1. 9/6/2016 To help more students graduate on time, this Aurora high school is staying open late | Chalkbeat
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AURORA — As the oldest sibling at home, Nadine Molina looks after
her younger brothers and sisters each morning. It’s a responsibility that
put the Hinkley High School senior’s diploma at risk.
For the last three years, Molina missed most of her morning classes.
Instead of solving equations in algebra class, she was driving her five
younger siblings to school and helping her father with his construction
business.
To help more students graduate on time, this Aurora high school is staying
open late
Kennon Baldwin, a Hinkley High School senior, works on an online course during night school. ( Photo by Nicholas Garcia )
By Nicholas Garcia
PUBLISHED: March 2, 2016 ­ 5:33 p.m. EDT

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“I wouldn’t get to school until after lunch,” said Molina, who fell so far
behind that she faced a possible a fifth year of high school. “I felt
horrible that I could become a super senior.”
That changed this spring with the opening of Hinkley High’s night
school, which puts a new wrinkle on credit recovery efforts by starting
the day when most students are headed home, recognizing that work
and family demands put teens like Molina at risk of being left behind.
While school officials point to early signs of progress, not all students
like the online courses that make up the bulk of instruction, and
research is thin on whether credit recovery works.
One of 55 students who attend the program to reover missing high
school credits, Molina is now on track to graduate thanks in part to a
school day that starts at 2:30 p.m.
The program, which launched Jan. 19, is the first of its kind for Aurora
Public Schools and is one school’s effort to boost the district’s dismal
graduation rate. At Hinkley High School only six out of every 10
students graduate on time. The state’s average graduation rate is 77
percent.
While Hinkley and many of the district’s other high schools offer credit
recovery programs during the day, this is the first time an Aurora high
school has created a program outside the regular school day.
Credit recovery programs for high school students are prolific in many
of Colorado’s school districts and across the nation. A 2011 National
Center for Education Statistics report found 88 percent of school
districts across the nation offered a credit recovery program. In
Colorado, Denver and Jeffco public schools are among the few school
districts that offer night school programs.
Hinkley’s program
Three types of students attend Hinkley’s nightly credit recovery
program: Seniors who have not earned enough credits to graduate this
spring, dropouts who have returned to Hinkley and juniors who have
fallen behind.

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“The students who
are here, they don’t
have a lot of time,”
said Andre Bala,
the Hinkley
administrator who
runs the night
school. “If they were to stay in the traditional classroom, they wouldn’t
make it.”
One encouraging early for the night program: better attendance. On
average, about 87 percent of students show up each afternoon. Only
76 percent of students show up daily to the credit recovery program
during regular school hours.
The increase in attendance puts Hinkley’s night school on par with last
semester’s average daily attendance across all Aurora high schools.
“They didn’t connect with school,” Bala said. “Now they’re showing up
regularly.”
For the first hour of night school, students work on building
relationships with their classmates and teachers, preparing college
resumes or work applications and reviewing their progress in the class
with instructors.
From 3:45 p.m. until 8 p.m. students work through online­based
courses. There’s a break for dinner –which students must bring at 5
p.m.
The online lessons include a video lecture, course notes, quizzes and
tests. Some courses also require students to write short responses or
full essays. On hand to help students are four adults, including two
licensed teachers.
“Students are flourishing,” Bala said, referring to the online lessons.
“This could be the future of education.”
Are they actually learning?
Not all night school students are thrilled with online learning, however.
Kennon Baldwin, a senior, said he misses classroom discourse. And he
believes he isn’t retaining as much information as he would in a regular
classroom.

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“I hate it because there is no interaction with everyone else,” he said.
“To some it’s beneficial. I’m not learning as much. I forget a lot. But I’m
passing. And night school is keeping me away from the temptation of
ditching.”
Baldwin might not be wrong about learning less.
One of the few studies on credit recovery programs, done by the
American Institutes for Research, found that students who took a
computer­based credit recovery course in algebra learned slightly less
than peers who covered similar material in a teacher­led course.
On average, students who took the algebra course online only covered
half the material, said Jessica Heppen, a researcher from the American
Institutes of Research who co­led the 2011­2012 study.
“It’s a tough row to hoe,” Heppen said.
Heppen said the Chicago students who took part in the study reported
the standardized online course was difficult to understand in part
because of the volume of reading and the lack of adult support to fill in
knowledge gaps.
“Students who have the highest failure rates are going to be taking
online classes unless schools offer some different alternative,” Heppen
said, arguing for more research into online­credit recovery and more
student­adaptive programs. “Online providers should be pushed to put
out more flexible models that are engaging and interactive.”
Hinkley principal Matthew Willis said he believes students who earn a
diploma through credit recovery are just as prepared as those who
travel a traditional path.
“Everyone needs a different avenue,” he said. “To not offer multiple
pathways seems unjust.”
Next school year
Hinkley is using a $50,000 grant from the district to pay for the program.
School leaders, who already believe the program is working, are
searching for outside grants to keep the program running into the
future.