Credit Recovery Solutions South Nodaway

Thanks to a partnership with Launch, South Nodaway High School students are able to makeup credits with the help of caring and considerate Missouri-certified teachers.

High school students deserve high school teachers. In a seated classroom, you’d never imagine leaving your lesson plans open and trusting your students to navigate through it on their own. Unfortunately, this is often the case with for-profit online course providers—the content is delivered by computers rather than instructors.
This was the case in South Nodaway School District, and superintendent Johnnie Silkett didn’t like it. “We used an online system that didn’t have a teacher on the other end, let alone a certified teacher,” Silkett says. “After looking at Launch, we discovered that we would have real, certified teachers working with our students.” This works perfect in South Nodaway, where there are only 55 high school students. “We don’t have enough staff to have a teacher working with our credit recovery students, so we have a room next to the principal’s office that our credit recovery students use,” Silkett says. “This set up works perfect with Launch, as the students can work at a pace made for them yet still have a certified teacher helping them along the way.” While the certified teachers and student-teacher interaction were one thing that attracted Silkett to partnering with Launch, he said he also appreciated the curriculum, which is aligned to Missouri Learning Standards—in Launch’s credit recovery courses, the content actually looks like the course students have previously failed. The fact that Launch helps the school provide students with expanded course options is also a bonus. “We are excited to have more flexibility in our schedule now,” Silkett says. “The amount of offerings for regular students is outstanding. We are moving forward knowing that we do not have the staff to offer all the classes that Launch can provide.”

South Nodaway Facts
K-12 Enrollment: 178
High School Enrollment: 55
City Population: Barnard, 246; Guilford, 82
School Colors: Cardinal Red and Black
Mascot: Longhorns
Notable alum: Darbi Bauman (retired principal who worked in the district 32 years)
Fun fact: When the South Nodaway School District was created in the early 1950s, its mascot was picked because of the rancher who lived between the two towns the district serves had longhorn cattle.