A Catoosa County educator said it's a good thing that struggling high school students have another option -- a fast-track way to earn a passing grade in a class they are failing.
"The more chances we give our students to graduate on time (the better)," said Catoosa County High School improvement specialist Trish Schimpf said.
She was referring to the credit recovery program, which allows high school students to redo work they have failed in class. They don't repeat an entire class, but focus only on the topics they didn't understand, officials said.
"I haven't heard any criticisms," Ms. Schimpf said.
While most Northwest Georgia educators praise the option for a second chance, some educators worry the program lets students off too easily.
Critics say such programs are a way for students to slack off in class, then make up the work quickly at the last minute.
Gene Bottoms, senior vice president of the Southern Regional Education Board, said he recently heard of a situation in which students failed a senior English course and made up a semester of work in three days.
"The question is, 'What message is that sending?'" he said. "While I think credit recovery courses have some benefit, I think they need to be regulated by the state."
Educators in Walker, Whitfield and Catoosa counties said credit recovery allows students to stay on track for graduation without having to go to summer school, which saves money because teachers don't have to be paid.
Jason McKinney, graduation coach at Walker County's Ridgeland High School, said the biggest advantage of credit recovery is that it helps boost the graduation rate by allowing students in danger of being held back to make up work to pass a class or graduate. He said most students complete credit recovery in 50 to 75 hours.
"The benefits of credit recovery are the ability to catch up a student who has fallen behind," he said. "It alleviates the feeling that all is lost after one semester."
But students must take on responsibility and not abuse credit recovery or think of it as an easy way to pass a class, Mr. Bottoms said. Educators also need to think about what is best for the student and not focus only on making adequate yearly progress, a requirement of the federal No Child Left Behind law, he said.
"If it comes to be perceived as an easy way to get a credit, then you will see a large number of students begin to do that and it will lose its worth," Mr. Bottoms said.
In Georgia, the details of credit recovery programs differ by school system, officials said. While the state offers a free online program that schools can use, it doesn't otherwise regulate credit recovery, except that students are required to meet the state's standards as they would in any other class.
In Walker County, students use an online program called Odysseyware. Last year, 25 Ridgeland High students used credit recovery and eight are using the program this summer, Mr. McKinney said. Ridgeland has about 1,280 students.
Whitfield County officials also have been using an online credit recovery program for the last three years. Last year, more than 1,000 Whitfield County high school students used credit recovery, curriculum improvement director Audrey Williams said.
The school system has nearly 14,000 students.
In Catoosa County, students who need credit recovery work one-on-one with the teacher of the class they are failing, Ms. Schimpf said.
Students meet with the teacher to discuss the specific topic on which they are struggling, she said. They are guided by the teacher to complete work to gain enough understanding to pass, she said.
But Catoosa students also do some work online through Georgia's Department of Education program, the Georgia Virtual School, Mrs. Schimpf said.
Although the benefits are many, area educators said online learning isn't for everyone and that some students struggle, especially in math, without working closely with a teacher.
In many Northwest Georgia systems, credit recovery can be done during the school day, allowing educators to reach students who can't stay after school because of work conflicts or transportation problems.
WHAT IS CREDIT RECOVERY?
Credit recovery traditionally is defined as a way to "recover" credit for a course in which a student was previously unsuccessful in earning academic credit in toward graduation. Students who use credit recovery already have satisfied class time requirements for a course but were unsuccessful. Credit recovery allows them to focus on earning credit based on competency of the content standards for the particular course. Such programs, in general, have a primary focus of helping students stay in school and graduate on time.
Source: Georgia Department of Education
Or login with:
New Account