Failing to Learn From Failure in Online Credit Recovery Assessments

Technology‐facilitated courses, completed online for the purpose of credit recovery (OCR), are the most common means through which US high school students retake courses required for high school graduation. Yet a growing body of research has raised concerns regarding student learning in these courses, with low‐quality assessments posited as a limiting factor. As course assessments are fundamental to evaluating student mastery and supporting student learning, we investigate this concern by systematically reviewing every assessment item in the most widely used OCR course, Algebra 1. We also examine pathways for passing the course mastery tests that allow students to bypass learning the content. In addition, we identify policy options and practices that state and local agencies are implementing or could adopt to regulate and improve OCR. We find that OCR assessments as executed lack rigor and validity, and that answers to most assessment items are readily available across multiple websites or platforms. We offer recommendations to improve rigor, close pathways that call into question the validity of results, strengthen implementation procedures, and increase state‐level oversight of OCR providers.