Credit Recovery is helping students get back on track.
Photo by Rebecca Holt
Students are constantly stressing out about getting all their required credits to graduate. To ease the stress students carry around worrying about their grades, TJ introduced Credit Recovery to the school two years ago. “Credit Recovery is an online system where students can re-take a class that they have failed,” said Waunetta Vann, a teacher working in the Spartan S.H.I.E.L.D. tutoring center (Spartans Helping Individual Excel Learning Discover, located in room 4).
According to Vann, Credit Recovery is very helpful to students who have a full schedule and don’t have any room for classes for which they need to make up credits. “Students can come in during lunch, before school, and after school to take the online class without having to take a class out they need,” said Vann.
In order for students to benefit from Credit Recovery, they must first talk to their counselor to figure out which classes they need to graduate. “The student has six weeks to finish a session because we only have a limited amount of seats and we want everyone to get an opportunity to make up their credits,” said Liz Buffington, another teacher who works in the Spartan S.H.I.E.L.D.
When students establish which courses they need, they can take the online classes either at school in the S.H.E.I.L.D. room or at home, but students are required to take the tests in the school building. “Students must get at least an eighty percent to get a passing grade on the online course,” said Buffington. After passing a course the student gets two certificates, one to take home and one that gets put on his or her record saying that the student earned the credits needed. Students also get a “P” for passing on their transcripts, instead of a letter grade, which is what students would normally receive.
Each Credit Recovery course costs the student twenty-five dollars per session. “We recommend that students take on their courses one at a time so that they can focus and finish the course fast,” said Buffington.
Anyone who needs the help is eligible to make use of Credit Recovery. “We let seniors go first though, because they need credits sooner to graduate,” said Buffington. Credit Recovery helps many students who need the little extra assistance to graduate, because without this program some students can’t graduate on time. “If students take advantage of the program, it really does help. Last year it helped thirteen seniors graduate,” said Vann.
