This session examines replicable K-12 online and blended credit recovery programs as a foundation for future contributions to the field. Results of pilot study practices in learning recovery will be shared highlighting course delivery (online remediation during the school year) and course design (customized programming through formative assessment).
About every 26 seconds, an American high school student elects to dropout of school. The cost of the drop out crisis is not only financial, but societal. Dropouts are more likely to be incarcerated, homeless, and unemployable. The improvement in the dropout rates over the last 15 years has occurred during an increase in the use of online learning technologies in K-12 schools, such that 75% of districts report using online learning in some way. Despite this, the need for more flexible credit recovery options for students is great.
Most secondary schools traditionally provide credit recovery options to students as a comprehensive course review conducted during the summer. Online credit recovery courses provide flexible modularity to create customized remediation opportunities for students in an anytime, anywhere fashion. Educators can deliver formative remediation opportunities for students by adjusting both the timeliness and personalization of online remedial support, thus achieving flexibility through the customization and audibility of time and space.
In this session, the presenter will first elaborate on existing research gaps pertaining to online credit recovery programs. Second, the results of implementing an online remediation program to alternative education students occurring during the school day, beginning in 2016, will be shared. The goal of the initiative is to provide individualized, academic remediation that eliminates the need for students to attend summer school. Because the students involved are in various lengths of placement (minimum stay of 45 days), completing an entire credit recovery course during this time is quite attainable.
The model itself emphasizes existing research centered on using online learning options as a way to achieve flexibility in the areas of the customization of learning time and space, course design and structure, assessment and grading, and student support systems. While each area has benefits and limitations, the future of online credit recovery lies in the ability for the K-12 educational community to build efficacy. Variations in needs, program design and limitations, and accountability levels cause the replicability of one successful program in another entity to be difficult and inconsistent.
Participants will have the opportunity to explore the data regarding participation and success of the piloted online credit recovery program for alternative education students and engage in networking and problem solving discussion regarding the barriers and lessons learned from this endeavor.