The impact of an online credit recovery program on students in grades nine and ten
Date
2017
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
Students who fall behind in credits in their first years of high school are at risk of not graduating. William Penn High School (WPHS) offers students who fail courses the opportunity to make up lost credits by using an online option called the WPHS Credit Recovery Program. The WPHS Credit Recovery Program is designed to keep students on the path toward graduation. It has been assisting students since 2012, but has never been evaluated. Currently the courses in the program consist of video lessons followed by multiple-choice assessments. Common Core State Standards (CCSS) require a level of rigor that the current program may not provide. This is an evaluation of the WPHS Credit Recovery Program using quantitative and qualitative measures. ☐ Colonial School District Curriculum and Instruction experts evaluated the following credit recovery courses, English I, English II, Integrated Math I, and Integrated Math II, on a custom rubric created by the investigator for this study. Students in the WPHS Credit Recovery Program completed a Likert-type survey about their perceptions of online learning and traditional classroom learning. A focus group interview was conducted with students who failed either English or Integrated Math during their first two years of high school. Teachers of English I, English II, Integrated Math I, and Integrated Math II participated in a separate focus group interview. Student records from 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 were reviewed to see if students benefited from the program. ☐ Results of the evaluation revealed a program that is lacking in quality with low rigor courses that do not align to CCSS. Perceptions of the WPHS Credit Recovery Program differed between WPHS students and teachers. The program is not without merit; more students who participated in the online WPHS Credit Recovery Program graduated compared to students who did not participate in the online credit recovery program. Retention of the WPHS Credit Recovery Program is proposed since the program helps students meet graduation requirements. Recommendations are offered for program improvement, including the formation of a credit recovery team to guide a major redesign of the WPHS Credit Recovery Program.
Description
Keywords
Education, Credit recovery, Dropout, Graduation