The Effect of Online Versus Face-to-Face Credit Recovery in Algebra on High School Credit Accumulation and Graduation

The Back on Track study investigated the implementation and impacts of the credit recovery courses in the study. This fifth brief in the series extends the analysis presented in the first brief to compare educational outcomes through the fourth year of high school for students who took an online credit recovery course and those who took a face-to-face credit recovery course.
 

Key Findings

• Math credit accumulation was not significantly different for students in the online and face-to-face credit recovery courses. By the end of their fourth year, students in the online course and the face-to-face course were approximately one to two semester credits short, on average, of the six math semesters required for graduation: 4.6 credits for the online group and 4.7 credits for the face-to-face group.

• Graduation rates were not significantly different for students in the online and face-to-face credit recovery courses. Just under half of students (47%) in the online course and the face-to-face course graduated from high school within 4 years.