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Don’t get me started on ‘credit recovery.’  Students who miss all or most of the semester in your class (or who do zero work even though they’re there) can do a little 4-8 page ‘activity’ packet and then get credit for the entire course!  I HAVE SEEN THIS MANY A TIME, MY FRIENDS…

When some teachers (like myself) resist the principals who tell us to do that, we get threatened with ‘U’ ratings and the students mysteriously get the credit added to their transcripts just like that!  Been there, done that, over four schools in the Bronx.

Why should students even have to sit through a class if they can demonstrate mastery of course content.  I’d tie credit recovery to evaluation of what students know and can do, not how many minutes they sit in a classroom or what packets they fill out. 

“Why should students even have to sit through a class if they can demonstrate mastery of course content?”

Just have them take the test before taking the course, and limit high school course registration to those courses required for graduation, and we might have the funding source for the next leg up in retirement expenses.

“Students who miss all or most of the semester in your class (or who do zero work even though they’re there) can do a little 4-8 page ‘activity’ packet and then get credit for the entire course!”

When test scores are used in teacher evaluation, are they adjusted for student attendance, parent attendance at student teacher conferences, and the effort expended on homework?  If not, why not?

I agree with some of Gideon’s statement in that mastery of a subject should make students eligible for credit, but than we may have students leaving schools in droves because those who show up find out that they only have to take a test to get their credit.  A better solution may be to pump up the course offerings so that those who can test through get credit for testing through before a course starts and they can move on to another course in the program.

As for credit recovery, I’ve seen students recover 20 credits in a school year while only attending half the school days.  Principals will do whatever it takes to improve school report card scores.  Credit recovery must be uniform if it is to be instituted and it must be based on a high standard that must be attained before credit is attained.

I agree. Let’s just test them before they enter high school so we can send them on their way as quickly as possible.  I mean we don’t offer anything other than academic courses anyway.

With the way Bloomberg and Duncan and the reformers have set it up.  School’s no longer interesting or fun. 

Seriously…demanding patience and hard work and social interaction and what it takes to become a productive respectful citizen isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Here’s your pencil, here’s your scantron.  Keep it moving, NYC.

Here is how credit recovery worked in mys school:

Kids were supposed to do two sets of online problems, 75 questions each and get a minimum grade of 75.  They were supposed to provide some sort of proof they actually did the work on their own.  When the kids didn’t do this, the number was reduced to one set of 75 questions, passing grade 65 and no proof of work required.  I know many kids had friends and private tutors do the assignments for them.  The ISS chairperson paid teachers to come in on Saturday and do the work for the children, working with the kids when the kids were supposed to be in credit recovery gym.  She told the students to sign in for gym and then go do the work. She also had them do credit recovery assignments during their regular classes.  The after school program, the one kids were attending to make up credits also allowed them to do this assignment, giving them two credits at the same time.  In reality, they did nothing.  It was a sham to make the administration look like they were doing a good job.

Littlefield

Read this and learn the truth

Although I am not quoted in Decker’s story, I spoke at the Town Hall meeting at St. Francis College. In fact, I brought evidence of alleged credit recovery fraud at the Cobble Hill school of American Studies to show Chancellor Tisch. The evidence consists of 24 portfolios revealing laughable student work in a four-day Global History course. I told the gathering that OSI closed its investigation without seeking the portfolios, but not before probing me for “employee misconduct” for possessing them. My point: in the era of inflating grad rates at any cost the Regents, NYSED, and the DOE have no incentive to prevent or prosecute phony credit recovery. Therefore, to institutionalize this practice is to guarantee continued cheating.
I told Tisch that she should take a look at my package. Although she patronizingly asked me to sit down beside her, she left the auditorium without examining the evidence or saying goodbye. Quod erat demontrandum.  (BTW, I am a current teacher not former as misidentified by Decker.)

It will also aid in lessening the over crowding….I’m impressed.

If having a student satisfy the requirements of an online course also
results in that student satisfying the same requirements as its high
school equivalent, I don’t see a problem with credit recovery in that form. A problem arises when the requirements of an online course are lower (or higher) that its high school equivalent. So, if anyone has beef with online courses, it should be with how a specific online course is designed rather than the mere idea of credit recovery courses themselves. That’s my understanding.