Comparing the Costs of Online and TeacherDirected Credit Recovery - Educational Policy 2024 - Vol. 38(6) 1487–1514

Oct 15, 2026

This study compares the costs of a school-based online credit recovery model with more traditional teacher-directed credit recovery using rigorous cost analysis methods. Comprehensive cost differences between online and teacher-directed classes are small, but cost differences for specific resource types are substantial and statistically significant. Online credit recovery yields higher district-incurred costs mainly from purchasing online curricula and required technology. The online model lowers teachers’ opportunity costs because it requires less out-of-class time for grading and planning.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages28

Reading Time1 h 11 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Background on academic failure and credit recovery

Growth of online credit recovery

Purpose and cost-analysis approach

Background

Online courses and credit recovery formats

Comparing the Costs of Online and TeacherDirected Credit Recovery Educational Policy 2024, Vol. 38(6) 1487–1514 􀀂 The Author(s) 2023 Article reuse guidelines: [sagepub.com/journals-permissions](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[ ](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[DOI: 10.1177/08959048231207084](DOI: 10.1177/08959048231207084)[ ](DOI: 10.1177/08959048231207084)[journals.sagepub.com/home/epx](journals.sagepub.com/home/epx) Drew Atchison 1, Margaret Clements 1, Jordan Rickles 1, Iliana Brodziak de los Reyes 1 and Jessica Heppen 1 Abstract This study compares the costs of a school-based online credit recovery model to more traditional teacher-directed credit recovery using rigorous cost analysis methods. Findings indicate that differences in the comprehensive costs for online and teacher-directed credit recovery classes are small. However, cost differences across the two models of specific types of resources are substantial and statistically significant. Online credit recovery classes resulted in higher district-incurred costs largely due to the purchase of online curricula and required technology. The online model incurred lower opportunity costs to teachers stemming from less out-of-class time devoted to grading, lesson planning, and developing course materials. Keywords Credit recovery, online education, cost analysis Introduction Failing core academic courses during high school is a strong signal of trouble to come. Research indicates that academic performance in core courses during the first year of high school is the strongest predictor of eventual graduation (E. M. Allensworth & Easton, 2005; E. Allensworth & Easton, 2007) . The stakes for students who fail courses became even higher as districts around the country adopted college- and career-ready standards and 1 American Institutes for Research, Arlington, VA, USA Corresponding Author: Drew Atchison, American Institutes for Research, 1400 Crystal Drive, Arlington, VA 22202- 3289, USA. Email: [datchison@air.org](datchison@air.org) more rigorous high school graduation requirements. Students who fail key gateway courses need effective opportunities to recover content that they have not yet mastered and to recover credits required for graduation. As districts seek to simultaneously increase the rigor of standards and boost graduation rates, they see offering credit recovery classes as a way to keep students on track. Online credit recovery proliferated over the last 20 years, signaling that district and school practitioners see the practical usefulness of expanding credit recovery options through online courses to try to help more students get back on track toward graduation (e.g., Atkins et al., 2007; Gemin et al., 2015) . During the 2014–15 school year, 63% of U.S. high schools provided online credit recovery courses and 41% of high schools provided credit recovery that blended online instruction with in-person instruction (U.S. Department of Education, Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development, 2018) . Given the rise in the number of middle and highschool students who failed courses during the COVID-19 pandemic (Belsha, 2021; Gross, 2021), online credit recovery will likely continue to proliferate in the coming years. The choice of whether to provide credit recovery courses as traditional teacher-directed courses or as online courses should depend on several considerations, including the effectiveness and cost of alternative options. While there are some rigorous studies about the effectiveness of online instruction (and online credit recovery more specifically), few studies have rigorously investigated the cost. In this paper, we compare costs ofa specific school-based online credit recovery model to a more traditional teacherdirected credit recovery course. We used the ingredients approach (Levinet al., 2018), which is the gold-standard method for cost analysis, to systematically identify, quantify, and estimate the value o

FAQs

How does the study compare online and teacher-directed credit recovery costs?

It compares costs using rigorous cost analysis methods based on the ingredients approach to identify and quantify resources needed for the intervention.

What are the main drivers of higher district-incurred costs in the online model?

Online credit recovery leads to higher district costs largely due to purchasing online curricula and required technology.

Why are teachers’ opportunity costs lower in the online credit recovery model?

The online model requires less out-of-class time for grading, lesson planning, and developing course materials.

Oct 15, 2026

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