And it’s not like it’s a hard ten months; you show up, earn…or rather, collect your passing grade of 50, which Hartford Public Schools teachers are required to give students, whether they do anything or not, then you can enjoy your entire summer vacation like most responsible teens do in America.

No, for some folks, ten months in school just isn’t enough to earn those credits needed to graduate.  Like most schools in America, HPS offers a special 6-week, all expenses paid credit recovery program in July and August, making it possible for even the dullest life forms to earn…or rather, receive a diploma.

Sure, most kids who go through summer school are probably those who actually need the extra time and instruction for valid reasons.  However, let’s not be Rose Nylund here and imagine there aren’t more than a few who are scamming the system.  A system which in many cases has proven to be a scam.

HPS announced at the Board of Education’s Teaching & Learning Committee meeting this past week that registration has begun for their suite of summer programs, which includes their credit recovery program for high schoolers not making the grade – of 50. 

The “beauty” of this program, stated out-going HPS Superintendent of Academics Madeline Negron, “is that they (HPS) provide it for free.”  While some districts across the U.S. do charge their students for summer courses, the Connecticut Constitution states that “There shall always be free public elementary and secondary schools in the state.”  So, despite Ms. Negron’s comment, it’s not like HPS is on the cutting edge of 21st century education.

These summer programs are not free to Connecticut schools, however.  Last summer, HPS’s summer programs (all programs) cost the district $3 million and enrolled 2,600 students.  If the State did not pick up the tab for the folks providing “digital” resources for the summer school programs, Apex Learning and Defined Learning, this would easily add another half million to the cost of pulling kids off the beach.

Ms. Negron’s Superintendent-approved presentation to the Committee also stated the “enrollment criteria” for students looking to register for the credit recovery program.  The program is “open to any student who has previously failed a core content course.”

Technically, this is not true.  Courses shown to be offered this summer are ELA, math, social studies, science, PE, health, and Spanish.  The latter three are not “core content” courses but are state requirements for a high school diploma.  During an August 2022 Board meeting, a review of last summer’s credit recovery program shows that 17 different courses were offered to students.

Last summer, 541 students enrolled in HPS’ credit recovery program.  Of this bunch, there were 29 “new graduates.”  As is normal for HPS presentations, the data provided does not answer all of our questions, such as, how many of the 541 enrolled students were seniors?  How many in the credit recovery program were special education students?  How many in the credit recovery program thought it was a course to fix their VISA credit?

What was shown is that the credit recovery program had an attendance rate of only 66%.  So, not only is ten months and a grade earning level of 50 not enough, but a free opportunity to pick up the slack in 6 weeks created less enthusiasm than the latest mind-numbing Tik Tok challenge.  I assume the Superintendent did not offer to pay these students as she did in 2019 for a freshman summer prep program.  Now that’s 21st century education thinking.

However, those students failing to take advantage of this opportunity still have adult education, or McDonald's, as a Plan B.

Credit recovery programs made it into Connecticut state law in 2010 with the passage of H.B. 5491.  This law established credit recovery programs in districts with dropout rates exceeding 8%.  Data from the U.S. Department of Education in 2020 shows that Connecticut hasn’t had a dropout rate of above 5% since at least 2013 (later earners of GEDs were not counted as dropouts).  Dropout rates for Hartford Public Schools is as readily available as the Board’s evaluation of the Superintendent.  But the state did call it a “dropout diversion” plan in 2014.

A report by the U.S. Department of Education in 2018 stated that by 2015,  89% of high schools offered a credit recovery program, with 15% of students participating in them.  Offered online credit recovery programs were most popular at 71%, hybrid in-person/online forms were offered in 46% of schools, and in-person alone programs were offered by 42% of schools.

Students “targeted” for credit recovery programs were more likely to have academic issues (87%), followed by attendance problems (73%), staff referrals (60%), and discipline or behavioral issues (48%).

In 2010, proponents of credit recovery programs in Connecticut were of the belief that it would help to close the achievement gap between white and non-white students, while also improving the state’s chances in the “Race To The Top” competition.  A more than $6 billion federal program that rewarded states for significant student improvements.  Which ushered in a host of fraudulent and half-assed school programs to graduate students rather than to educate them.

In a 2015 state report, credit recovery programs were described as a way to “address barriers found in traditional settings.”  Even though those barriers in some cases were self-imposed.

In 2018, credit recovery programs became a “strategy that encourages at-risk students to re-take a previously failed course” needed to graduate.  It was a “pathway for high school students who have a history of course failure” and to keep them from straying further from the track to graduation.

But of course, like in Denmark, something is always rotten in meaningful attempts at opportunity.

The following tweet was supposedly issued by a high school student taking summer credit recovery courses, which are, stated the writer, the “enabling” of America’s school students:

“If anyone wants to go online and do my chemistry credit recovery, I’d be more than happy to give you my username and password.”

“Educational fakery” soon became the norm.

An article in Education Week in 2018 spoke of the Tulsa, Oklahoma credit recovery scandal where the district doubled the number of summer graduates from one year to the next via a program where students earned “an entire semester’s worth of credit for a class in a single day,” and one earned credit for “21 courses, essentially an entire school year, in just a matter of weeks.”

The article mentioned the District of Columbia where 15% of graduates had gone through credit recovery despite “never taking the original course.”   Los Angeles, New York, and Nashville also had their share of negative stories about inflated graduation rates.  Similar concerns about credit recovery have been raised in other states, including California, North Carolina, and Virginia. 

“Peak” credit-recovery schools, those with rates more than three times the national average, had markedly lower graduation rates, but revealingly, had the highest graduation-rate increases for four years running, raising red flags about credit recovery’s role in graduation-rate inflation.

Researchers have found that many credit recovery programs lack accountability and supervision.  Carolyn Heinrich, a Patricia and Rodes Hart Professor of Public Policy, Education and Economics at Vanderbilt University, stated that when students are not attended to, “they will just Google for answers when they get to the quiz.” Ms. Heinrich went on to say that research links credit recovery programs to the increase in high school graduation rates, however, she does not find comparable increase in student learning as measured by standardized test scores or end-of-course tests.

Hartford has not been immune to the criticisms.  It has been said that in Hartford, “deals are struck” with students during summer school where they may be less than enthusiastic about the whole process and are given simple “projects” or assignments and are promised graduation upon the completion of the “project.”

During the regular school year, school counselors are not only busy assisting with the Superintendent’s “on-track” program, but they also are busy with urging teachers of at-risk students to give them “extra credit” so that they can pass the class.  “Find a way to pass this kid” is said to have been stated more than once around HPS.

During a Board Family & Community Engagement Committee meeting in April, Board Member Walker brought up concerns about the “rigor”’ of the online programs used in HPS’ credit recovery programs, citing performance and accountability issues.  Neither the Superintendent nor Ms. Negron were present at this meeting but acting district mouthpiece and Chief Engagement and Partnerships Officer Nuchette Black-Burke promised that Ms. Negron would speak to the “rigor” issue at the April 26th Teaching & Learning Committee meeting.  That meeting was attended by Ms. Negron, but Mr. Walker was not present.  Naturally, “rigor” was not part of the conversation at that meeting.

Proposed Bill 6045 was introduced into the Connecticut Legislature in January.  This bill would require the Department of Education to review alternative methods for students to recover credits towards high school graduation for attendance at after school programs.  The bill has not left the Education Committee and has had no public comment session scheduled, which means a June death.

In the end it’s a numbers game.  School counselors are being pressured by principals, principals by superintendents, superintendents by the state, the state by the feds, and the feds by the current popular political ideology.  However, each of these stakeholders are complicit in the failing of America’s “beautiful and capable” school children.