How do credits work? (high school homeschooling)?

Question

I've gone to public school where they have told us that the state requires a certain number of credits to graduate. I'm now going to do homeschool for the second half of my junior year and am wondering about how the credits apply to homeschooling.

Answer 1

You have to get a minimum number of credits to graduate.  For me it's 24 credits (a certain number for each subject to add up to this).  The nicer of a college you wanna go to the more credits you need.

To gain one credit in subjects with actual text books you need to complete at least 80% of the book.

To get one credit in things such as music and Phy. Ed.,which don't usually require a text book, you need to complete 130 hours of that subject.

To get 1/2 credit you need to complete half of a book or 65 hours depending on the subject.  It works a lot like public school.

Answer 2

Think of credits as a checklist. They show what subjects you have taken and "passed"

So, you will basically start up where you left off. You can request a copy of your transcript from your publicschool, then see what you want to do to finish up.

Some states have graduation requirements for homeschoolers, some do not.

If you are in a state that does not, it is between you and your parents what you want to study the remainder of your highschool time.

In the publicschool, you probably had a course of study plan that your counselor set up for you. You can choose to follow that or not.

If you wish to continue counting credits, you get one credit per subject. Calculus is a credit. US History is a credit. Smaller subjects that you can complete quickly will count as half a credit (think pe, or keyboarding since you were in ps)

Whether you decide to count credits or not is not the important part, it is studying what you want to study and making sure you are prepared for where you want to go next.

Colleges do not look at credits, per se, but they do look at what you have taken, although the majority of their attention will be on your test scores.

Answer 3

Credits don't really apply but if you want to figure them in it works on a

General Major and College Major

This varies widely with the school.  For example one system may use 100 credits for a general and 120 for a college.

College major credits include

Geometry 1 and 2

Trig 1 and 2

Pre-Calculus

Calculus

Math based Chemistry

Math based Physics

Statistics

Economics

Civics (Political structures and current world events)

Biology 1 and 2

Psychology

English Grammar and Composition

Optional:  2nd language 1, 2, 3 and 4

General 1 year of studies counts for 1 and 2

Half a year (semester) counts as 1 not both, depending on the level.

General credits, required for both majors, include

Business courses

Art courses

Shop courses

Drama

Music

Instrument (up to 1 year)

General Math (fractions, pre-algebra)

History

Geography

General Science or Earth Science (Astronomy, geology, oceanography, meterology, etc.)

Computers

Keyboarding 1 and 2

Health

Driver Education

PE (gym or exercise -- any sport counts)

As credits go, colleges view 20 hours over 20 weeks as 1 credit.  40 hours would be 2 credits and 60 hours 3 credits.

Those are semester credits.

High schools rates it higher, 90 - 100 hours is usually considered a full semester.  That's 50 minute 5 days a week for 20 weeks.

If you look at those states with manditory requirements it's usually 180 days or 1000 hours a year of instruction.

That would be 10, 100 hour classes.

So if you watch the Discovery or Scinece channel 3 hours a week and read through a general science book one or two chapters a week, after 20 weeks you have basically about 100 hours in General Science.

That would be a full semester credit class.

The same would apply if you read a small astronomy book, meterology book, geology book, botany book and watched some PBS or something.

What you can do is keep a log and break it down

General Math

Algebra 1

Algebra 2

Geometry 1

Geometry 2

Trig 1

Trig 2

Calculus 1

Calculus 2

Earth Science

English Composition

English Grammar and Vocabulary

English Literature

History

Geography

Politicis or Civics

Chemistry

Physics

And then log in your hours of study and total them up

When you accumulate 100 hours in a given area that's 1/2 year credit, 200 hours 1 year credit.

Things like English can have 3-4 years credit, same with history.

Earth Science is usually limited to 1 or 2 years

Each math area is 1 year

Foregin Language is 1 to 5 years

If you got to an arts and craft center or parks offering of photography or painting or clay or scuplture you can count those hours as Art

Karate classes, softball, little league, soccer, skateboarding, running can all count as PE

PE is used in determining a total score for graduation.

If you unschool in something

Say you like working with Power Point and learn to use it or Adobe Photoshop.  If you crop pictures, clean them up, do effects with them, color correction.  This counts as technology or computers or even business credits.

If you play guitar and learn songs and do it in earnest that counts as music or instrument (band)

If you and your friends make You Tube videos and do skits or comedy and stuff like that, it counts as Drama or Radio-TV (which some highschools have).

If you repair your computer or repair things at home it can count as technology/comptuers and shop.

If you work on your car, rebuilding carburators, doing oil changes yourself that counts as Auto Shop

These are valid credits cause you would learn them in some highschools.

You can't be unreasonable.  2 years of auto shop is about the most you can credit and you need a portfollio to document you have done 400 hours of work on the car or cars in general.

Putting together a model airplane doesn't count, BUT building a dog house or bird house or mail box from scratch with saws and wood counts as wood shop

Shops can often be counted as 1/4 semester as some school do it this way.  So two different shop hours counts for 1/2 semester or 100 hours.  If the two are roughly equal and you can probably fudge with 40 hours in one and 60 in another.

10 hours won't count for much of anything.  That's like a "drop" or "incomplete".

As for the value for the credits, you can also contact your local school and find out what they use to count 1 class and if they count classes with different values such as PE vs Math Chemistry

Find out if AP courses count for more.

Then you go on the bases of approx 90-100 hours (technically in brick school its 90 hours or less, but under the state laws of some districts they want homeschoolers to do 100 hours, which is MORE than you would learn in brick school).

Answer 4

Your parents will need to look into the laws where you live. That is, if you are doing "pure" homeschooling. Each state has different requirements but if you earn credits, it'll likely be what your parents approve.

Answer 5

You get grades, but not credits, in homeschool. Homeschool is more of an enriching approach if done right. Unfortunately, because of our system--focusing more on individual growth than mass behavior managment--we face problems when trying to apply for colleges, which is why it's a good idea to go to the Homeschool Legal Defense Assoc. (HSLDA) and get some advice, maybe even get some help. Happy sailing!

Answer 6

When you master a topic, you get one credit.

But as someone else said, you don't have to have that as a homeschooler to graduate. Credits are important for public schools to prove that kids are learning and getting a minimal amount of education.

Colleges don't look at credits, per se, they look at the number and type of classes taken, as well as the ACT/SAT score.

Answer 7

Well people are telling you that credits don't apply, but actually they do.  Even if the transcript you receive is generated by your parents, then still need to use the Carnegie credit system to show how much work you've done.

Essentially 1 high school credit equals 1 full year class.  To be more specific I believe it is to be 120 hours of instruction per credit, but for purposes of homeschooling... if it is a full year class where you do a lesson pretty much every day for a school year... that is one credit in that subject.  If it is a semester class it is 1/2 credit, if it is a half semester class it is 1/4 credit... etc.

You might want to go to the library and pick up a book titled, "What about College" by Caffi Cohen.  It goes into great detail about this and other subjects.

Also you might find some good information here:

http://www.hslda.org/highschool/academic...

Answer 8

Credits really don't apply to homeschooling in general. Homeschooling really focuses more on learning, personal growth, and meeting challenges and goals-- not so much on grades, credits, or certificates. You don't need to ever have gotten a grade or credit in your life to be a homeschooler-- it's a much more involved, more personal journey than any marks or measurements that any institution invented.

Homeschoolers graduate when they feel they're ready. Their parents can give them a diploma printed off the computers and a set of transcript listing all their educational pursuits. You can take those and your standardized test scores and apply for college or a job.

You can always go through a distance learning school or virtual school (not real homeschooling) if you really want credits, though. Maybe they'll take what you have and apply them to their program.  

I really don't see the need for them if you're planning to homeschool, but there it is.