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How Does Online Credit Recovery Work?

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According to an American Enterprise Institute survey, credit recovery options are available in about 75 percent of U.S. high schools. The survey also determined that approximately six percent of U.S. high schoolers are enrolled in some form of credit recovery.

But what is online credit recovery? More importantly, how does online credit recovery work for your students? Let’s take a closer look at two student scenarios to answer these questions.

Corey has missed several weeks of school for health reasons. He puts in adequate effort when he’s in class and turns in his homework. His work often shows some understanding, but Corey’s test scores and graded assignments reflect failing grades.

A studetn who recieved a failing grade

Now, let’s look at Luke. He doesn’t turn in homework and is easily distracted during class. Luke completes tests with Bs and Cs, but he fails to complete all graded assignments. Both Corey and Luke are failing, but not necessarily because they don’t understand the content.

Discover Knowledge with Credit Recovery

When it comes to credit recovery, experts often disagree about its effectiveness. You’ve likely read the studies that show some programs allow students to skip lessons to avoid answering questions about the more challenging content. Worse yet, your school may be forced to use a low-cost program that lacks the rigor and effectiveness of a robust credit recovery option. 

You care about your students, and you want to set them up for success. Let’s reimagine our students' stories and take the guesswork out of truly helping them succeed, not just getting them to graduation.

For the final grading period, you enroll Corey and Luke in an online credit recovery course that allows them both to work independently. The course contains all the standards and learning objectives you taught in Algebra I, including those you still need to finish this year.

When they begin the course, Corey and Luke encounter Pre-Tests that allow them to test out of the topic material they understand at the learning objective level. The lessons remaining in each topic contain multimodal learning objects that provide robust learning opportunities for the students. Each lesson also contains a small learning-objective-level assessment to help benchmark student understanding.

At the end of each topic, Corey and Luke receive a graded Post-Test. The Pre- and Post-Test setup provides prescription coursework for the students. This way, they can refine the skills with which they struggle while being excused from the course content they have mastered.

Empower Students

As Corey works his way through the course, he tests out of two lessons in the first topic. He works swiftly through the content and is soon moving on to the Post-Test. In the first few days, Corey made great progress and achieved passing Post-Test scores. You’ve noticed that he is finding the lesson content helpful in allowing him to recover the knowledge on concepts he missed during his absence.

When Luke begins working in the course, he is excused from four lessons in the first topic, and he’s receiving high scores on the Post-Tests. Luke tells you that he finds the course interesting because of the interactive examples and videos. Luke’s engagement allows him to move quickly through the topics with success.

Maximize Student Potential

Ideal online credit recovery programs are rigorous, multimodal, and personalized. Additionally, these programs exhibit unparalleled student support and monitoring, and they encourage student progress at each step in the credit recovery process. With Lincoln Empowered Credit Recovery, prescriptive, personalized courses are available for all struggling students. 

As a teacher using Lincoln Empowered Credit Recovery courses, you can see learning-objective-level benchmark outcomes, detailed responses, and the full activity time for your students. This data allows you to jump in to help students at the first sign of trouble.

Further, with Lincoln Empowered, you can set expectations, monitor student progress, and even reassign excused content if needed. These credit recovery courses are customizable, flexible, and accessible anywhere.

When choosing your credit recovery program, be sure to do your homework. Look for tools to maximize the potential of your struggling students so that you can equip them with the knowledge and skills they will need after graduation.

To learn more about the benefits of online credit recovery, download our white paper, The Promise of Online Credit Recovery.