Correlational: Promising Evidence

Courseware is a Key Part of CTE Pathway Access and Completion

Courseware gave students with multiple summer school classes the flexibility to be more successful and to recover more credits, without compromising rigor or integrity.

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Courseware Image — Note: Results based on data from 2024 Baltimore City Public Schools summer credit recovery courses. Most students in data took multiple summer school courses; the average summer school student took three credit recovery classes. Successful credit recovery rates for both scenarios above estimated from a logistic regression model controlling for race/ethnicity, prior GPA, and other student characteristics. Success probabilities estimated for Black female students with a prior GPA of 1.9, a prior course completion rate of 50%, and not enrolled in special education or classified as an English Language Learner – these values were chosen to reflect a student near the district average. Model estimates used because of small sample sizes for some combinations and to account for differences between students, though results based on raw percentages were qualitatively similar. Estimated credits recovered based on success rates multiplied by attempted credits (4).

What did we find?

Independent researchers looked at students who completed courses for credit recovery in Baltimore City Public Schools, asking whether students recovered more credit if courses using Courseware were part of their schedule. This included over 10,000 course enrollments from the summer of 2024. Many students had substantial need for credit recovery, with the average student taking three summer courses.

Success

The more summer school classes students took, the less success students had when taking traditional classes only. But the success rates for students who mixed Courseware with traditional classes remained high.

Rigorous

Courseware’s high-quality curriculum allowed students to keep pace with similar peers taking classes, with some variation by subject area and student grade level.

All

Courseware served all types of students. Students using Courseware for credit recovery had similar GPAs, grade-levels, genders, and special education status as those taking traditional courses.

This study was conducted by Empirical Education, an independent third-party organization that has been conducting research, experiments, and program evaluations for over 20 years.

Creating real opportunities to recover multiple credits

Credit recovery offers students a chance to earn credit in courses they failed, keeping them on track to graduate high school; a milestone linked to significantly better long-term economic, social, and health outcomes.In one out of 10 schools, 20% or more of the students are enrolled in at least one credit recovery class.¹Nationally, credit recovery enrollment rose 13% between the 2017-18 and 2023-24 school years following the pandemic, according to a Chalkbeat analysis of federal data.² Yet, many schools report obstacles to providing effective credit recovery options, commonly citing lack of time during the school day and lack of staff for summer school.³

This study found that the digital courses provided by Courseware allowed students to take multiple courses with greater success. When students attempted to recover multiple credits solely through traditional district-led summer school classes, their success rates plummeted as their course load grew. But students who evenly mixed digital-based Courseware courses with traditional courses maintained a relatively high success rate and tended to recover more credits.

More success for those needing to recover multiple credits

This study found that the more credits students needed to recover, the more important Courseware became. For students who needed to recover multiple credits, Courseware provided students with critical flexibility to make success a reality.

Courseware applies the same rigorous standards to credit recovery as to first-time course enrollment, so Baltimore students earn high-quality credits.

The program behind the results

Learn more about Courseware, the only K–Career credit-bearing digital curricula built for how students actually learn without compromising academic integrity.

Explore Courseware See Our Career Catalog

What could this look like in your district?

Whether you’re rethinking summer school or exploring credit recovery options, we can help you build a program that meets your unique needs.

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FAQs: Credit Recovery with Edmentum Courseware

Key questions this research helps answer

1. Does using Courseware improve credit recovery outcomes?

The gains showed up at the program level: students who mixed Courseware with traditional classes recovered more credits overall than students who had all-traditional or all-Courseware schedules. The takeaway for districts isn't "replace summer school with Courseware," it's "use both together."

2. Is credit recovery through Edmentum Courseware less rigorous than traditional coursework?

This research study only counted successful completion of a Courseware course if a student earned a grade above 60% based on their lesson and unit activities and scores, or scored above 70% on the end-of-course test. It did not allow for any overrides of those criteria to be considered successful completion. Based on these criteria, the study found that 12th-grade students in Courseware were as successful as matched peers in traditional classes. That's a meaningful finding for anyone worried about students earning credits without the skills to back them up: the study found no evidence that students passed Courseware courses more easily, an indicator that course rigor held.

3. What's the most effective way to structure a program that includes Courseware?

The study found a clear sweet spot: for students taking two summer courses, success rates were highest when one was Courseware and one was traditional. The pattern held as course load increased (students needing 3+ credits saw the best results with a mix, not a single modality). It's best framed as a scheduling and flexibility tool for students who need to recover multiple credits, not a stand-in for in-person instruction.

4. Does Courseware work equally well for all student groups, including students with IEPs or English learners?

The study found no statistically significant differences in the successful completion of Courseware courses by race/ethnicity, gender, special education status, or English learner status. The factors that did matter were things like grade level (12th graders saw a notable benefit) and total course load, not demographic group. However, the study also found that English language learners were more likely to attend summer school in person than take Courseware.

5. What if I want more evidence?

We are committed to studying the efficacy of our programs at Edmentum with rigorous methods informed by our independent Technical Advisory Committees and backed by third-party validation. These ongoing efforts include Empirical Education’s analysis of outcomes for students who engaged in summer school credit recovery, tracked through the next academic year, and the Edmentum Research Team’s study examining the relationship between successful completion of Courseware courses and ACT scores. All published Courseware efficacy research is available on our website.

¹ https://www.bls.gov/ooh/construction-and-extraction/ and https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/home.htm
² https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/cte-is-on-the-rise-heres-what-educators-say-would-make-programs-stronger/2025/12