Repeating a Course and Credit Recovery

Repeating a Previously Failed Course

As provided in State Board of Education policy CCRE-001, high school students who fail a course for credit may repeat that course.  To take advantage of this option, the student must repeat the entire course.  Beginning with the 2015-16 school year, when a student initially fails a high school course and successfully repeats the course for credit, the new course grade will replace the original failing grade for the course on the student’s transcript and in calculations of the student’s GPA, class rank, and honor roll eligibility.  The superintendent may develop procedures for students to indicate their intent to repeat a course for credit under this paragraph and may establish any other rules as necessary and consistent with State Board policy.

Note:  Students repeating a course for credit requiring the administration of the EOC assessment who previously obtained a proficient score on the appropriate EOC assessment may use the proficient score as a minimum of 20% of their final course grade or they may elect to retake the appropriate EOC assessment at the completion of the course and use the most recent score for the final grade calculation.

Repeating a Course for which Credit was Earned (Grade Replacement)

The board recognizes that special circumstances may arise when high school students may need to repeat a course for which they have earned credit in order to increase their understanding of the course content, to improve skill mastery, or to meet postsecondary goals.  Students may repeat a course for which they have previously earned credit, subject to the following preconditions and any other reasonable rules established by the superintendent:

a. a student must have earned a letter grade of D in the course on the first attempt and have an extenuating circumstance that directly led to the student's academic performance in the course;

b. the student must make a written request to repeat the course;

c. the principal or designee must approve the request;

d. there must be space available after seats have been assigned to students who are taking the course for the first time or repeating a previously failed course;

e. the course to be repeated must be a duplicate of the original class via any delivery method when the entire Standard Course of Study for that course is being taught to the student for the second time;

f. upon completion of the repeated course, the new course grade will replace the student’s original grade on the student’s transcript and in calculations of the student’s GPA, class rank, and honor roll eligibility, regardless of whether the later grade is higher or lower than the student’s original mark;

g. credit towards graduation for the same course will be given only once;

h. a course may be repeated only one time; and

i. students may repeat a maximum of four previously passed courses during their high school careers.

The superintendent shall require notice to students and parents of these preconditions and of any other relevant information deemed advisable by the superintendent.

Note:  See School Board Policy 3420 Section J for more details about this policy

NC State Board of Education policy CCRE-001defines “repeating a course for credit” as any high school course repeated via any delivery method when the entire Standard Course of Study is being taught for the second time. “Credit recovery” is defined as delivering a subset of the Standard Course of Study in order to specifically address deficiencies in a student’s mastery of the course and target specific components of a course necessary for completion.  This policy can be found in NHCS-BP 3420, Section H.

When a student is repeating a course for credit, the following apply:

• Students will receive a numerical grade and the second attempt will be the final grade and it will appear on the high school transcript.

When a student is completing a course via credit recovery, the following apply:

• Students who fail a high school course may retake parts of the course through credit recovery to earn credit for the course.  Credit recovery delivers a subset of the blueprint of the original course in order to specifically address deficiencies in a student’s mastery of the course and target specific components of a course necessary for completion.  A pre-assessment of the student’s understanding of the course material will be administered at the beginning of the course and the credit recovery will be tailored to meet the needs of the individual student.  The length of a credit recovery course is dictated by the skills and knowledge the student needs to recover and not a fixed length of seat time.
   
• When credit recovery is exercised, the original record of the course being completed and failed will remain on the transcript.

The grade for credit recovery is pass/fail and does not factor into the student’s GPA.

Students transferring into a NHCS high school from another school (public or private, home school, or an alternative school) may receive credit toward graduation for courses successfully completed in the sending school.

Students transferring from one NHCS school to another NHCS school will receive:

• Credit for all courses approved by the sending school.
• Weighted credit for all courses designated as Honors and AP by the sending school.

Students transferring from another North Carolina public-school or from a North Carolina charter school into NHCS will receive:

• Credit for all courses approved by the sending school.
• Weighted credit for all courses designated by the sending school system as Honors or AP only if comparable courses are designated Honors or AP in the NHCS Curriculum Course Guide that was in effect for the year the courses were taken.

Students transferring from a non-public school accredited by one of the six regional accrediting associations* or an out of state public school into NHCS will receive:

• Credit for all courses approved by the sending school (credit determined by alignment to North Carolina Standard Course of Study).
• Weighted credit for all courses designated by the sending school system as Honors or AP only if comparable courses are designated Honors or AP in the NHCS Curriculum Course Guide that was in effect the year the courses were taken.

Upon review and approval by the principal, students transferring into a NHCS school from a non-public school not accredited by one of the six regional accrediting associations* or from a home school may receive credit toward graduation from courses successfully completed in the non-accredited, non-public school according to the following guidelines:

• Documentation must be provided to the receiving NHCS school by the sending school as to the course of study the student followed, syllabus or pacing documents, total number of contact hours per course, and scores of any standardized tests the student has taken.
• Grades will be recorded as “Pass” (P) or “Fail” (F) and will be identified in the transcript as non-NHCS grades.
• Grades and credits will not be included in the calculation of GPA or class rank.

To the extent possible, students who transfer among schools in NHCS or who transfer into NHCS in the middle of an academic year will be enrolled in courses that are similar to those in which they had been enrolled at their previous school. In the event that, due to course offerings in the new school, a student is unable to enroll in a course that is similar to one in which her or she had been enrolled, the student will be given the opportunity to enroll in an alternate course that will not result in the denial of credit to the extent practical in the school setting; for example, if the student an “catch up” in class or perform adequately without having completed the first part of the class. Determination of credit for transfer students will be based on a review of individual circumstances. The school system does not guarantee course credit if a student is unable to complete a course due to transfer.

*Middle States, New England, North Central, Northwest, Southern, and Western Associations

If you are requesting credit for an out of county/Non-NHCS college level course, see your high school counselor for further guidance.