Credit Recovery: Staying on the
Path
Introduction
La Grange High School is a
rural school set in the southern area of central Texas. Historically, La Grange
has been a strong German and Czech community. Our city is located in the heart
of the triangle that consists of Austin, Houston, and San Antonio. Due to this location, we have experienced
some growth in the past few years that is beginning to change the demographics
within our community and school.
Currently, we are about 56 percent White, 34 percent Hispanic, and 10
percent African America. Our school has
seen its number of at-risk students increase over the past five years. Also, the number of students who are
economically disadvantaged continues to increase each year. Our school has a strong reputation for
providing a quality education for our students.
The teacher turnover rate here is not very high. As a result, we have quality teachers with a
wealth of experience. I currently teach
U.S. History. Most of my students are 11th
graders; however, I do have several students from other grade levels. In the past five years, we have seen the
number of students losing credit in courses increase more than normal. In order to try to keep these students on
pace with their classmates, we incorporated a credit recovery program at the
high school three years ago. We were
using the NovaNet courseware provided by Pearson. As we looked at our program, we began to
notice some areas that could be improved.
This is how my action research project started.
My vision for the action
research was to find an online courseware that will offer a challenging
curriculum, while at the same time provide students with an alternative plan to
recover lost credits. The hopes were to
create an effective credit recovery program that would keep students in school
and on track for graduation. Before I
began the research project,
a committee was created that would research
what courseware was available to us. The
committee was comprised of the principal, assistant principal, technology
coordinator, counselor, credit recovery teacher, and me. As we looked at our current online courseware,
we discovered some areas that needed improvement. We began to develop a list of what we wanted
the program to encompass. Some of the
areas we addressed concerned the visual appeal, user-friendliness, improved
test review, increased rigor, and wider variety of courses. Also, we wanted to address the concern of
students intentionally not performing in the standard classroom in order to
take credit recovery instead. We then
began to research what programs were available that met our expectations and
needs for the program.
The information and ideas
that we incorporated into our credit recovery program will hopefully benefit
other schools that may be in the process of starting or improving their credit
recovery program. I feel that we now
have a program in place that is fair, but challenging for our students. The online courseware that we now use and the
modifications that we made have increased the rigor of the credit recovery
program. We wanted those students in the
program to get the same quality education that the students in the regular
classroom were getting. The information
in this study will offer others valuable and helpful ideas in exploring the
world of credit recovery programs. In order to completely understand the
information in this study, some terms might need to be explained to add
clarity. Credit recovery, for instance,
is a program that allows the student the opportunity to gain credit in courses
that they did not receive in the normal classroom setting. Rigor is the expectation that students will
learn at high levels. Modules are the
units within a course that the students must master before receiving credit for
that course. NovaNet is an online courseware provided by Pearson. GradPoint is the updated version of the
online courseware provided by Pearson.
Hopefully, these terms will help the reader fully understand the scope
of this study.
Literature Review
As I researched the concept of credit
recovery, I found that there was a tremendous amount of information and debate
on the topic. The idea of credit
recovery is a byproduct of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) initiative (McCabe
& St. Andrie, 2012). NCLB requires
states to set goals for improving high school graduation rates. Research has shown that students who miss or
fail courses are at a greater risk to not finish school. Research has shown that nearly one-third of
high school students do not graduate with their class. This number increases for African American,
Hispanic, and Native American students (Watson & Gemin, 2008, p. 5). Credit recovery emerged as a way to offer
students the opportunity to make-up lost credits. Also, schools receive financial incentives to
keep kids in school (Straus, 2010). In
Texas, part of the school funding is based on attendance rates. The use of credit recovery programs offer
students the incentive to stay in school and graduate with their peers. Schools are under pressure to make sure that
students graduate. The use of credit
recovery programs has positive effects on earning credits, attendance rates,
and passing rates on standardized tests (Trautman & Lawrence, 2004). Most of these programs are self-paced, which
allows for greater flexibility in scheduling.
They also provide the student to work on their work when outside the
credit recovery classroom. Students who
are in alternative settings can still work on their modules. There is much information on the benefits of
credit recovery; however, debate still exists on the level of effectiveness in
teaching students the material they need to know.
One of the biggest questions
is do these online courses offer the same quality of education as the
traditional classroom setting. Little
research exists on how much students actually learn (Thevenot &
Butrymowicz, 2010). Many feel the rigor
of the online courseware does not equal that of the traditional classroom
(McCabe & St. Andrie, 2012). Many
critics believe the recovery course that lack rigor entice or discourage
students from performing well in the traditional classroom setting. Another area of concern is that the many
state agencies do not regulate credit recovery courses. This is true in Texas. The Texas Education Agency (TEA) does not
regulate the use of these courses in public high schools (Thevenot &
Butrymowicz, 2010). The fear is that the
students who are taking these courses are not getting the same information as
the students in the normal classroom.
This could have implications on the student’s success on the
state-mandated tests. As the debate
rages on, credit recovery programs are continuing to increase in number. According to T. Jack Blackmon, who heads the
Dallas ISD credit recovery program, “It is the vision of the future.”
Action Research Design
As we looked at our credit recovery program,
we wanted to ensure that our students using the program were getting the best
quality education that they could receive.
We have seen increasing numbers of students who were using the NovaNet
program to recover credits that they had not gotten during their previous semesters
in school. In March 2012, the committee
began to look at ways to improve the overall performance of the program. In doing so, we analyzed data concerning the
number of students in the program, the makeup of the students in the program,
the number of credits recovered, and the courses offered in the program. One of
the first steps was to get the student’s perspective of the program we were
using. I asked Ms. Alizabeth Calhoun,
the credit recovery instructor, to hand out a survey to the students enrolled
in her program. The survey asked the students to rate the
current program on a series of criteria including: visual appeal, user-friendliness, difficulty,
and time frame for completing modules. I
then asked Ms. Calhoun to give me her thoughts on the strengths and weaknesses
of the NovaNet program. I then compared
that information. I asked the technology
coordinator, Scott Toensing, to help identify what limitations we might have as
we tried to change our current system or implement a new system. The technology coordinator arranged for
representatives from two companies to meet with us about their courseware. The principal, Dr. Bryan Hallmark, was
responsible for looking at what funds were available to us and providing any
other information that I might need. The committee then compared how the
NovaNet curriculum correlated to what the teachers were teaching in the
classroom. We compared the lessons and
exams given by various teachers to that of the online curriculum. As we looked at the numbers and the
curriculum data, we began to notice some shortcomings with our current system.
We wanted to create a program that included some aspects of the traditional
classroom. This prompted us to begin
looking at changes to the current program or alternative programs to better
meet the needs of our faculty and students.
In June 2012, representatives from two
different companies, Apex and Pearson, gave presentations on their credit
recovery courseware. We compared the
information given to us with our goals and objectives for the program. In reviewing the information that was
provided to us, we decided that the Pearson GradPoint courseware met the
criteria for our credit recovery program.
This courseware provided the necessary improvements that we needed to
make with our current system. This new
system was more cost-effective and provided the rigor and flexibility needed to
meet the expectations and needs of our students. In order to increase the rigor, I suggested
including some sort of research paper or project. The committee agreed that a written component
should be added. As a result, students
are now assigned a corresponding project or paper that relates to the
information in their online coursework.
Findings
Several improvements have been
made to our credit recovery program. The
functionality of the new GradPoint courseware is more effective to promote
increased student performance. In terms of visual appeal, the new GradPoint system
is presented to the students on a full computer monitor and it looks much more
visually appealing with an abundance of color, pictures, graphics, videos and
active lessons that keep students engaged in the material for longer periods of
time. As far as user-friendliness,
students easily select the clearly marked symbols and icons within the program
to select what action they wish to take instead of using any of the function
keys. A teacher using GradPoint can easily view all important student and
course information in a clear user-friendly spreadsheet. This new format allows
the teacher to clearly view the names of students, courses they are taking,
grades they are making and history of usage.
The new courseware also has an improved test review in comparison to the
NovaNet software. The new program allows
for all questions to be review, and the students can learn more from their
mistakes. In terms of rigor, students
must complete every quiz within each lesson in order to move on to the next lesson.
This new system is more beneficial to the student because they are not
permitted to prematurely move forward before learning all important educational
material for each lesson. The GradPoint
courseware also has a wider variety of course. With the new GradPoint
system, many more core high school courses and an abundance of electives are
available. This upgraded credit recovery system now provides the students a
wider range of courses to choose from and also gives the counselors more
diversity and flexibility with formulating students’ schedules.
The following charts represent the current
makeup of the credit recovery program including participants and credits gain
according to subject.
A total of 80 students are currently enrolled in
the credit recovery program. Those
students have recovered a total of 243 half-credits. The credit recovery program is based on a
‘pass or fail’ grading system, therefore the highest grade a student can make
is a 70%. One can achieve this passing grade by consistently working on their
assigned material throughout each six weeks. In order for a student to receive
school credit for their course, they must complete all assigned modules, as
well as their additional paper or project.
Conclusions and Recommendations
As I look at the data and
process over the course of this action research project, I am convinced that
the credit recovery program in our school is a benefit to the students. I have talked with numerous students, and
they have told me that the opportunity to take credit recovery has kept them in
school. If done properly, the credit
recovery program can be a valuable asset to a campus. A district or school looking to begin or
enhance a credit recovery program needs to take the time to perform a need’s
assessments on their campus. The data
received from this assessment will need to be used to find what courseware
complements those needs. There are many
options available. I feel that the software that allows for the most
flexibility will offer the greatest reward for all involved. The courseware needs to provide the rigor
necessary to enhance student learning, while at the same time providing an
achievable goal for the student. As
educators, we are in the business of providing all students with an opportunity
to learn. All students are not going to
perform in the traditional classroom.
The credit recovery program offers them an alternative to keep moving
forward. It has a chance to have a
positive impact on their life. Students
who can keep moving toward graduation are more likely to get there. Credit recovery helps to keep them on the
path.
References
McCabe,
J. & St. Andrie, R. (2012). Credit
Recovery programs: Full Report. The
Center for Public Education. www.centerforpubliceducation.org/Main-Menu/Staffingstudents/Credit-recovery-programs/Credit-recovery-programs-full-report.html
Strauss,
V. (2010). Are
Education Credit Recovery Programs Really Effective? The Answer Sheet. Retrieved from http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/guest-bloggers/are-ed-credit-recovery-program.html
Thevenot,
B., & Butrymowicz, S. (2010). Can
Credit Recovery Courses Cut Dropout Rates?
The Hechinger Report. Retrieved from http://www.texastribune.org/texas-education/public-education/can-credit-recovery-courses-cut-dropout-rates/
Trautman,
T., & Lawrence, J. (2004). Credit
Recovery: A Technology-based
intervention for dropout prevention at Wichita Falls High School. Oklahoma
City: American Education
Corporation.
Watson,
J., & Gemin, B. (2008). Using Online Learning for At-Risk Students
and Credit Recovery. Vienna,
VA: North American Council for Online
Learning.
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