You know the one. The student who puts their head down the minute class starts. The student who has stopped turning in assignments, not because they can’t do the work, but because somewhere along the way, they stopped believing the work mattered. The student who acts out, disrupts class, or pushes back against teachers because frustration has become easier to show than disengagement. The student who is capable, smart, and full of potential…but is slowly falling further and further behind.
Maybe they’ve missed too much school. Maybe the traditional classroom simply isn’t working for them. Maybe they’re overwhelmed by how far behind they are. Or maybe they’ve experienced failure so many times that not trying feels safer than trying and failing again.
Every school has “that one kid.”
At Centric Learning, those are exactly the students we think about when we build learning solutions. Reengaging a disengaged learner doesn’t always mean asking them to work harder. Sometimes, it means giving them a different way to succeed.
Full-Time Asynchronous: When a Student Needs a Different Path
For some students, the traditional school day itself has become part of the problem. They may struggle with attendance, anxiety around the classroom environment, family or work responsibilities, frequent transitions, or simply learning at the same pace and in the same way as everyone else.
Centric Learning’s Full-Time Asynchronous program gives students another path forward.
Instead of relying on passive, click-through instruction, students engage with Project-Based Learning that asks them to apply what they are learning through meaningful projects. Our competency-based approach focuses on demonstrating mastery—not simply logging seat time. Students can work with greater flexibility while still receiving structure, support, and access to certified teachers. For the student who has decided, “School just isn’t for me,” sometimes changing how they experience school can change everything.
Credit Recovery: When “Too Far Behind” Starts to Feel Hopeless
Imagine being 16 or 17 years old and realizing you are multiple credits behind. Graduation can suddenly feel very far away. That’s when students often begin asking themselves a dangerous question:
“What’s the point?”
Centric Learning’s Credit Recovery solution is designed to help students see a realistic path forward. Rather than automatically requiring students to repeat everything they have already learned, our competency-based model can identify what they know and allow them to focus their time and effort on the skills and concepts they still need to master. The goal isn’t to make earning credit easy.
It’s to stop making students repeatedly prove what they already know.
When a student can finally see progress—one course, one credit, and one success at a time—graduation can begin to feel possible again. And sometimes, possible is exactly what a disengaged student needs.
Tutoring: When a Student Just Needs Someone in Their Corner
Sometimes “that one kid” doesn’t need a completely different school or curriculum. They just need help. A student may have missed an important concept months ago and never caught up. Each new lesson builds on something they never fully understood, frustration grows, confidence drops, and eventually they stop raising their hand.
That’s where Centric Learning Tutoring can help.
Through individualized and high-dosage tutoring options, students can receive focused support from an educator who can slow things down, identify learning gaps, answer questions, and help rebuild confidence. Because sometimes the moment that reengages a student is surprisingly simple: “Oh…I get it now.”
Who Is Your “One Kid”?
Think about your school, classroom, or program. There is probably a student whose name immediately came to mind while you were reading this. Maybe they need a completely different learning environment. Maybe they need a faster, more achievable path toward recovering credits. Maybe they simply need someone to sit beside them and help them believe they can do the work.
Whatever the reason for their disengagement, giving up on learning shouldn’t be their only option. Centric Learning provides schools with flexible Full-Time Asynchronous, Credit Recovery, and Tutoring solutions designed to meet students where they are—and help them start moving forward again. Because sometimes changing the trajectory of a school doesn’t begin with changing everything.
It begins with reaching that one kid.