online credit recovery
TRANSCRIPT
Education is the only business still debating the usefulness of technology. Schools remain unchanged for the most part, despite numerous reforms and increased investments in computers and networks.
U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige
The Context We have 2500 students Nearly 30% fail a course each semester Over 144 students received 4 or more
“F”s last semester Diverse student body Technology Academy “laptop program”
where scores range between 17 & 35% above counterparts in other areas
Traditional Remedial Program We have English and Social Studies
Workshop courses for student who had failed
The failure rates of those programs hovered around 50%
So, obviously, they were not effective
Math students simply stayed in a second semester of a class they failed or waited a year and became a year behind.
Changes to the Traditional Program Reduced “workshop” class size limits from
30 to 17
Failure rate dropped to 34% for R/W/W and 23% for SSW
Students who failed a course requiring the mastery of earlier skills were not sent forward (math and foreign language)
Options Students could attend night
school classes Summer school classes were
also available Correspondence courses
were used
None allowed these students to really “catch up”
Online Habits of Our Students
71% of online teens say they relied mostly on Internet sources for the last big project they did for school.
48% say their use of the Internet improves their relationship with friends.
94% of online teens report using the Internet for school-related research.
74% of online teens use instant messaging. 24% of online teens have created their own Web pages. The number of children ages 4 to 18 who own at least one
wireless device (e.g. cell phones, PDAs) grew from 32% in 2002 to 43% in 2003.
13% of those age 7 and under own a wireless device
Online Option Novel/STARS
www.novelstars.com http://www.edoption.com
Piloted as an after school option Added to Summer School in 2003 Added to regular school day in
January 2004
Refinement to Suit You can add additional modules,
assignments, etc. to the STARS requirements in order to better meet your school’s curricular needs.
Even with “static” courses, you ca always require additional papers, readings, etc.
What Teachers Think I remain committed to the program and
feel it is reaching students who would have otherwise dropped through the cracks.
A ZBTHS teacher
What Students Think It wasn’t bad. I didn’t like that fact we
couldn’t talk in class. I did really well. I got As and Bs.
A ZBTHS student
Math Comparisons The following statistics compare the
STARS Alg/PreAlg school day program to Accelerated Math in PreAlgebra and Traditional Classroom credit recovery in Algebra 1
Students in all classes had failed their semester 1 math course.
Math Comparisons (SY)
PassedSem.
Passed Multi. Sem.
Failed
STARS 59% 27% 13%
Accelerated Math
53% 13% 33%
Traditional Classroom
50% N/A 50%
Summer School R/R/Workshop
25 students, 4 failed 16% failure rate 21 students received a semester of credit
STARS 44 students, 4 failed 9% failure rate 27 students received a semester of credit 14 received 2 semesters of credit 1 student received 3 semesters of credit 2 students received 4 semesters of credit
Areas for Refinement Students in second semester courses see
the opportunity to catch up, first semester students do not necessarily see that
We are going to severely restrict access to STARS first semester
If students cause problems in class, they will be returned to study hall in order to make room for another student wanting the opportunity STARS provides
Overall Impact Students experience success Students are able to graduate on
time Students are not “reclassified” due
to lack of credits Students have the opportunity to
join later in the semester and still earn credit