Article Summary

            Online Credit Recovery: Enrollment and Passing Patterns in Montana Digital Academy Courses is a study that looked at student passage rates using an online credit recovery course. In Montana, they have a digital academy that is set up for students that need to recover credit from failing a class or take an elective that may not be offered at their school. Montana has a hard time getting some teachers in the more remote areas so the online classes have helped make available classes that these students would otherwise not be able to attend. The trend that has been see when using online credit recovery in any state has seen about 30 to 60 percent passage.

            This survey was derived from nine interviews including one representative form MTDA and eight school districts in Montana. The MTDA provided their students identifier, district, grade level subject matter and the grade in the course. This was done in a secure way as to not compromise students’ privacy.

            At the Montana Digital Academy (MTDA), students are provided with and environment that address problems like technical issues, monitoring academic issues, daily access, create a regularly scheduled time to work and offer on-site exam proctoring. These are all reasons that some students fail classes. The reason this study came about is because of the lack of students passing and Montana wanted to know ways to get those rates up.

            This study found that the overall passing rate is 57 percent. The poll was from 2,452 students that were male and female and were in grades 9 through 12. English language arts account for the highest enrollment which is a class that Montana students are required to get four credits of. The remaining enrollments were math, social studies and science.  Among students that were enrolled in one course, about 60 percent failed or dropped the course. Students that took more than one course, which had to have approval from the district, had a 68 percent with two courses, 82 percent with three courses and 85 percent for four courses.

            There are a few reasons that the study found for students failing. The first is that these courses are aligned with the Common Core standards which seem more difficult and demanding. Also some face to face classes are not aligned so the students trying to recover credit may never see these kinds of practices. Another aspect is that when students fail the class first it is usually from poor academic behaviors like not coming to school or not completing class work which seems to carry over even for online classes. Another area that could be a problem if a school does not provide a period for the student to work on the class these students have a higher chance of failing.

Article Evaluation

            This study and article were done very well. The information is clear with statistics that were calculated correctly. There were numerous charts that easily showed the information. Appendixes were also included to explain the study methodology and the interview questions. I was able to review the questions and see what was asked. This article talked about some of the limitation. It seems as though the only issues came because the lack of data that they were able to use. Also they were not able to look at other programs that are implemented in the state. All sections were labeled well so I knew exactly where to look for the information that I needed.

            A few things that puzzled me. First they did not do any deeper statistics. The charts are easy to read but it is basic math. I am not a statistician but from looking at these articles ANOVA seems popular as well as other statistics. The other aspect was they did not contact the students. Since these students are passing or failing, I thought they would ask them about the challenges or what was helpful.

            These two things do not make me question the result. After being a credit recovery teacher, the findings seem to fall in line with the students that I have. The study seems to be done really well so I do not question the results.

            I could use this study while discussing Quality Matter as to why the content is so important. I could also use it to keep in mind reasons students fail. I think these reasons follow suite in the college setting of a remedial class. This could help me in either one of these directions.

Article Citation

Stevens, D., Frazelle, S., Bisht, B., & Hamilton, R. (2016, June). Online credit recovery: Enrollment and passing patterns in Montana Digital Academy courses. Regional Educational Laboratory Northwest. Retrieved October 4, 2016.