Published: July 01, 2009 11:35 pm      

Recovery program helps students regain lost credits

Helping students to stay in school is a challenge every school district faces, but a program offered through Goodwill Industries of the Conemaugh Valley Inc. is working to ensure that each student receives a diploma.

The nonprofit organization launched its credit-recovery program to help students make up courses they missed or failed so they can increase their odds of graduating on time.

Courses are set up lesson-to-lesson, unit-to-unit, midterm-to-final and semester-to-semester.

Completing a course in Pennsylvania requires 60 hours – students spend

52 hours in class and another eight doing homework. A majority of the work is done online, and the courses are provided by commercial distributors.

“Credit recovery is not a new concept and it’s been done for years, but the way it is done today has changed immensely due to online courses,” said Mary Lou Wyandt, the credit-recovery instructor and a career planner in the youth division at Goodwill.

Twenty-four students at Forest Hills High School recently completed a summer session. Three were seniors who would not have received diplomas without the assistance of the program. Sophomores and juniors were able to retake classes they had failed.

“It’s been quite successful, and the results are encouraging,” Wyandt said.

Forest Hills uses Educational Options for its credit-recovery curriculum. Classes include all major subjects, such as English, math, science, social studies and foreign languages.

“Everything is geared toward a specific grade level,” Wyandt said.

“The classes are challenging, and the students know they are repeating a course and they should come prepared to repeat that course.”

Forest Hills Superintendent Don Bailey said the program is helping some students get their academic careers back on track.

“Hopefully, in the future this will help us with dropout prevention because kids who don’t recover a class or two for whatever reason often fall behind and find it useless to keep trying,” he said.

Plans are to expand the district’s program to more students and offer evening classes in the fall.

“This is a benefit to the students so they can stay in school and graduate,” Bailey said.

Wyandt added that other school districts are expressing interest in implementing a credit-recovery curriculum in their schools.

“I have a feeling this will be catching on,” she said.

For more information on the credit-recovery program, call 533-2493, ext. 286.