District Administration - October 2009 - (Page 44)

Reaching Graduation with Credit Recovery Crisis 2009: Closing the Graduation Gap, a report issued this year by America’s Promise Alliance, a nonprofit founded in 1997 by Gen. Colin Powell and his wife, Alma Powell. Driven by government requirements to produce better results, more districts are using credit recovery programs to help students in trouble get back on track and boost achievement levels for the students and districts alike. While some districts rely on traditional face-to-face interaction between teachers and students, many are adopting online solutions offered by commercial vendors, and others are implementing programs that blend face-to-face and online instruction. Some create their own programs from free online resources and their own curricula. In some states, education agencies and virtual schools provide complete programs. However districts do it, the objective is the same: to give students who have failed courses because of poor grades or absenteeism, or who have dropped out of school, a chance to recover the credits they have lost so that they can move on to the next grade and ultimately to graduation. Whatever credit recovery models districts use, education authorities agree that teachers play key roles. “Having an instructor on hand to help if the student is not understanding something is vital,” asserts Patrick. But “on hand” means different things in different models. Face-to-Face Although it has an online component, the credit recovery program in the Jackson (Mich.) Public Schools is based largely on personal classroom interaction between teachers and students. It’s the best way to help students who have “burned a lot of bridges” through academic failure, absenteeism, and disciplinary issues in and out of school, says Superintendent Daniel Evans. “We’re working now with a girl who has been expelled from school three times, going back to seventh grade, and has been in and out of juvenile homes. The local court is asking us what we can do for her,” Evans says. 44 October 2009 Florida Virtual High School teachers undergo quarterly, face-to-face training sessions to brush up on their teaching skills. She and other students who need credit recovery participate in SAFE (Student Alternative for Expulsion), a program the district operates Monday through Thursday after regular school hours, from 3:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. in its Alternative High School. Two days are devoted to English and two to math. On both kinds of days, students spend half the time face-to-face with certified regular classroom teachers, who drill them on the basics of the courses teachers, certified in their specialties, who are paid $32 per hour for their additional credit recovery work, according to Evans. Smoots, who has 37 years of teaching and administrative experience, mostly in alternative education, says he is paid about the same. The credit recovery team also includes a special education teacher for students who have developmental or medical issues and a “behavior coordinator” who takes attendance and monitors the program’s “If they don’t want to work, or are sleeping in class, or start posing an attitude with a teacher, they’ll be dropped.” —Bob Smoots, director, SAFE, Jackson (Mich.) Public Schools they must pass, sometimes using textbooks and other printed materials, including novels for reading instruction. After a halfhour break for exercise in the school gym and bagged meals the district provides, the students go into the school’s computer lab to continue their work on curricula from the Michigan Virtual School with regular classroom teachers in the lab answering any questions from the students. “If they were doing all of this online, they would have to e-mail their questions to the teachers and wait for them to respond online,” says Bob Smoots, a retired Jackson principal who directs the program. “Because the kids we work with are behind in their subject areas, especially reading and writing, they have a lot of trouble with that, including the spelling and typing to send a message. With their teachers right here, they can get their questions answered right away.” The teachers are regular classroom rigid requirements, including “zero tolerance” on behavior and required attendance for at least 80 percent of the semester-long program. If students leave before 8 p.m., it counts as an absence and “we call their parents to let them know,” Smoots says. Most of the 20-30 students in the program every semester have serious problems, including previous expulsions. Some are on court-ordered probation for criminal offenses. To get into the program, they must meet with Evans and at least one member of the Jackson Board of Education. Smoots also interviews “every kid and a parent” and spells out the rules, making it clear that “if they don’t want to work, or are sleeping in class, or start posing an attitude with a teacher, they’ll be dropped.” About half the students are dropped, mostly because of attendance. “They’ll come for a while and just quit,” Smoots says. The other half complete the program and gain the credits they came District Administration

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - October 2009

District Administration - October 2009
Contents
From the Editor
News Update
Security
College Prep
Stimulus Monitor
Administrator Profile
Professional Opinion
Crisis Response
Tech Disruptions
Digital Classrooms Take Flight
Measuring Success in Harrisburg
Reaching Graduation with Credit Recovery
Almost There?
Back to School for Retired Baby Boomers
Problem Solution
New Products
Product Focus
How Well Does This Web Site Work?
Understanding the Times

District Administration - October 2009