To improve student success over the summer break, the Rainy River District School Board (RRDSB) had a selection of summer programming available for students. From a Credit Recovery program, or a co-op placement, to further helping students earn high school credits before high school, and more, the RRDSB helped students prepare for their education and their future career as working professionals over the summer months.
Beth Fairfield, Superintendent of Education for the board, shared that the Credit Recovery program is essentially what the name implies, a chance for students to recover some credits where they may have previously fallen short.
“It’s an opportunity for students, if they weren’t successful in achieving a credit during regular day school, to do parts of the curriculum that they weren’t successful in, instead of having to repeat the whole course over again and then capture that credit over the summer,” said Fairfield.
“Ideally, that helps to keep them on track for graduation with their peers.”
Not only does it keep students on track for graduating with their cohort, but it also provides flexible learning opportunities while ensuring students have the necessary knowledge to progress through the curriculum.
“It’s a way to sort of bridge that gap for them,” said Fairfield.
“We see that, for all the schools, but especially at the smaller schools, it can create challenges with timetabling. If you’re going into Grade 10 and you need a Grade 9 course, you don’t have a prerequisite for the course. So, it is really helpful to have that opportunity to get those credits over the summer.”
In most cases, students earned one credit over the summer. But there were some cases where a student may have earned more than that. Moreover, Fairfield suggested research shows that if a student does not have 16 credits by the time they are 16 years old, they might have worse academic performance and might not complete graduation requirements at the same time as their peers.
“A healthy number of the students who earned the credits were in Grades 9 and 10,” said Fairfield.
“Research shows that by the end of grade ten, a student should have earned 16 credits, and so if they’re behind, and they’re not at that by age 16, having earned 16 credits, that’s where we see there’s a connection between graduation rates and student success. So we really strive to have all students have 16 credits by the end of Grade 10.”
While some students were recovering credits for past courses they didn’t fully complete, others were earning credits and a paycheque at the same time.
“The majority of students earn two high school credits. It’s based on hours, so they have to work a certain number of hours. It’s 110 hours for one credit, and it’s 220 hours for two credits,” said Fairfield.
“Basically, what happens is, once they have their job, they apply to be in the summer co-op program. The majority of students who participate in this program are also participating in a career-focused program called a Specialist High Skills Major. One of the components of that Specialist High Skills Major is a co-op. Students connect the co-op with their Specialist High Skills Major, and then they have an opportunity to sort of test drive a career to find out if that’s really what they’re interested in, and learn important skills and knowledge along the way.
“What we saw this summer was that there were a lot of students working for outfitters, in public works, skilled trades, and automotive centres.”
Yet another way for students to earn credits was via the Reach Ahead program. Reach Ahead is similar to the Credit Recovery program. However, one key difference is that Reach Ahead is proactive while Credit Recovery is reactive. Essentially, Credit Recovery is an effort to get students back on track, while Reach Ahead gives students an opportunity to work ahead and avoid needing something like the Credit Recovery program.
One other program the board trialed over the summer was the Focus on Youth program. This program was focused on employment similar to a co-op placement, but with a dedicated mentor from the United Native Friendship Centre.
“Each of the students was was put with a mentor who works at the United native Friendship Centre,” said Fairfield.
“It was a one to one mentorship program, and they basically worked alongside them. It was a paid position and in a supportive environment to help them develop the skills that they need and the confidence around employment, attitude, skills and the behaviour needed to be successful in employment.”
