[Best Practices] Implementing a Courseware Credit Recovery Program

After partnering with countless districts to implement Edmentum Courseware for credit recovery needs over the years, Edmentum’s Professional Services team has noticed trends among schools across the country. We’ve gathered these implementation best practices to bring you a few things to consider while you are in the process of setting up a credit recovery program.

Credit Recovery Selection Process

First, think about what criteria you will consider for student eligibility in your credit recovery program:

• Will the student or his or her parents have to request to join?
   
• Will a teacher or a guidance counselor need to recommend the student?
   
• Will a student dipping under a certain letter grade in a certain course be granted a spot?

Once you determine eligibility and expectations, it’s helpful to have students and their parents agree to a student contract so that all parties involved understand expectations.

Time and Place

Next, let’s talk logistics. Where, when, and how will your credit recovery program be offered?

• Will your program take place during the school year or during holiday and summer breaks?
   
• If it’s during the school year, when will your program take place—before, during, or after school?
   
• In which teaching format will your program be offered? Examples include: blended learning, flipped classroom, completely virtual, or direct instruction.

Think about what would work best for both the instructors and the students who will be involved in your program. Also, remember that Courseware offers the flexibility of being completely online and mobile-friendly, which opens opportunities for your students to use different types of technology to access your credit recovery program.

Resources

Finally, let’s think about resources your school has access to in order to maintain this credit recovery program:

• Does your school have the adequate technology to support the number of students involved in the program?
   
• If courses need to be customized, who will make curriculum choices?
   
• Who will oversee and monitor student data?
   
• What happens if additional students need to be added to the program? Is the current program setup flexible enough to welcome additional students?
   
• Does your school have enough staffing to oversee this program?
   

Ultimately, our goal is to assist schools in helping their struggling students stay on track to graduation. Our Professional Services team is not only invested in leading successful onboarding and training sessions but also invested in developing successful partnerships with schools to work together to ensure that there’s a plan for success in place.

Interested in learning more? Check out the other two parts of this series: 

Part 2: [Best Practices] Keeping Your Online Credit Recovery Program on Track

Part 3: [Best Practices] Ongoing Credit Recovery Program Management

For a helpful credit recovery checklist, check out our Credit Recovery Program Planning Guide. To learn more about how our Professional Services team hopes to partner with schools, check out this blog post: A Blueprint for Success: Edmentum’s Commitment to Education Consulting, as well as this services brochure: Edmentum Consulting Overview.