Students who have failed a core course that is required for graduation often re-take the course they failed. In recent years, school districts have been using on-line courses for the purpose of allowing their students to recover the credits they need. This study was an ex post facto exploratory examination of descriptive and inferential statistics using data generated by students taking a credit recovery course in Algebra. The study examined the overall success rates of passing the course for a group of students using a PLATO[R] online course. Once it was determined that students in general were increasing their passing grades following the online course, then the factors of age, gender, year in high school, percentage of modules completed, ethnicity, economic disadvantage, time spent, and whether the student took a customized version of the course or the "off the shelf" version were examined to see if these factors have significant effects on the final scores. A preliminary model was built that showed that only three of the factors demonstrated a significant effect. The model was tested on a second set of data and returned similar results. The results showed that the greater the percentage of the modules completed, the better the students scored. More time on task actually indicated a lower score. Students who used the off the shelf version did better than those who used a customized version. Although something of a preliminary study with limitations in terms of the size of the study and lack of longitudinal data, there were strong implications found that PLATO online courses are viable tools in credit recovery. Finally, a number of areas for future study were identified. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]