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  • The Back on Track Study: Using Online Courses for Credit Recovery
7 Apr 2016
Brief

Getting Back on Track: Who Needs to Recover Algebra Credit After Ninth Grade?

The Back on Track Study: Research Brief 3 of 6

Jordan Rickles, AIR
Jessica Heppen, AIR
Suzanne Taylor, AIR
Elaine Allensworth, University of Chicago
Valerie Michelman, University of Chicago
Nicholas Sorensen, AIR
Kirk Walters, AIR
Peggy Clements, AIR
The Back on Track Study was designed to provide information for districts around the country faced with decisions about offering credit recovery course options.

The Back on Track study was designed to examine whether students who took an online Algebra I credit recovery course over the summer had different educational outcomes at the end of the course than students who took a face-to-face Algebra I credit recovery course.

This brief describes the characteristics of students who failed Algebra I in ninth grade in the large urban school district where the study took place, to better understand the population of students who are served by credit recovery courses.

Key Findings

The findings presented in this brief suggest that most students who needed Algebra I credit recovery after their ninth-grade year faced multiple academic challenges, on average, compared with students who passed Algebra I:

  • Students who failed Algebra I entered high school with greater preexisting math and reading deficits.
  • Students who failed Algebra I exhibited greater school disengagement warning signs during ninth grade in terms of attendance and discipline issues.
  • Students who failed Algebra I were much more likely to have failed multiple courses during ninth grade.
Implications

For most of these students, getting back on the track toward graduation requires more than just recovering the Algebra I credit they failed to receive in ninth grade. Student who fail algebra need substantial support to address the issues that interfere with their school attendance and help them recover credit in multiple subjects. As a result, interventions designed to get students back on track for graduation after failing algebra could be more successful if they address broader issues of student academic deficits and engagement in addition to specific shortcomings in algebra content knowledge.

PDF icon Getting Back on Track: Who Needs to Recover Algebra Credit After Ninth Grade? (PDF)

Related Projects

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Project

The Back on Track Study: Using Online Courses for Credit Recovery

Students who fail Algebra I in their first year of high school are significantly less likely to graduate than students who succeed in the course. Recently, online learning has emerged as a popular strategy for providing students with the opportunity to recover course credit. This study investigated how to help students get back on track toward high school graduation.
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Jordan Rickles

Jordan Rickles

Principal Researcher
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Jessica Heppen

Senior Vice President

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