A Change MUST Happen Soon Or Our Student Will Be Left Behind
The number of students who take online courses has increased for many reasons. We know there are perks like, the ability to work at your own pace and take courses that may have otherwise been unavailable in your town, which is great. One the other hand with the loss of jobs due to Covid-19 and family income becoming inconsistent students are turning towards alternative solutions. These are non-traditional times and through these hardships, we have to consider the whole child while changing our pedagogy of teacher training, credits recovery, and chunking course work to meet the needs of the modern-day student.
Why are so many students taking credit recovery courses?
Distance Learning student watching a video on her computer
Credit recovery and access to advanced coursework are needed in all areas but are not offered everywhere. Funding, access, and opportunity are ongoing concerns that need to be addressed. According to EdWeekly; credit recovery is offered in 74% fo the nation’s high school. This is about one in every 13 high school students is a participant which is pretty high, many of our students are making up courses to get back on track for graduation. Credit recovery is not only for getting the student back on track but many students take credit recovery courses for flexibility, accessibility, cost-effective, and they may fall in the category of a non-traditional student.
The World is becoming Non-Traditional
The US Department of Education state, 74% of undergraduate students have at least one nontraditional characteristic which means that they are delaying college enrollment into postsecondary education; attending college part-time/full-time, or maybe financially independent. We must think about these things and consider questions like; how have we changed our practices, how have we developed new pipelines for students, and how can we make a more seamless transition from kindergarten to college?
Childtrends.org
According to the 2009 administration, there were ideals put in place identify every student received what the needed to be successful:
Preschool: Everyone deserves preschool and funding should be allocated to meet the needs of every child.
Data that support gaps in the kindergarten through college pipeline including career preparatory preparation.
Teacher financial investment; every student deserves a highly effective teacher that is compensated regardless of their region.
Access to equity, social justice, and civil rights courses and resources to discontinue the disproportionate rates of suspension and expulsion fo students of color.
College Access for all; we all are looking for an opportunity to grow. Currently, we are not competing in the world when it comes to college degrees. We all know that “the return on investment for a college degree is 10 to 15 percent—greater than most financial investments.
Are we failing our students?
It is crystal clear that if we do not change our practices soon; this generation will not be prepared for tomorrow’s growth and economy. The United States alone has one of the highest high-school dropout rates in the world. I believe online learning is a start but we must prepare our classrooms for non-traditional students because if we don’t; the cycle will continue.
Sources
https://www.childtrends.org/indicators/high-school-dropout-rates
Jean S. Larson. 2019. Arizona State University.
Leanna Archambault. 2019. Arizona State University.
https://www.ed.gov/k-12reforms
https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2018/11/27/what-were-getting-wrong-about-credit-recovery.html#:~:text=Though%20credit%20recovery%20is%20offered,%2Daverage%20credit%2Drecovery%20participation.