term-over-term dip is visible early.
In practice
Retention rate shows up wherever an academy compares enrollment counts across terms: a batch's roster from one term against the next, a single coach's assigned students term over term, or the whole academy's paying base year over year. Owners read it alongside the enrollment funnel, since a strong intake with a weak retention rate still shrinks the academy, and alongside demo class conversions, since a family that converts on a weak signal is more likely to churn later. A retention rate that drops on one batch, rather than academy-wide, usually points a coach toward that batch's schedule or coach load rather than a general problem. Retention rate is a lagging count, not a cause: it confirms that something went wrong last term, while the weekly churn signals and the parent update thread an owner keeps live are what actually catch a drifting family before the number moves. For the churn drivers behind a falling retention rate, the weekly signals worth tracking, and what to say to a family that is drifting, read the linked guide below.