Local students recover credits online
Fri, Sep 5, 2008 
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BY SYLVIA DANA
sdana@grandhaventribune.com
With new graduation requirements and graduation rate calculations in Michigan, this is the first of a series of articles to be published this fall about how area schools are working to help students succeed.
Grand Haven and Fruitport schools piloted online instructional software programs during summer school and are now implementing the programs this school year.
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Each school district is using different brands of Web-based software — Fruitport is using NovaNet and Grand Haven is using Plato.
Both NovaNet and Plato allow students to enroll in multiple courses and complete each at their own pace. With a certified teacher in the classroom providing assistance, the software includes demonstration, practice and quizzes to check for mastery. Once the student has mastered a topic within a course subject with a minimum of 80 percent, the program allows the student to move on to the next level.
Students say they like using the software because they have control over how fast they learn the material.
"You don't have restrictions," said Damien Kinkema, a senior at Grand Haven's Central High School. "You go at your own speed."
Other students say they appreciate the help the software provides in order to learn and "get it."
"It's easier because it explains how to do the problem really well and it shows examples," said senior Juli DeCan, who is enrolled in an algebra course using Plato at Central High School.
Teachers and administrators say students are motivated to complete courses.
"Students can see how their work is directly impacting their graduation requirements," Central High teacher Kevin Berko said. "The student is actively involved in the course and they receive immediate feedback — 'yes' you got it right, 'no' you got it wrong — and it reviews topics until the student masters it."
Both programs — Plato and NovaNet — are two of the most popular instructional software used across the nation in the last 10 years. But this type of online tool is new to area schools.
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Spring Lake Public Schools isn't using online instructional software at this time.
"Philosophically, it never replaces that adult-to-kid interaction," said Mark Westerberg, assistant superintendent for Spring Lake schools.
However, to meet Michigan's requirement that all students complete an online experience, all Spring Lake juniors use KeyTrain to prepare for the Michigan Merit Exam and ACT test.
It was the state's new graduation requirements for the class of 2011 that sparked Grand Haven and Spring Lake districts' interest in online instruction. And when the Michigan Merit Curriculum became effective for last year's ninth-graders, school district officials began to anticipate areas where students might be in danger of failing.
"We tried to identify students with deficiencies in their credits and monitored our freshmen to see what courses they might not be passing," Fruitport High School Principal Jeff Haase said.
Haase said many freshmen were struggling in algebra, typical for students across the state.
When Fruitport piloted its NovaNet program to help students catch up and recover credits this summer, 56 students earned a total of 85 half credits, meaning several students completed more than one class in the session.
Now, credit recovery using NovaNet is being offered in zero and seventh hours at Fruitport.
Similar success was achieved in Grand Haven's summer school program. Assistant Superintendent Sue Richards said Plato software is being used for credit recovery in Grand Haven schools this school year, but also will be used to enhance curriculum in the traditional classroom as well as allow students to take advanced courses.
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