Does an Online Learning Approach to High School Credit Recovery Affect High School Graduation Rates?

High school course failure rates have increased since the COVID-19 outbreak. As school districts adjust to a “new normal,” district leaders are increasingly looking to online credit recovery as a flexible and cost-effective strategy for getting students back on track. However, some researchers and policymakers have raised concerns that online credit recovery is a tool to boost grades and graduation rates without boosting learning. This brief presents findings from a multisite randomized study of an online credit recovery model implemented in a large, urban district. Comparing the online credit recovery courses to more traditional teacher-directed credit recovery courses, we find no statistically significant effect of the online credit recovery model on graduation rates or credit accumulation. However, we cannot rule out differences between the online and teacher-directed courses, given imprecision in the estimates. We discuss how the findings add to the current debate on the promise of online credit recovery.