District Administration - October 2009 - (Page 46)

Reaching Graduation with Credit Recovery for, largely because of the inspiration they get in the face-to-face interaction with the program’s teachers, who are “dedicated” to their success, Smoots says. Fully Online A “huge growth” in online programs, with teachers involved but often at a distance, is the latest trend in credit recovery, according to Patrick. Many of the online programs come from state virtual schools. At the Florida Virtual School (FLVS), a district in itself, about a third of annual course enrollments are from students taking courses for credit recovery. Other Florida districts can enroll students in the FLVS, or individual students can sign up themselves with approval of their parents or guardian and a counselor in their regular school. With open enrollment, students can begin courses in any week of the year. Once enrolled, they are, in a sense, on their own to complete their credit recovery program online, whenever and wherever they want, following a curriculum that meets state and district requirements. “Our motto is ‘anytime, anyplace, any pace.’ Students are rarely on the same page at the same time,” says Pam Birtolo, chief learning officer at FLVS. “But it really should be ‘any pace, almost.’ We spend a lot of time explaining to students that ‘any pace’ denotes some forward movement. They can’t spend two years in English 1,” she adds. Although some students work more rapidly, FLVS generally expects them to complete the equivalent of a regular semester-long course in about 18 weeks. But “kids have different lives, and sometimes they need more time. We try to limit it to a total of nine extra weeks if they need that much. What we’re interested in is that they master the content,” she declares. The online courses are highly interactive, with little text and many assignments that are like mini-games. “There are different assignments that appeal to different learning modalities,” Birtolo explains. Although textbooks are required for some courses, “we have worked very hard to eliminate ancillary materials from most of our courses,” she says. 46 October 2009 Students attend a credit retrieval lab at Seabreeze High School in Volusia County (Fla.) Schools. It allows the school to offer all four subjects at the same time, so an English 4, first-semester student could be sitting next to an Algebra 1, second-semester student. Courses are taught by full-time, certified and highly qualified teachers, “just like in a bricks-and-mortar school,” says Birtolo. But they are designed so that teachers and students never meet directly, although they could if they wanted to, she says. Still, “our unique identifier is the amount of connection and contact a teacher has with a student,” which can happen by phone, Blended Approach Then there are many districts that combine face-to-face and online instruction in their credit recovery programs. “I think the blended model is the most effective because you get the best of both worlds,” says Jamie Sachs, associate director of the educational technology cooperative at the Southern Regional Education Board. “Our motto is ‘anytime, anyplace, any pace.’ Students are rarely on the same page at the same time. It really should be ‘any pace, almost.’” —Pam Birtolo, chief learning officer, Florida Virtual School e-mail and instant messaging, Birtolo says. Students can call teachers from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day, and there are scheduled monthly phone conversations between teachers, students and their parents. In addition to providing online assessments of student success, teachers conduct “discussion-based assessments” by phone during courses. “When we were in school, they were called oral exams,” Birtolo explains. Other states offer similar online programs. In Georgia, students have two options. In the Georgia Department of Education credit recovery program, students complete courses with limited teacher involvement, using Flash video presentations and Web-based learning activities. In the Georgia Virtual School, part of the state education agency’s Office of Technology Services, teachers lead the instruction using asynchronous online courses. “Kids come into a lab, they work through the material, and a teacher is there to assist them if they need it.” That’s how it works in the Omaha (Neb.) Public Schools, where computer labs in each of the district’s seven high schools are the hubs of the program. Students go to one of the labs three hours once a week for a semester to regain the credits they need. Depending on their schedules, students can go to the labs at their own schools during regular school hours or to labs at other schools from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. or 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Omaha uses a learning management system, which is an e-learning platform that allows the district to create and manage its credit recovery curriculum without installing complex programs. Instead, the district acquires some content it needs from outside sources like the National 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