Life Unboxed Blog
Life Unboxed Blog
Highschool Credits Made Simple: Guide To Homeschooling Highschool
Highschool credits are important regardless of the path your teenager takes. If your homeschooling highschool, then you need to know about highschool credits.
Understanding homeschool highschool credits is going to help you create a strong homeschool high school transcript, and preparing your teen for life beyond homeschool. If you've ever wondered how many credits your teen needs and how to assign them, you're in the right place.
Yes, the idea of planning for high school can feel overwhelming at first, but let me help you simplify the process, so you can confidently plan for high school. Knowing how to track highschool credits and what to track will make it so much easier.
Show notes and links: https://lifeunboxed.blog/highschool-credits/
Grab your guide today! The Momtrepreneur's Guide to Homeschool Curriculum: https://lifeunboxed.blog/homeschool-curriculum/
RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THE SHOW:
Homeschool High School Transcript: https://youtu.be/H-DYy018WHU
Homeschool All in One Curriculum: https://youtu.be/jtTWm4rdxfQ
How to Motivate Teens for the Future: https://youtu.be/YmmPBRsIo3g
Dual Enrollment Decoded: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly:
Teenagers Resume Guide: Easy Hacks to Create the Perfect Resume: https://youtu.be/Y-YMtElFg5k
Other High School Credit Standards: https://hslda.org/post/3-ways-to-determine-my-teens-high-school-course-credit
Homeschool Dual Enrollment: https://youtu.be/2t3q5TDsJJE
Journals and Notebooks for Mom + Homeschool Resources: https://geni.us/Jodiethemom
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Highschool credits are important regardless of the path your teenager takes. If your homeschooling highschool, then you need to know about highschool credits.
Understanding homeschool highschool credits is going to help you create a strong homeschool high school transcript, https://lifeunboxed.blog/homeschool-high-school-transcript and preparing your teen for life beyond homeschool. If you've ever wondered how many credits your teen needs and how to assign them, you're in the right place.
Yes, the idea of planning for high school can feel overwhelming at first, but let me help you simplify the process, so you can confidently plan for high school. Knowing how to track highschool credits and what to track will make it so much easier.
I am currently on my third high schooler and third driver, help us all, and I know the anxiety that I felt when my oldest was in 8th grade. I didn’t have a clue. In the moment it felt very stressful. But now that I am 3 kids deep, it is totally a piece of cake. Mom, you can do this, and it is easier than you think.
Why do You Need to Track Highschool Credits?
Let’s talk tracking credits because these are going to be very important no matter what path you take to graduation. Yes, you give a diploma, and you can order one from HSLDA, but it is the transcript that is going to validate your diploma. And it is the credits on the transcript that are showing the completed courses.
That means a diploma doesn’t carry any weight without the transcript. Colleges, military, or any other institution will always ask for the transcript and not the diploma. It is the credits on the high school transcript https://lifeunboxed.blog/homeschool-high-school-transcript that validates your homeschooling highschool. The diploma is just the certificate of completion.
What Exactly Are Highschool Credits?
A credit is a unit of measurement representing completed academic course work. The credits on a high school transcript represent the students time spent on the course.
Typically, one year's worth of course work is 1 credit hour. It is usually calculated at 150 hours of academic work is one credit and 75 hours is a half a credit, or 1 semester worth of work. These hours include course content, instruction time, and the time spent by the student on the work outside of the classroom or outside of the textbooks.
For example, Drivers Education is on my kids' transcripts. They are required to do 50 hours of actual driving time, then we discussions, online drivers education, etc. All of this time spent on driver’s education comes to a half a credit, which is 75 hours.
I know what's going through your mind, how do I actually determine if they put in the time? Do I need track hours now. The answer is no. Look at the publisher. Many times the publisher will mention how many credit hours the curriculum is. If the schedule requires them to work on the curriculum 5 days per week for 30-36 weeks, then this is a full-year course, and it is one credit hour.
If the curriculum is once a week for a year or it is 5 days per week for 15 weeks, then it is a half credit.
It is important to use reasonable judgement. You don't want to inflate your kids’ academic performance, but you also don't want to take away any achievements from them. When in doubt, look to see what the publisher recommends.
I know this might be more difficult if you are doing a literature-based or unschooling approach. In this case you might want to track hours more carefully. But I typically use a homeschool all in one curriculum, so there are probably better ways to track highschool credits for an unschooling approach.
Highschool Credit Standards
Now, let’s talk credits. Where did they even come from? The standard credit hour used is the Carnegie Credit. Now, before I go full nerd there are five states where the public schools use different credit values. Those states are California, Nebraska, New Jersey, Idaho, and Indiana. If you live in these states, you can follow the public schools' credit system or you can use Carnegie Credits. The important thing is to be consistent with the system you use.
If you want to explore more on these other credit systems, then read this post. https://hslda.org/post/3-ways-to-determine-my-teens-high-school-course-credit
Now, I am going to go full nerd for a minute, and let's talk about Carnegie Credits. This is the standard credit that the majority of institutions use. This unit of measurement was developed in 1906 with the express purpose to measure how much time a student spent on a subject. The idea of credits was to standardize educational outputs and faculty loads.
The Carnegie Credit originally represented 120 hours of instruction. This comes out one full hour, 5 days per week, for a total of 24 weeks in a year. Remember, these hours are not just time spent in the textbook. Any time spent outside of the textbook on the subject counts.
I am done going full nerd and that if probably more information than you actually need, but I like to know the backstory of things.
Where Will I Use Highschool Credits?
Credits are add to the high school transcript, and it is the transcript that will validate the diploma given. You can't just give a diploma you also need a transcript.
The most important thing to know about credits is make sure your child is getting the right ones for his next step. While public schools will follow state or district requirements for high school graduation. There aren’t any state mandated requirements for high school.
Yes, there may be subject requirements for homeschoolers, but as of this writing states do not mandate graduation requirements. But each state is different, so double-check the specific requirements for your state.
That’s the easy part. Here is the big however. If your student is wanting to go to a four-year university, attend a two-year college, join the military, or another vocational path. All of these institutions will have entrance requirements for high school graduates.
Your student will need a high school transcript showing the specific subject areas that are required by these institutions as completed.
Properly assigning and tracking credits ensures your teen stays competitive and meets expectations for future opportunities.
Sample Homeschooling Highschool Plans
After high school plans will determine how you plan highschool credits, and it will vary. Total highschool credits are usually 20-30 credits for graduation. Here's what a typical graduation plan looks like (this is just to give suggestions and educational purposes, please do your own research):
Planning for a 4-year University (approximately 26-30 credits)
- 4 credits of English
- 4 credits of Math
- 4 credits of Science
- 4 credits of History/Social Studies
- .5 credit of Personal Finance
- .5 credit of Health
- 1 credit of Physical Education
- 2 credits of Foreign Language (same language taken in consecutive years)
- 1 credit Computer Course
- 5 credits of Electives
Planning for a 2-year college, military, or trade school (approximately 24-28 credits)
- 4 credits of English
- 3 credits of Math
- 3 credits of Science
- 3 credits of History/Social Studies
- .5 credit of Personal Finance
- .5 credit of Health
- 1 credit of Physical Education
- 2 credits of Foreign Language (same language taken in consecutive years)
- 1 credit Fine Arts
- 6 credits of Electives
These plans are just to give you a general idea. Full disclosure, none of my 3 teens followed these plans to the letter. We used them as a guide and tailored high school for their interests.
Yes, they all did 2 years of a foreign language and health. My daughter has more Language Arts classes because that interests her. My son has more digital arts classes because that interests him. My oldest son had way too many science classes because we thought we needed them (we did not). They also do dual enrollment, and once they have their associates degrees the high school transcript really doesn't matter anymore.
There really are so many options for homeschooling highschool. Find out what your child wants to do or if he doesn't know (and that's ok too), then set him up with the best possible outcomes. We decided to do college dual enrollment, so the kids would get an associate's degree for really cheap, and an associate's degree looks better on the resume than just a high school diploma. If they want to continue after that, it is up to them.
Keeping Track of Highschool Credits
Now that you have an idea of highschool credits, you need to keep track of them. The best way to do that is with a homeschool high school transcript. I usually create the transcript the summer before high school starts, and then I will update it every year. This way I have a current transcript, and I don't need to try and remember everything they did for four years.
Conclusion: Confidently Navigating Homeschooling Highschool
Assigning and tracking homeschool high school credits may seem complicated, but once you understand the system you realize how easy it is.