Robert Pondiscio raises an issue that casts doubt on the “higher-than-ever” graduation rate. How much of the increase is due to fraudulent “credit recovery” courses?
Credit recovery is undefined, but it generally means any course that enables students to gain credit for a course they failed or never completed.
Some phony courses enable students to gain credit for a semester or a full year by taking classes for a few weeks and then submitting a paper that they may or may not have written.
Some phony courses are offered online. Such courses may be dumbed down. I have heard of tests with true-false questions and tests where students could retake them until they got a passing score.
Not long ago, the the NCAA withdrew accreditation from a score of K12, Inc. high schools because their tests were so simple. An official told me that in some online courses, the students skipped the instruction and went right to the tests, which required only the skill of test-taking.
Raising the graduation rate in such ways cheats students. It should be monitored and banned.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I think they should also look into whether schools are pushing lower-scoring kids out and into online credit recovery.
They can start the investigation in Ohio 🙂
I’ve met several parents here who believe their kids were doing poorly so were counseled into online credit recovery. One parent told me her son’s (older) girlfriend did all the work in his online credit recovery course- he graduated, based on her work. This parent said the kids in the online courses openly discuss how they game the system.
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then they can go on to get Burger King jobs or work at Walmart, right?
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John King and Chancellor Merryl Tusch permitted this to go on in NY–it was blatantly abused to drive HS graduation rates higher. He will promote this fraud nationally if he has more than a few months time to replace Arne. D.
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From what I understand, these programs were based upon guessing until the correct answer was obtained. No studying, no real prep.
I agree, this increase in graduation rates is a false sense of accomplishment achieved by these unscrupulous programs allowed by the U.S. Dept of Education. These programs are incubators for giving answers, allowing inappropriate practices and employment for unqualified people. This past summer I remember reading about a student who spoke out against these programs.
Who truly cares about the lives of students in the U.S.? The NCLB rewrite will in no way improve fair and equitable education. What a travesty!
#v4kids #theworldisaclassroom
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The DOG (students/parents/culture) will ALWAYS wag the TAIL (teachers/tests/grades).
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Robert and Diane,
Thank you so very much for shedding light on this most important educational issue. For years, I have been OUTRAGED as a teacher after seeing the “dirty little secret” regarding credit recovery programs. EVERY POINT cited in this article and by Chiara is VERY TRUE and occurs on a consistent basis in schools everywhere, on a daily basis! I haven’t seen a legitimate credit recovery program yet! And in my travels, I have seen many. This is EXACTLY how Governor Nathan Deal, his Republican crony legislators, and the Georgia Department of Education have been able to “brag” about the ever-increasing graduation rates in Georgia. It has been so disappointing that the media ALWAYS reports and brags on these increases yet NEVER investigates these credit recovery programs. Therefore, the “dirty little secret” has never been exposed! What a sad, inexcusable disservice to students everywhere! Sadly, most parents don’t even realize that this disservice is happening to their children!
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GA publishes articles regularly about the ‘GAMING’ of the graduation rate increase. Again, the demands to graduate millions of kids…no matter what, schools are painted into corners – again, still…to ‘graduate’ those who can be squeezed through. Years of not letting educators do what trained educators do. It becomes ankther shell game. Lies, Lies & more Lies!
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So, low graduation rates = our students are failiing! Our lazy, entrenched, LIFO-lifer teachers aren’t doing their jobs! Schools are failing! Close them down!
High graduation rates = teachers and schools are dumbing down courses! It’s too easy for kids to graduate! Schools are failing! Close them down!
Do I have that about right?
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You got it exactly right. Everyone wants high graduation rates and rigorous schools. That is extremely difficult to do.
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I would just add (tho I know you know this) that the credit-recovery phenomenon is a natural consequence of the national scheme for a hs diploma that = “college-&-career-ready”, I.e., all kids must go to college & BTW NOT take remedial courses… while simultaneously having outsourced mfg jobs (making vo-tech hs diplomas moot & hence disappearing them)… & having outsourced customer-service et al 1st-rung corp jobs to Bangelore (making business hs diplomas moot & disappearing them)… the whole kit-&-kaboodle of today’s ‘college-&-career-ready’ hs a sham, offering hs grads unaffordable college tuitions (& long-term debt for those foolish enough to buy in) &/or the alternative of lo-paid jobs for which they must compete w/immigrants.
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Is there anyone in doubt about this? Yes, phony “credit recovery” programs are responsible for the increased “graduation” rate. It’s one more ed fraud.
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In the big picture of schools/education/teaching/learning, the over-arching effect of American culture seems to get very little play in the media. How can we continue to ignore the detrimental impacts of our current culture on student achievement? When a secondary teacher gets a whopping 40 minutes a day to over-ride the allure of American youth culture (smart phone texting, snap chatting, sexting, and insta-graming, MP3 playing, youtubing, reality TV, the porn-scape of the web, etc.), is it any wonder we come in a distant second? In the age of “instant-everything” the school demands of paying close attention, careful thought, and persistence are becoming increasing impossible realities for too many children. Now would all of you GET THE HELL OFF MY LAWN.
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I think it is important to note that (at least IMHO) the reason kids distract themselves with this digital stuff has much to do with the cognitive dissonance of being reqd to study & advance themselves vs the actual chasm of opportunity that lies beyond the hs diploma.
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I am not a fan of Pondisco, but I think he has a point. The problem is not credit recovery it is the system that closes schools based on 4 year graduation rates!! The high stakes is the culprit, the system just responded as systems do.
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This is definitely true. The sad part is the excitement I’ve witnessed surrounding credit recovery. It is great to see people achieve success, but our kids aren’t really being successful by completing these types of courses. Talk about setting kids up for failure.
In the inner city district I taught for, kids knew they would get an easy “A” or “B” in summer school “credit recovery” mathematics courses. The issue with getting these grades is that literally the only thing a student had to do was show up to school and “do some work”. This was the norm! There was no learning required! I had so many students tell me that they refused to do the work I required during the school year because they were working “too hard” to get a good grade when they could just take it in summer school, over 5 weeks. This was a normal mindset!
There is, understandably, a lot of excitement surrounding our increasing graduation rates. This is just a case of “lowering the bar”. I can’t tell anyone the number of students I’ve worked with who’ve graduated illiterate. Apparently this is a huge issue with post-secondary institutions too. I once applied for a teaching job and interviewed, and during the interview process they required me to complete a writing sample on-site with their computers. I was told that they have had many issues hiring folks with “good credentials” on paper, but found out these folks couldn’t write. The superintendent of this particular school district also commented to me, “it amazes me that people can graduate from college and not write, spell, or respond to the prompts we ask them.” I know many other people who have had this same experience with many school districts in this area.
I understand that this is a response, but it would great if schools implemented other supports to increase graduation rates and “success”. Why are our schools compromising curriculum and learning to do so? Like you said, it’s our systems in place.
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I’m not sure this is anything new. In the ’60’s, I took World History in summer school so as to free up my schedule for all my favorite stuff (in my case to make room for French AND Latin AND an advanced lit course). World History in 5 wks is a joke; I have spent yrs as an adult filling in the blanks. Such options ought not to be available.
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Is this not than some under and uneducated athletes who make a name and/or fortune for colleges, and when they are done with school are dumb as rocks and left to their own devices? And, if go into professional sports, when hurt are left with nothing, and/or make terrible decisions and mistakes along the way? There are laws to stop such a thing, yes? Why is it ok for the government and the privatizers and the profiteers to skip kids along without a proper education while raking in the $$$? Why? BECAUSE they want them kept uneducated, made dumb, and obedient (little scholars, rhymes with dollars) so they have been effectively reduced to second class citizens to serve the wealthy.
There ya go.
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Sorry; my post sounds drunken. Meant to write: Is this, not unlike……
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“I have heard of tests with true-false questions and tests where students could retake them until they got a passing score.
Not long ago, the the NCAA withdrew accreditation from a score of K12, Inc. high schools because their tests were so simple. An official told me that in some online courses, the students skipped the instruction and went right to the tests,” I observed this with my neighbor’s son . He is now 30 so it was a few years back. I watched every week and that is how he passed the tests. He did not read anything in the literature . My neighbor and her son thought this was an accomplishment but it was absolutely phony. It has left my memory which on line system he used.
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I’ve seen plenty of this over the years, both at the secondary and post-secondary levels.
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Creative grading schemes abound in the schools themselves, and many are very similar to the credit recovery examples being frowned upon in the article and in the comments (multiple guess, multiple retakes until the student improves upon their original (failing or less than impressive) grade, etc…
But until the instruction and expectations change in the classrooms, this is the norm and the reason we are churning out young adults without the literacy and math skills they need to succeed after leaving high school.
But Lord forbid we ask them to take a standardized test to assess their proficiency… Not that the tests themselves are not without some flaws, since the NYS REGENT exams are but smoke and mirrors with the built in curve of typically about 20 points for many of the exams.
But at least those that are semi informed are aware of this and can rest assured that at least they can try to build in the remedial instructional needs if they were to somehow fail the exam.
Our personal experience has been such that unless a student doesn’t have a pulse in class, they have an opportunity that pretty much guarantees they wiil graduate, even if lacking in abilities such as skill sets for reading, writing or math. Pretty much… the only possible way to fail is to just not show up routinely for classes. And aside from that, their chance for graduation remain high.
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