For the last few years, NHIS provides students the opportunity to recover credits required for graduation.

Credit Recovery is an after-school program so students can recover credits from previously failed classes. Students must pay to participate in the Credit Recovery program.

The cost depends on the amount of credits you need. A half credit costs $75 and a full credit costs $150.

Students work on an on-line program called Plato.

Plato allows students to “re-take” classes through readings in the subject and a test in the specific subject.

Although it’s an online program, there are teachers there who monitor and help out the students when needed.

Marie-Ann Wetter, Kathryn Fisher, and Sheila Burgess are the teachers for Credit Recovery.

Students can recover credits in English, Math, Social Studies, Science, Health, and PE.

The number of students who take Credit Recovery can vary from a few students to 40 or 50 according to Debra Yamakawa, counselor.

Credit Recovery can be helpful but it is also different from regular in-class learning. One student in Credit Recovery said, “The learning that you do isn’t as attention grabbing as one-on-one learning in a classroom where students work hard.”

Although students have to pay to take this class, they are allowed to register but the credit will not be entered into their transcript till the cost is completely paid.

One of the criticisms of the Credit Recovery is that it is not fair to those students who worked hard during the school year and earned a credit in a regular classroom doing work for the whole year.

But every student has a unique reason why they failed a class.

“People fail for different reasons for example, a student may not attend school because they are grieving the loss of a love one. Is it fair that they lost their loved one? I don’t think any student is prevented from using credit recovery and so I have to say that if everyone can do it then it has to be fair. The goal is to get students to become productive members of society and not to penalize those who have made mistakes,” said, David Kaniaupio, teacher.

Wetter said, “Every student deserves to be able to correct a wrong.”