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"We have several students who would not have graduated from high school if it weren’t for NovaNET. Some are young parents, some are homeless, some are incarcerated, some battle drug and alcohol problems. The students benefit from the individual courses NovaNET provides, along with the flexibility the program offers."
      Sharmyn Muñoz, NovaNET Teacher/Coordinator, Gallup Central High School

Highlights

• In 1998, the year Pearson Digital Learning NovaNET was implemented, the dropout rate for Gallup decreased from 27.3 percent to 2.3 percent.
• With NovaNET, students and adult learners are able to recover credit toward a high school diploma from a variety of school programs available.

School District Profile

Gallup Central High School is located in the northwest part of New Mexico, serves grades 9 through 12, and enrolls 386 students. The ethnic population of the high school is 65 percent Native-American, 28 percent Hispanic, 6 percent Caucasian, and 1 percent African-American. 99 percent of the students at Gallup receive a free or reduced-price lunch, and 31 percent are ELL students.

Gallup is part of the Gallup-McKinley County School District with 34 schools and 21,000 students. 75 percent of the Gallup city population is Native American.

Challenge/Goals

The goal at Gallup Central High School was to find a program that would help students with credit recovery. The alternative high school needed flexibility while providing students with individual education plans.

Solution

NovaNET was purchased through Title 1 funding and implemented in Gallup Central High School in 1998. Five schools in the district are currently using NovaNET and two more centers are planning on adding it to their program next year. Initially, the school subscribed to NovaNET to provide services for the repeat freshmen who: 1) did not have enough credits to enter their sophomore year at the local regular high school; and 2) were too old to attend the junior high school.

In the first semester of the 1998-1999 school year, three teachers shared 85 repeat freshman on a block schedule, taking two NovaNET courses and two classroom courses. One NovaNET lab was set up with 16 stations. During this time, one teacher (with an ESL endorsement) and one assistant would be in the lab with 16 to 20 students. After the first semester, the program found that that all students in grades 9 through 12 could benefit from NovaNET curriculum, and consequently other grades and subjects were added.

Today, any of the students attending Gallup can take NovaNET courses on a first come, first serve basis in the Day School, Adult Evening School, Saturday Academy, or Summer School.

Students are assigned to a NovaNET course in the Day School as part of their block schedule from 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

The Adult School is open from 10 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Monday through Thursday. Learners must be 21 years of age or older, with at least 12 credits already earned. Students who successfully complete the program earn a high school diploma. There are two instructors and 65 students in the Adult School. When taking NovaNET tests, students need to earn an 80 percent or higher to pass and earn credit. According to Sharmyn Muñoz, a NovaNET teacher/coordinator at Gallup Central High School, "The adult evening school students were nervous about computerized curriculum delivery since they had no technology experience or skills. They now feel secure with the program, and enjoy earning credits through NovaNET."

The Saturday Academy (district credit recovery program) is open from 8 a.m. to noon, and gives students the opportunity to make up credit deficiencies to get back on track toward the 4-year graduation plan. Student may take no more than one-half of a course at a time, and the summer school charges $100 per course. Most students are able to complete the course in about ten Saturday sessions.

Summer School is open only to returning Gallup Central High School students for four weeks during June, Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. The school has three teachers with 45 students able to earn one credit per course.

The principal at Gallup was focused on meeting state standards. In response, NovaNET teachers began sharing and training other members of the staff on the system. Program success was determined based on the number of credits students were earning each year. In turn, the principal agreed to increase the number of ports and add two more labs. This brought the total to three labs and 60 computers. One lab is for math and English, another is for science and health, and the third lab is for social studies. With NovaNET, the staff at Gallup Central High School is able to be more flexible and offer a larger variety of choices in course work. They enjoy the program for its online curriculum and self-paced capabilities. Teachers benefit from the immediate feedback NovaNET provides and its alignment to New Mexico State Standards.

Results

Since implementation in 1998, students and adult learners alike have been able to take advantage of the NovaNET curriculum by being able to recover and gain credit toward their high school diplomas. In addition, with the help of NovaNET, at-risk students are given the opportunity to excel and graduate despite personal setbacks.

According to Muñoz, "NovaNET is extremely flexible. Students can work at their own pace, and can start and finish a course with ease. Students work hard to recover credits and sometimes graduate ahead of schedule. As a teacher, my students and I both like the fact that seat time is no longer an issue."

After NovaNET was implemented in 1998, Gallup
experienced a 25% decrease in drop outs from the previous
year. The drop out rate has since remained below 16%.
 

Contact us for additional information on how Pearson Digital Learning can help you achieve results with NovaNET.