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Summer 2021 High School Credit Recovery Briefing

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Summer 2021 High School Credit Recovery Briefing
for
Counselors, Administrators and Site Facilitators

Updated July 27, 2021

Notice to students and parents: This information is intended for distribution to public school districts and may contain details that do not apply to your local district’s program.  If you are interested in enrolling in credit recovery courses with Montana Digital Academy, your first contact should be to the counseling department or administration of your local school to discuss what is available locally.  Credit recovery courses are not available to students independent of a school-based credit recovery program.

Program Details

We strongly urge you to review this entire page, even if you have previous experience in administering and/or supporting MTDA credit recovery programs at your local school.

Important Highlights:

  • MTDA will run its Summer 2021 Summer Credit Recovery program as in years past.  However, we will be announcing important changes for future programs on our April 21, 2021 webinar for schools.  Please review the webinar invitation and signup information here: link.
  • After careful consideration and review of student and facilitator feedback, MTDA will not run the “Remote Only” version for the Summer 2021 term.  Students enrolled in the credit recovery program will need to complete all assessments in the school-based proctoring environment, as in the past.
  • As in past years, we expect schools will utilize the Summer 2021 credit recovery term to help with students that need credit before the end of the Spring term in your local school.  We welcome these enrollments, but, kindly ask that you manage the enrollment by making sure you drop any student that stops participating and has no plans to finish in the summer.

Important Notes

  • SUMMER SURVEY REQUIRED FOR EITHER SUMMER PROGRAM: Before Friday, May 14, 2021, PLEASE be sure to fill out our program survey if you are delivering credit recovery program options in your local school this summer.  This will assist us in planning and also allow MTDA to direct summer inquiries from our teaching and support staff to the appropriate person during the summer.  That survey is here:

SUMMER 2021 CREDIT RECOVERY SURVEY

  • Summer does not lessen the requirement for local school support.  All assessments MUST be locally proctored to qualify for the delivery of credit, no exceptions.  If a student can’t not be present on your campus, they do not qualify for credit recovery services.

Schedule

  • Enrollment begins Tuesday, April 6, 2021.  Until the summer staffing model begins, our credit recovery teaching pool will continue to do “next school day” grading.
  • Summer staffing begins: Monday, June 14, 2021.   ** We understand that many schools would like to start their credit recovery program before June 14. However, we cannot start earlier as most of our teachers are under contract with their local school until the week of June 5.  This means they cannot work live shifts during the school day.
  • Enrollment ends: Friday, July 9, 2021 (open enrollment ends July 9th, after that day, contact support to discuss new enrollments)
  • Last day for Summer 2021: Friday, July 30, 2021, OR THE LAST DAY OF SCHOOL-BASED LOCAL SUPPORT (if earlier).  It is the school’s responsibility to communicate the calendar to your students and parentsPlease drop any student that is incomplete after your local school program ends for the summer.
  • Late finish deadline (to account for illness or other personal situations): Thursday, August 5, 2021 (no extensions available after this date for any circumstances)

Orientation

  • All students new to the MTDA credit recovery program must complete the mandatory Orientation program.  The program is called “Credit Recovery Orientation” in GeniusSIS and must receive a “pass” to enroll in content-specific programs.  The orientation is open now.  Once a student takes and completes the orientation, they do not need to complete it again.
  • The orientation program is approximately 2-3 hours of engagement time, dependent on student skill, reading level, and motivation.  Students that do not complete the orientation in a reasonable amount of time should be considered high need enrollments and provided additional direct support locally.

Registration

  • Please review our student registration page in the Site Facilitator handbook for information on data collection and student registration.  That document is here: link.

Program Information

To facilitate forward progression of summer program students, MTDA will adapt our labor model to provide live coaching services during most of the school day.  Our teaching staff will work to turn around mastery assignments as quickly as possible in the order they are received.

At this point, we intend to provide those services from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., Monday-Friday.

Course Availability

MTDA offers our core catalog of most-requested classes in the summer format.

English/Language Arts

  • English I A
  • English I B
  • English II A
  • English II B
  • English III A
  • English III B
  • English IV A
  • English IV B

Science

  • Earth Science A
  • Earth Science B
  • Biology A
  • Biology B

Social Studies

  • Geography A
  • Geography B
  • World History A
  • World History B
  • US History A
  • US History B
  • Government A
  • Government B

Mathematics

All MTDA mathematics semester-long courses are divided into two parts, Part 1 and Part 2.  Students must pass both parts for a recommendation of credit.

  • Pre-Algebra A
  • Pre-Algebra B
  • Algebra I A
  • Algebra I B
  • Geometry A
  • Geometry B
  • Algebra II A
  • Algebra II B

Health

  • Health (One Semester)

Program Planning Notes

Time Commitment: The summer program is the same format and curriculum as the school year, utilizing a mastery-based learning environment to provide a flexible but rigorous environment.  Based on statistics and analysis from Fall and Spring data, courses take the typical student 50-60 hours to complete the summer program and format, though we do see extremes in both directions.  Students that come to the program with below grade-level reading skills or self-regulation may take much longer.  The course requirements are not negotiable.

End of Semester Information and Procedures

The Summer 2021 High School Credit Recovery program ends on Friday, July 30, 2021, at 1 pm.  Please view the steps below for local support and/or site facilitators to help MTDA close out the semester.

FIRST, if you have any student enrolled in a credit recovery course that is no longer attending school, inactive, or otherwise not going to finish up, please put in a drop request for those students as soon as possible. This action helps the MTDA staff focus our attention on active students attempting to finish up the course.

SECOND, if you have an active student and need extra time to complete the course, you may request an extension beginning today, July 27, 2021. The extension request is due to us on Monday, August 2, 2021.  Students that are enrolled without an extension request will be dropped from the program.  Extension requests must go through our extension form:

Click Here for Extension Form

Please be mindful when utilizing requests. As there are just four program days left, the extension is designed for students that are on track to finish with less than a module to complete. The program is not designed to be completed in a short amount of time. We will not check a student’s progress before granting the extension, but, ask you to be in communication with your local student.

Note: All extension requests are granted. However, you must request an extension by the deadline. Otherwise, enrollments will be dropped. Again, this helps our staff focus on active enrollments in active programs.

The final late-finish deadline for courses is Thursday, August 5, 2021.  Assignment grading services at 1 pm on that day.  There is no extension available beyond this date. We strongly suggest that you guide students to have all mastery assignments by Wednesday, August 4, 2021, at 10 am to account for returned assignments and final exams.

THIRD, please note that a student must complete the entire course to qualify for a credit recommendation from MTDA. MTDA teachers or support staff are not able to excuse assignments due to pending deadlines.