Please join us for a very special webinar this Thursday! This free webinar will take the mystery out of determining high school credits and assigning homeschool grades. Also, learn an easy-to-implement option for creating an amazing homeschool transcript. Find out how to make a transcript that will save you loads of time, money and frustration – AND impress the colleges!
Title: “Credits and Grades and Transcripts! Oh, My!!”
Date: Thursday, December 3, 2009
Time: 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM PST
After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.
This webinar is going to deliver some amazing content. People who watch for the full hour will get valuable insider tips on how to win Early Responder Bonuses when we launch the Total Transcript Solution on Thursday, December 3 at Noon Pacific Time!
The deadline for our blog contest giveaway is tonight. The response has been tremendous to this offer. Don’t miss out. Win a copy of The HomeScholar Total Transcript Solution!
How do you weigh assignments and tests when you are doing an honors course in your homeschool high school?
Hi Lee! I have a question or you, but first I want to say thank you for all the wonderful information you provide. I have learned quite a bit about transcripts and many other topics from you and the resources you provide. So, Thank you! On to my question….. My son is doing Math-U-See for Algebra 1 this year and it includes an honors option. My question is…How do I weight his regular assignments, honors assignments, and tests? What have you found to be the best way to assign percentages to these and calculate a final grade? Thanks,
~ Heather in Texas
The easy answer: any way you want to!
Look at this college website. It clearly states that no matter what you do or think about weighting of classes, they will re-work your transcript according to what they view as important. Here is the paragraph I’m referring to:
Calculation of High School Academic GPA
The Office of Admissions recalculates all grade point averages – we do not use the GPAs listed on your high school transcript or report card. Only academic subjects will be used in the recalculation. Grades of C- or better in dual enrollment, AICE, AP, and IB coursework will receive 1 full bonus point in the calculation; grades of C- or better in honors, pre-AICE, pre-AP, and pre-IB will receive 1/2 bonus point. For repeated courses, we will only forgive a low grade if the exact course has been repeated (i.e. Algebra I will not replace an Algebra I honors grade – both courses will be used in the recalculation).
So you can give weighted credits and lower grades for honors courses, or you can give regular credits and regular grades, and it will all come out in the wash.
This provides you with a huge amount of freedom. You need to recognize that public and private high schools all have a different way of providing grades and credits. Teachers within a single school may have their own unique way of determining grades and credits. Trust yourself! You can do it in any way that makes sense to you and your family. For my family, I decided to go with the mastery approach. When they mastered the material with a 90% or greater, I gave them an A. You get to decide what works for your family. You can’t mess up, because colleges will recalculate your grade point average to make sure that it’s a fair comparison with children from other schools.
Be forewarned, though, because I don’t give a lot of hard-and-fast rules. Instead, I emphasize that there are a wide variety of right ways to providing grades and credits. I also have a video course on “Grades and Credits” that is regularly shown on my Gold Care Club. When you purchase my book, you get a free month on my Gold Care Club. If you are a member, just request that course and I can provide it to you.
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There is a lot of details about grading in my book, “Sample Comprehensive Record.“ You can see for yourself how a real homeschooler provided course grades without tests.
I used tests for math, science, and foreign language – because I used curriculum that provided tests for those subjects, not because those subjects require tests. Most of the other classes listed in the Sample Comprehensive Record describe how I evaluated without testing. If you are having trouble getting your head around this issue, the book can be a real eye-opener!
If you haven’t tested prior to high school, there is no reason to change. If there is a subject you are studying, and you don’t want to test but you don’t know what else to do, I encourage you to think outside the box.
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When thinking about putting boy scouts on your transcript, it helps to think about the millions of hours you spend doing those activities. If you consider that PE only requires roughly 150 hours of his boy scouts experience, and the usual boy scout may spend over 300 hours….. you have PLENTY of hours to call some of them PE and other hours extra curricular without double dipping.
But look at it from another perspective. I took choir in high school. Choir was on my transcript and I got a credit for it, but Choir was also listed in my activities list. My friends in Yearbook were the same way – it was a journalism credit AND a yearbook activity. The football team members got a PE credit AND they had varsity football on their activities. It’s OK to put things as both an activity and a subject if it’s really both. It’s important not to do double-dipping for credits, but listing them as a credit and an activity is fine. Boy scouts is a wonderful experience to put on your transcript for a class and an activity!
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My Facebook friend Christy asked me the age-old question, “How much record keeping should a high school student do for himself? I’m thinking reading list, volunteer hours…”
Here is the easy answer. As much as you can talk them into doing – but the buck stops with the parent. In other words, if the kids won’t do it, someone still has to make sure it gets done. My kids are wonderful, compliant, and on facebook, but I simply couldn’t talk them into doing any record keeping. As much as I think kids *should* do the reading list and volunteer hours, I know that reality can look different.
You may want to read my article about homeschool record keeping, playfully subtitled “How to Forget 4 Years of Latin.”
Are you ready to get serious about homeschooling high school? Send me anemailand let’s talk!
What do you do with hours that don’t add up to a full credit? Can you give partial credit?
I have a question for you. Last year, Katie’s sophomore year, she spent only 28 hours on Spanish. This summer she added about 15 more, for a total of 43. What can I do with these hours, since they don’t add up to a half credit? Would it be alright to assign no credit for the sophomore year, and use these credits toward the junior year? We could even try to achieve an entire credit for the junior year, using these 43 hours toward that goal. Does that work?
~Jan in Washington
Hi Jan!
It’s so nice to hear from you! Thanks for writing. And I’m ready to talk about Spanish credits!
When you don’t have quite enough hours for something, and you are counting the credits based on hours, then the answer is “wait.” Just keep adding up those hours until you DO have enough hours for a credit, and then you put “Spanish 1, 1 credit” on the transcript. It’s OK if that happens in December, June, or October – just whenever they get to that 120 -180 hour mark, give her the credit. There are some exceptions. Let me explain.
If you are using a curriculum that has some measurement in it, then you can give her credit based on how much curriculum she has finished. In other words, if she got through level one in Bob Jones or Rosetta Stone or Power Glide, then you can give her one whole credit regardless of hours.
If she is pretty good at Spanish, and just didn’t do much bookwork, then you can measure her level of Spanish achievement with a SAT 2 Subject test. If she passes the exam, even with just a sample test at home, then you know she has learned two year’s worth of Spanish. That only works if she has become relatively fluent somehow – speaking it naturally at work or something. Here is a link to the SAT 2 Subject Test.
I don’t know much about your situation or your Spanish class, but it sounds like I would leave off Spanish for sophomore year. Wait until she earns 120 hours, then put “Spanish 1, 1 credit” on her transcript with the month and year she completed it, like “November 2009″. Then I would keep working on Spanish throughout the year, and when she arrived at her next 120 hours, then I would put in her second high school credit of Spanish.
Since your daughter is a junior this year, the time is getting just a little bit short for foreign language. To finish it in time, I think it would help to make sure she does Spanish FIRST each day, before everything else. That will help her be consistent with it all year, and help her to complete the two credits by the time she graduates.
Thanks for the great question! There is more information in chapter 6 of my transcripts e-book.
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Do you need a computer science course? It’s easy! You can do almost anything for a computer science course. Colleges want to know that your children are computer literate: Microsoft Word, internet skills, email, keyboarding etc. In some states, a graduation requirement is “Technology” and you have to have a “technology credit” for high school. It’s a VERY broad requirement, and almost anything goes.
If your child is already computer literate, then you could give them credit based on the skills they possess. You may want to write a course description listing your child’s skills. Ask the child to help. A more “computer savvy” teen will have more programs they can use. One idea is to go to the “programs” file of your computer and ask them all the things they are familiar with. Can you use excel? Power Point? Some kids are online constantly, so ask them if they can YouTube, or program a website, or if they blog. Those are great skills to learn.
If your child is NOT computer literate, then you can create a class. I would focus on basic “Microsoft Office” skills, basic typing with Mavis Beacon, and basic internet skills. Remember that the goal is computer literacy, and independence at college.
Have you checked out our redesigned website. I am so excited! Please let us know what you think of it.
I am occasionally asked about how I graded my kids in high school. I gave tests in about 1/2 my courses at home, and the other 1/2 we evaluated their learning in NON test ways. You can get a sample of what I mean in my article about grading English here.
I have a LONG section about grading in my e-book, The Easy Truth About Homeschool Transcripts. The process of grading is also described in the audio course called “Making a Transcript,” which comes as a bonus with the book.
Darcy asked me some followup questions after my homeschool high school seminar in Vancouver. Here are the answers I provided.
Can sign language count as a foreign language?
Yes! Most colleges will accept sign language as a foreign language. It’s always a good idea to ask the colleges you are looking at, to find out their specific policy, because it can vary. However, most colleges that I have seen will accept American Sign Language and Latin (those are the two most asked about languages!)
If a child does dance, can that count for PE as well as Fine Arts?
Yes, but not with double-dipping. One credit of dance can be PE or it can be Fine Art, but it can’t be BOTH. The 150 hours of a credit can only be counted once. Usually people who like dancing do a LOT of dancing. They will often have different kinds of dance, so that one can be the PE credit and another can be the Fine Art credit. (Remember you don’t need to have both of those every year!) You can’t use the same hours for two purposes. But you might have enough hours to do both.
Would 4-H things like “Horse Group” or sewing be counted as electives?
4-H and Boy Scouting are very similar in one way: almost all of it is completely educational in nature. I haven’t met a 4-H that didn’t belong on a transcript! I would include your “horse group” as an elective, but if you are doing much riding, it might be a good fit for PE. Sewing can be a wonderful elective for textile science, fashion design, or home economics.
Can “Horse” be science?
The study of horses can certainly be a science, as long as you are studying the SCIENCE of a horse. Equine studies, veterinary studies, biology of the horse, and that sort of thing are great. In my opinion, using a horse for science would probably involve some lab work or veterinary skills. A good rule of thumb for determining if something can be a science is to just look at a college course catalog. Is there anything in a college catalog like that? Since we know that veterinarians exist, and that some kids work as a vet assistant, then the science of a horse would be workable.
Can online courses go on a transcript? How do you give credit for courses taken online? When homeschoolers get together and talk, sometimes a phrase will stick with you, making you wonder and fret. Lisa was told that online classes won’t be recognized for high school credit, and wondered what that meant.
Hi Lee – quick question. During a weekend away with some fellow Homeschool students, one of them commented, “online classes don’t count for high school credit.” Both of my boys take Potters School classes for Apologia Science and a Music Theory class. Is there any truth to that statement (i.e. that online classes won’t be recognized for high school credit) in your experience and expertise? I am just wondering where that thought might of come from.Thanks.
Lisa in Washington
Hi Lisa,
Since there is such a wide variety of online classes, there is no way to say they ALL don’t count for high school credit. There are online high school classes, online college classes and online “just” classes.
In Washington State, the homeschool parent gets to decide what a high school credit is. Beyond even Washington, it is the parent that decides what to count and not count on the transcript.
My advice is to count these credits exactly the same way you count any other educational experience, like music lessons or PE. Either give credit for a completed textbook, or count hours to make sure they have worked 120-180 hours for each credit you award. When you do high school level work it should count for high school credit, and when you do college level work it should count for dual enrollment giving high school credit and college credit at the same time.
Perhaps the conflict was about the word “accredited?” There are some experiences that accredited high schools may not accept for their accredited transcript. That doesn’t mean that you can’t include them in your “official” homeschool transcript – it just means that they have chosen not to offer those classes at their school.
I hope I’ll get to see you at the WHO convention this year! I’ll be speaking on “Grades and Credits” so it will be a great fit for your questions. I’ll also be in Portland and at the WATCH convention.
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