Online Credit Recovery: Criticism and Considerations

Victoria O’Brien & Mark Sellner

 

Elena was worried when her name was called over the loudspeaker.  She walked toward the counselor’s office absolutely sure she was in trouble.  She was a conscientious student and was usually quiet; she tried to blend in. Though she was struggling in some of her classes, she was trying her best, and she never cheated.  As she approached the counselor’s office, she felt her breath catch in anticipation. She stood outside quietly, not sure whether to just walk in or knock on the half-open door.

The decision was made for her when the counselor, Mr. Grady, noticed her standing in the doorway.  He stood up from his desk littered with papers and smiled.

“Elena, good to see you.  Come on in, have a seat.” He gestured as he talked.  She felt only slightly reassured by his warm tone.

“Don’t worry, you aren’t in trouble.”  He said, again anticipating her anxiety.  Elena could only nod in response. Her hands twisted in her lap.

“I know you have been working hard in your classes, but it is difficult to keep up. Hey–I get it.  I can’t imagine how difficult it is to learn and use another language. I can barely speak one!” He chuckled awkwardly.  She didn’t get the joke.

“Elena, you have three failing grades from last quarter.  I’m worried that if this pattern continues, you won’t be able to graduate on-time, which could really impact your options for colleges.  You want to go to college don’t you?”

She nodded, though she wasn’t really sure if she meant it.  Her parents wanted her to go to college, as they only had a high school education themselves, but she was wary.  If it was anything like high school, she wasn’t sure it was for her.

“There is an option to help you get caught up on some of these courses.  We’ve been using it with some of our other Spanish-speaking students, and it’s been successful.  I’d like you to give it a try, too.”

“Okay.” She said slowly, still unsure.  “What do you want me to do?”

“It’s called online credit recovery.” Mr. Grady said.  “It lets students retake some of the courses that they failed or were unable to take so they can get better grades and graduate on time.” As he spoke, he rustled through the papers on his desk and found the one he wanted, a pale yellow sheet with black print.  He handed it to her.

“Here.” He said.  “It’s your new class schedule, starting tomorrow.”

I.

Online credit recovery is a broad term referring to several forms of instruction and materials used mostly at the highschool level.  These materials are used to give students who have failed a traditional, in-person course the opportunity to make up the credit and complete their course of study on time (“Credit Recovery,” 2013).  These courses can be taken during regular school hours, after school, or during summer vacation or other breaks. While some students enroll in online course work to accelerate their path to graduation, in the case of online credit recovery, the courses are used for students who would otherwise be behind (Robleyer, 31).  The following chapter will examine online credit recovery as it pertains to the latter scenario. Hailed by some as a “dropout-prevention strategy” (“Credit Recovery,” 2013), online credit recovery has become increasingly popular thanks in part the increased accessibility to computers and high-speed internet, as well as heightened graduation and retention expectations of school administrators and lawmakers.

The North American Council of Online Learning’s (NACOL) 2008 report, Using Online Learning for At-Risk Students and Credit Recovery aims to define credit recovery as well as evaluate its purpose and effectiveness of online learning for at-risk students.  The report is part of a series produced by NACOL that explores several key issues and best practices in online and blended learning (Watson, 2008).  They define credit recovery as follows:

 

Credit recovery refers to a student passing, and receiving credit for, a course that the student previously attempted but was unsuccessful in earning academic credit towards graduation. Credit recovery often differs from ‘first time credit’ in that the students have already satisfied seat time requirements for the course in which they were unsuccessful, and can focus on earning credit based on competency of the content standards for the particular course (Watson, 2008, p 3).

This definition of credit recovery will serve as the working definition for the remainder of this chapter.  It is important to note the last half of this definition, particularly that credit is earned based on the student’s competency in regards to the standards set by the course.  Traditional, in-person classes do not give credit in this way. A student must sit through the course for a predetermined amount of time–a quarter, semester, trimester, or year–and only then will they have earned the credit.  For credit recovery, no such time limits or restrictions are in place. This will important in Section Two of this chapter.

The report’s central finding was that high school students were more likely to earn a C or higher grade in an online course rather than an in-person course.  These results held true for online courses that were classified as “credit recovery” as well as regular online courses.

At this point, there has been little formal, quantitative research on the success rates of online credit recovery courses.  In subsequent sections, several qualitative resources will be examined in greater detail. The following study was one of the few that approached this topic from a quantitative perspective.  The Institute of Education Sciences of the United States Department of Education published a report in late 2015 that represented the results of a study of online credit recovery versus traditional courses.  The report was produced in tandem with Florida State University and the study only represents students in grades 9 through 12 in the state of Florida (Hughes, 2015). The report’s central finding was that high school students were more likely to earn a C or higher grade in an online course rather than an in-person course.  These results held true for online courses that were classified as “credit recovery” as well as regular online courses (Hughes, 2015). The researchers note that this does not prove that online learning is better or more effective than in-person classes; rather, there are a number of factors that affect who chooses to enroll in online classes and why.  This study did not measure the difficulty or rigor of the coursework, nor did it independently measure student learning. The only measure used were the students’ letter grades, which the researchers note can be extremely subjective (Hughes, 2015).

Many schools, facing the difficult reality of keeping their students in school long enough to earn a diploma, are turning to resources such as online credit recovery to give struggling students additional paths to graduation before they abandon the journey altogether.

Interestingly, though the results overall indicated that students were more successful in online courses (or at least more likely to get a C or higher), these results were not true for the subgroup of students who were classified as “English learners” by the researchers (Hughes, 2015, p 10).  These students were more likely to do as well online as in person or worse, not better like other subgroups. The only other subgroup that displayed this trait was students who were eligible for the free school lunch program (Hughes, 2015). Though this was only one study and far from comprehensive, it is worth noting these results.  Later sections of this chapter will focus more on English learning students and how online credit recovery is used to help them catch up or otherwise graduate on time.

Many definitions of online credit recovery are constructed around the concept of the “at-risk student.”  This term can and often is used widely and without parameters. For the purposes of this chapter, the definition put forth in the NACOL report will be used.  For at-risk students, “there isn’t universal agreement about the nature of the risk itself, most educators would concur that the ultimate risk is that the student will exit from his or her K-12 education before successfully completing it” (Watson, 2008, p 4).  The student could fail to complete their K-12 education for a variety of reasons–dropping out, failing out, expelled or forced to leave–but the result is the same. Many schools, facing the difficult reality of keeping their students in school long enough to earn a diploma, are turning to resources such as online credit recovery to give struggling students additional paths to graduation before they abandon the journey altogether.

*    *    * 

 

As Elena looked down at her new schedule, the realization of what this would cause her to sacrifice started to sink in. “I’m going to be in school until 6:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday!?” She told her friends, “When am I supposed to find time to do my homework or go to my job.” Javier, a student also in credit recovery, chimed in. “It’s not good what they are doing to us. I can’t play soccer anymore and my team is about to make it the the State playoffs. I didn’t even sign up for this shit. I just got handed a new schedule without a choice.”

“That’s the same thing that happened to me.” Elena replied. “I have no idea how I’m going to care for my family or have time to take care of myself.”  There’s no way, I’m going to be able to make it through the last semester with this new schedule.

After lunch period had ended, she started walking to her 7th hour class. She followed the exact same procedure she had every single day, the familiar droll of her teacher, Mr. Crawford, had almost become background noise at this point. “Don’t forget your binder! Make sure you get your pencil, so you all can get to work. It’s like you want me to be mad at you.” His directions barely registered at this point. Elena started on her bell work, but was interrupted by Mr. Crawford’s voice.

“Elena, what are you doing here?”

“Mister, this is my seat.”

“It used to be your seat, but you are not in my class anymore, they removed you earlier today.”

“What do you mean.”

“Did you get a new schedule today?”

“Yeah…”

“Can I see it?” He said. She handed him her schedule and as he glanced over it, she could tell he was agitated.

“They did it again. Well, it looks like you’ve been pulled from your ESL classes. So you’re taking regular English. You’re supposed to be in Ms. Elicio’s class in the 2000 building.”

Elena was shocked. She knew that this last semester was going to be rough, but without the support of her peers and ESL teachers she wasn’t sure she could make it through to the end of the semester.

II.

As mentioned in the previous section, the focus of the chapter will now start to be honed in to a particular group in Arizona. In order to set the stage for some of the problems facing English as a Second Language (ESL) Learners in credit recovery programs, it’s necessary to view the type of pressure schools are put under for increasing and maintaining graduation rates.

Currently, Arizona is in the midst of creating an “accountability system” for their schools to measure the overall success of each individual school compared to those around it. While parents are being urged to not only consider a school’s letter grade when enrolling students, it’s easy to see the connection between a school’s high letter grade and increased enrollment. Due to this correlation, administrators across Arizona are put under intense scrutiny and pressure by Districts to hit ever-changing markers dictated by the state. The A-F rating scale is currently:

• 50% AZmerit Growth and Passing Rates (a state-run standardized test)
• 10% English Language Learners improvement on the AZELLA test ( a state-run standardized test)
• 20% College and Career Readiness (State Standards in Arizona)
• 20% Graduation Rates

The Board of Education in Arizona is in the process of adjusting the grading scale, but no formalized plan has been released to the public (Cano, 2017, p 1).

Schools in Arizona, and across the United States, receive funding based off of enrollment but in Arizona in particular, there have been increased incentives for parents to send their students to Charter Schools. Arizona has created a tax-credit program for parents to receive $5,000 per student per year if they attend a private or Charter school. This is money taken away from public education all while state funding for education is decreasing and is currently at a lower rate than the Great Recession in 2008 (Barnum, 2017, p.1).

The state has increased the pressure for schools to improve graduation rates and online credit recovery programs can be viewed as a savior for struggling schools. “Such programs can be a lifeline, as schools can be punished or closed if they fail too many students and graduate too few. Schools and districts also stand to lose per-pupil funds when students drop out. If online courses can serve as an affordable means of keeping a student in school, there’s a financial incentive for embracing them” (Carr, 2014, p. 32). While online courses can serve as a benefit for schools to increase graduation rates, some students, specifically ESL students, can be neglected or mistreated for the sake of artificially improving a school’s letter grade.

ESL students were less likely to earn a C or better in online courses compared to face-to-face programs.

While the story of Elena is a fictitious representation of a student, her story embodies the story off many ESL students: who while approaching their final semester are pulled from ESL classes, only to be placed in general education courses and in online credit recovery. While the success rates of ESL students tends to remain the same across grades 9-11, the success rate decreases for seniors (See Figure 1). (Hughes, Zhou, Petscher, 2015, pg. 10)

In this particular study, ESL students were less likely to earn a C or better in online courses compared to face-to-face programs. When results and graduation rates are the main goal, many students are being forced into situations they are not able to cope or handle. In fact, if an ESL student desires to attend community college or a university, they must pass a language exam TESOL. If they are unable to pass this exam then they are required to take remedial language courses before they can begin their degree. This puts a financial strain on students, where if they had stayed an additional year in ESL courses it is possible they would have been given the support needed to pass and begin their degree.

While students may not be deterred from the consequences of online credit recovery programs, many educators have issues with the students ability to cope with the tediousness of online education. “CR teachers were significantly less likely to agree or strongly agree their students were technically prepared to be successful in their online courses (43.8%) compared to honors teachers” (Oliver and Kellogg, 2014, pg. 204). For schools who have a tendency to push students through in order to hit graduation improvement, there has to be a hard look at the data of success rates at ESL students. Historically, there have been innumerable civil rights issues towards minorities in the U.S. School system and it’s not safe for students for schools to operate without strict accountability through data for the programs they operate. For schools in a lower socioeconomic areas tend to be more susceptible to sub-par online credit recovery programs due to a general lack of resources available to students.

Historically, there have been innumerable civil rights issues towards minorities in the U.S. School system and it’s not safe for students for schools to operate without strict accountability through data for the programs they operate.

 

Unfortunately, in a recent study, Oliver, Osborne, Patel, and Kleiman (2009) found that CR students self-reported significantly lower technical skills when compared with accelerated students, possibly explained by their lack of equitable access to technology resources and instruction, a related barrier for at-risk students. Brown (2000) noted that not only were these students less likely to have access to physical resources at home and school, but their use of computers at school was more likely to emphasize drill and practice software resulting in a less challenging curriculum (Oliver and Kellogg, 2014, pg 193).

A subject of contention is the lack of resources students in lower-socioeconomic areas receive compared to students  who have the capability to do online work in their home. Oliver and Kellogg found many students were relying strictly on school resources, removing the capability to go through courses at their own pace, which can be a huge draw for students in online credit recovery. In addition, the emphasis on drill and practice software can lead to widespread cheating among students and less challenging curriculum overall. Again, the goal of education is to educate students not to increase graduation rates. If students who progress through these programs are not prepared for future academic endeavors, then these types of programs need to experience widespread changes. If students were caught doctoring their course grades in order to get into college or receive more funding, they would expelled or severely punished. So what happens to schools who artificially improve graduation rates?

*    *    * 

 

Elena sighed, “It’s only Monday?” She had already been at school for six hours and still had three more hours to go. She was barely passing her new classes and was still playing catch up in her English class. “Ms. Elicio is nice and all, but she talks so fast I can’t even understand her.” she said in between bites of her pepperoni pizza. “I have this big ol’ essay due tomorrow and I can’t even understand the directions.”

“Did you ask her for help” said Javier.

“It’s too late to do that.”

“Why didn’t you do that sooner pendaja?”

“You know my schedule! I get to school at 8–”

“You never get here that early!” He laughed.

“Okay you’re right, but I get here at some time and I don’t leave until 6:30 p.m. and Ms. Elicio only lets her students come in for help after school or during lunch. But guess what? I’m stuck going to my other classes after school and Ms. Elicio’s lunch doesn’t even line up with mine!” The weight of the world seemed to crash down on her shoulders.

“Elena, girl relax, you just got to do it on the weekend.”

She turned towards him, her eyes heavy with exhaustion. “…you know I have to work on the weekends to help out my mom and dad. I literally have no idea how I’m going to survive this semester.”

That afternoon instead of working on her online classes, she wrote out a paper she knew would get torn apart by Ms. Elicio. She thought about taking it to Mr. Crawford for proofing, but didn’t have the time to redo it. After eight hours in classes and two hours of typing Elena could finally print off her paper. It was nowhere near the word requirement, but it was the best she could do.

Two weeks later, when she walked into Ms. Elicio’s class and saw a note on her desk. “Elena, please see me after class.” Elena’s heart beat faster than a kick drum at a metal concert. She tried to sneak out the door when the bell rang, but Ms. Elicio stopped her.

“Elena, can I talk to you for a minute.”

“As if I had a choice…” Elena mumbled.

“What was that?”

“Nothing! Be right there.”

Ms. Elicio looked exasperated, she was holding up Elena’s essay like a dirty diaper. Elena could see the stains of red ink even from a distance.

“Elena, I just have one question for you…do you even care that you’re in danger of failing my class? Because after reading this paper, I’m thoroughly convinced–”

Elena’s eyes began to glaze over, she had received the speech at least twice a month since joining her class. Her jaw set firm, she wasn’t going to give Ms. Elicio the satisfaction of seeing her upset. “Three more weeks she told herself.” She snapped back just as Ms. Elicio was finishing her speech.

“I mean, I know you entered in late in the semester, but what on God’s green earth were they teaching you? Do you know anything about syntax, tone, or even basic grammar for that matter?!” Ms. Elicio snarled, “You’re lucky I even dignified this with a grade.”

She flung the paper towards Elena like a cat playing with a dead mouse. “Do you have anything to say for yourself?”

Elena replied, unfaltering.“I’ll do better Miss.”

“Sure…that’s what they all say but it’s May and we all know what seniors are like in May. It’s like you want me to be upset. By the way, you’re currently holding on for dear life at a 61% and no… I don’t offer extra credit. You better get to your next class because I’m not writing you a pass.”

The next three weeks went by in a blur, Elena felt like every teacher was either disappointed or enraged with her performance, but she was trying as hard as she could. And plus, she was still passing and at this point she had one goal…Survive. Her dreams of attending a University had long since passed her grades were far too low. Her only hope now was to pass her online courses so she could attend a community college and be the first in her family to graduate from college. Her mother’s words echoed in her ears, “Mija, eres un modelo a seguir para tus hermanos. La razón por la que vinimos a Estados Unidos fue por una vida mejor. No tires eso.” (You are a role model for your siblings. The reason we came to America was for a better life. Don’t throw it away.)

“I’ll be better.” Elena whispered.

III.

Though online credit recovery is often promoted as a means to increase student success via timely graduation, there significant ethical issues to take into account.  Consider the case of a Florida high school in Pinellas County. The district offers credit recovery for middle and high school students through the Graduation Enhancement Program (GEP).  The program prioritizes enrolling students “at-risk seniors in danger of not graduating” and “at-risk juniors who need to get back on track prior to the senior year” though the program may also enroll any student as young as seventh grade as deemed necessary by the school administration” (“Educational Alternative,” 2018).  Beginning in 2016, a local news station began investigating claims that the school district had altered test scores of students enrolled in online credit recovery courses to improve the school’s graduation rate.

Investigative reporting by Adam Walser first covered claims of cheating on online credit recovery courses in the Clearwater school district in Pinellas County.  The primary sources for this investigation were interviews with anonymous teachers and documents–gradebooks, scores–showing that student scores were being falsified, either by other teachers or administrators (Walser, 2016a).

The whistle-blowers claimed that on multiple occasions, student test grades were altered after completion to reflect a score of 80–the minimum score required to pass the course.

The claims of cheating go back as far as 2015, when students reported the issue to the local police, who then turned the investigation over to the school district itself (Walser, 2016b). The documents shared with the investigative team are not publicly available, so they cannot be reproduced here.  The whistle-blowers claimed that on multiple occasions, student test grades were altered after completion to reflect a score of 80–the minimum score required to pass the course (Walser, 2016b).  Additional records show that students were completing 6-12 week courses in a span of just a few days, earning the required grade to receive credit and graduate on time.  While these allegations were initially dismissed by the school district, a 2017 report from a forensic fraud examiner confirmed some of the initial allegations.  One of the most shocking indictments was against one particular teacher who had altered student grades approximately 1,500 times during the 2014-2015 school year–always passing the student with the minimum grade of 80 (Walser, 2017).

While it may be tempting to classify what happened in Florida as an isolated incident–and that is what it seems the Clearwater school district is trying to do by focusing attention on the one teacher mentioned above–there are other cases of online credit recovery falling into murky ethics.  The Department of Education for the state of New York completed an internal audit in 2012, and found nine schools using credit recovery inappropriately–whether intentional or not (Cramer, 2012). These schools were not in compliance with state policy regarding credit recovery. This included cheating and altering of test scores as well as students completing credit recovery courses in a fraction of the time, just as in Clearwater schools in Florida.  As a result of this investigation, the Department of Education implemented new rules for online credit recovery that increased state oversight and district accountability.

 

Under the new rules, students will be allowed to earn no more than three credits in the four academic subjects through credit recovery, and the makeup work must take place in the semester or summer after the course is failed. Schools will be allowed to use online credit recovery programs only if the city has pre-approved them. And the teacher who originally issued the failing grade must weigh in on the decision of whether to grant a student credit for make-up work (Cramer, 2012).

While these changes may have helped schools and students in the state of New York, such oversight and regulation has not happened on a national level.  Individual states are still able to make their own decisions about how to administer and supervise (or not) credit recovery methods.

89% of schools offered at least one online credit recovery course as of the 2014-15 school year.

In addition to the potential ethical concerns with online credit recovery, there is still the obvious but understated fact that it is a fairly new technology, and there is still a significant gap in educational research on this topic.  The United States Department of Education concluded in 2015 that it could neither discuss the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of online credit recovery in regard to improving graduation rates because none of the available research met the strict standards of the Department’s methodology. (“Credit Recovery Programs,” 2015).  Just three years later in March of 2018, the Department released another report on credit recovery, but again declined to comment on its effectiveness or ineffectiveness (“Issue Brief: Credit Recovery,” 2018). The 2018 report did not make a claim regarding the effectiveness of online credit recovery, but it did complete a national survey in order to determine what types of schools and populations were making use of it.  This survey is representative of the United States public school system, with data being collected via random sampling. Its key findings include:

• 89% of schools offered at least one online credit recovery course as of the 2014-15 school year.
• High poverty schools were more likely to offer credit recovery courses than wealthy schools.
• 87% of credit recovery students were in the courses due to academic problems.

What these data points illustrate is that students enrolled in online credit recovery are in some way vulnerable–whether that is due to poor academic performance, socioeconomic status, or some other barrier that has prevented them from doing well in traditional classes.  Schools are quickly adopting online credit recovery as a means to reach these students. With all that is at stake, it is imperative for schools to put in more effort, not less, to ensuring that these programs are truly serving their students and not just their bottom line.

*    *    * 

 

Spring and summer passed in a blur of heat and little sleep.  Elena had successfully graduated high school on time with her classmates.  Commencement was held on a warm Sunday in early June on the football field.  The students sat in folding chairs arranged near the center field line, while parents and guests sat on the home team bleachers.  As the program droned on, she squirmed in her seat, the uncomfortable polyester gown sticking to her skin. The mortarboard shaded her face from the sun, so there was little comfort.  Everyone fanned themselves with the folded programs.

Elena could see the high school staff sitting in neat rows behind the podium.  She spotted Mr. Grady, smiling contentedly though he was clearly sweating through his green button-down shirt.  Mr. Crawford and Ms. Elicio were there too, sitting on opposite ends of the back row.

When thinking about her graduation day in the following months, Elena did not remember much about the actual event–the speeches, the school song–but she did remember what happened after.  She had found her family in the crowd of people all looking for their own students. Her parents were standing with her younger brothers. It was obvious that her mother had been crying. Her father hugged her and whispered in her ear, “We are so proud of you, mija.”  She handed him her diploma and wondered if this piece of paper in a cheap cover was worth all of this.

Elena worked all through the summer to earn money to help pay for her college classes.  She had reluctantly enrolled at a community college within driving distance of her hometown.  In July, she visited the campus and met with admissions, financial aid, and academic advising in the span of a few hours–a whirlwind of information that left her feeling dizzy.  She also had to take a test to determine her English language skills since she spoke Spanish at home and had been an ESL student in high school (TOEFL). After completing the test, she met with her advisor to create a schedule that matched her test scores.

“Elena, based on your test, we are going to put you in English 1050.  It’s a remedial course, but don’t stress about that. Lots of students have to take these types of courses.  It could possibly affect your degree timeline, but we’ll see how things go.”

“What’s that mean, the ‘degree timeline’?”

“The amount of time it takes for you to finish college with a bachelor’s degree.  For many students, it takes four years, but sometimes it can take a little longer, especially if the student has to take remedial courses.  For most of our students in remedial classes, they can graduate in five or six years.”

Elena felt deflated.  Six years? Remedial classes?  She left the advisor’s office with a class schedule and a feeling of defeat, just as she had left Mr. Grady’s office months before.  She felt like she was going in circles.  She felt like nothing had changed.

IV.

While there are countless stories of online credit recovery course success stories and some states and school districts make more of a substantial effort, it’s important for the reader to understand the implications of large policy on the individual.

Jill Shalongo was gracious enough to be interviewed about her experience and perception of these online credit recovery programs have on her students. Mrs. Shalongo currently teaches at Alhambra High School, a Title 1 school in the inner-city of Phoenix, Arizona. Alhambra has a globally diverse selection of students and at any time on campus, there are over 50 languages being represented by the student population. Alhambra has one of the largest English Language Learning populations in the state encompassing around 300 students from Pre-Emergent (beginner) to Intermediate (Advanced) students. In Ms. Shalongo’s class, there are DREAMers and refugees, each day she successfully navigates the intricacies of educating displaced youth who have gone through catastrophic and traumatic experiences with compassion and dedication.

Please take the time to watch the video and consider what changes have to be made in order for stories like this to become an anomaly, not the norm.

Overall, this is one story in many of an educator seeing her students search for value in their education. It’s every educators’ job to produce and curate content that has value for their students and the responsibility of academia to evaluate and investigate programs like online credit recovery based off their merit, not on their promises.

If you would like more information on Alhambra High School, you can look at this article written in 2015 by Phoenix New Times “School of Babel” from 2014 or another video with Jill and one of her students.

References

Barnum, M. (2017, September 18). The rise of tax credits: How Arizona created an alternative to school vouchers — and why they’re spreading. Chalk Beat [National]. Retrieved from https://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/us/2017/09/18/the-rise-of-tax-credits-how-arizona-created-an-alternative-to-school-vouchers-and-why-theyre-spreading/

Cano, R. (2017, April 24). Arizona Board of Education adopts A-F grading system for schools. The Arizona Republic [Phoenix]. Retrieved from https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-education/2017/04/24/arizona-board-education-letter-grade-system-schools/100618610/

Cramer, P. (2012, February 23).  City alters Regents grading credit recovery policies after audit.  Chalk Beat.  Retrieved from
https://ny.chalkbeat.org/posts/ny/2012/02/23/city-alters-regents-grading-credit-recovery-policies-after-audit/

Credit Recovery Definition. (2013, August 29). Retrieved from https://www.edglossary.org/credit-recovery/

Educational Alternative. (n.d.). Pinellas County Schools. Retrieved from https://www.pcsb.org/domain/1614

Hughes, J., Zhou, C., & Petscher, Y. (2015). Comparing success rates for general and credit recovery courses online and face to face: Results for Florida high school courses (REL 2015– 095). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Regional Educational Laboratory Southeast. Retrieved from http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/edlabs.

Oliver, K. & Kellogg, S. (2015). Credit Recovery in a Virtual School: Affordances of Online Learning for the At-Risk Student. Journal of Online Learning Research. 1 (2), pp. 191-218. Waynesville, NC USA: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE).  Retrieved from https://www.learntechlib.org/p/149111/

U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, What Works Clearinghouse (2015, May). Dropout Prevention intervention report: Credit recovery programs. Retrieved from http://whatworks.ed.gov

U.S. Department of Education, Office for Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development (2018, March). Issue brief: Credit recovery.  Retrieved from https://www2.ed.gov/rschstat/eval/high-school/credit-recovery.pdf

Walser, A. (2016, October 3a). Emails from Pinellas County Schools Official trigger investigation into GradPoint cheating. ABC Action News: Tampa Bay.  Retrieved from https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/local-news/i-team-investigates/emails-from-pinellas-county-schools-official-trigger-investigation-into-gradpoint-cheating

Walser, A. (2017, May 4).  GradPoint review by District confirms concerns about irregularities uncovered by I-Team. ABC Action News: Tampa Bay.  Retrieved from https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/local-news/i-team-investigates/gradpoint-review-by-district-confirms-concerns-about-irregularities-uncovered-by-i-team

Walser, A. (2016, October 3b).  Investigation launched after I-Team obtains email saying “Clearwater has been cheating for years.” ABC Action News: Tampa Bay.  Retrieved from https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/local-news/i-team-investigates/investigation-launched-after-i-team-obtains-email-saying-clearwater-has-been-cheating-for-years

Walser, A. (2016, October 4). I-Team: Police and district investigated reports of cheating involving GradPoint at another school. ABC Action News: Tampa Bay.  Retrieved from https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/local-news/i-team-investigates/i-team-police-and-district-investigated-reports-of-cheating-involving-gradpoint-at-another-school

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