Case Study: Ernest Righetti High School achieves dramatic graduation-rate gains and successful credit recovery with Edmentum (Plato Courseware & Assessments)

Credit Recovery and Preparation During Tough Economic Times

Ernest Righetti High School in Santa Maria, CA, serves more than 2,100 mostly minority and economically disadvantaged students. After the district shifted credit-recovery responsibility back to individual schools in 2009 and budgets were sharply reduced, Righetti faced the challenge of finding a cost-effective way to help students who were far behind earn credits, pass state assessments, and raise graduation rates while keeping them at their home school.

Righetti launched a multi-pronged solution using Plato Courseware for its On-Track Credit Recovery (OTCR) program, a classroom-based Intervention Through Technology (ITT) course, and Edmentum Assessments for targeted test prep. Offered before/after school, during summer, and through the library, the programs served hundreds of students (about 175 in OTCR; summer 2014: 141 students completing 262 courses), lifted the school’s graduation rate (91% to 94% in OTCR’s first year), produced a 98% graduation rate among 416 OTCR-enrolled seniors (407 graduates), and raised Righetti’s overall graduation rate to nearly 10 points above the district average.

Ernest Righetti High School

Cindy Merlo

Intervention Lab Specialist