homeschooling high school: a typical course of study, what does that even mean?
Part one, homeschooling high school, HERE. And some other useful resources HERE.
If you are looking for the direct route to post secondary, here are some thoughts. I’ll make another post in this series on other options available for accessing adult education.
If you are operating “on your own” - negotiating high school can be exciting, disconcerting, confusing. For both the parents and the students. We only need to look back on our own experience to realize that even in the school system we were in, it was kind of overwhelming.
If you’re feeling confused, you’re in good company. Bear in mind that post secondary institutions are more interested in the typical course of study, than the graduation certificate. It’s the transcript they want to see, that is the language that they speak.
There’s lots of help for homeschoolers out there, but maybe a quick overview is helpful. In general, high school is considered the last three or four years of your grade school education. Most post secondary institutions are interested in those years (some want to see course of study for the last three years, some for four…so if you plan on developing a transcript for four years, you don’t limit the options). There are a lot of variables. Generally, post secondary institutions want to see a “typical course of study” - that would be what kids normally study in high school in order to graduate. But “typical course of study” isn’t particularly easy to nail down.
There are some wonderful resources for high school homeschooling.
Unschooling to University by Judy Arnall. Don’t let the name fool you. This book will help you negotiate the transition from homeschool to university. Much of the book are thoughts on unschooling, and many ideas for implementing the unschooling philosophy into regular life through the fostering of relationships and natural learning. Yes, relationship effects everything, including kids heading off to post secondary.
Homescholar. As little or as much help as you need to negotiate/plan/make decisions about high school to post secondary. Particularly useful to American students.
High School of Your Dreams. A distinctly Catholic resource on discernment, high school and career planning.
Like everything else on the planet, negotiating high school has its own terminology or lingo. Some basic terms might be helpful:
High school transcript: this is the document (usually a single page) that outlines all the courses a student took during high school. It will include the name of the course, and the student’s marks in the class, usually represented by both a percentage and letter grade. Essential what we would consider the “report card” at the high school level.
Credits: these are the recognition (the tally) of the courses taken and passed by the student. Credits can be a little confusing, as different places speak in different languages. For example, in B.C., where we live, a full year course completed is a “four credit course.” So for high school English, students would require grade 9, 10, 11 and 12 English; a total of sixteen credits in English. In Ontario, however, a full year course is a “one credit course.” One credit, in Ontario, determines a full year course. Important to note, then, that credits for a half year class would be half of a full credit class. If they took one semester of a philosophy course, in B.C., they would earn 1.5 credits. However, if they accomplished an entire year’s course in one semester (or six weeks, even, some kids work better that way), they would still earn three credits. Depending on how credits are calculated where you live, and where the student is applying for post secondary, it may be necessary to indicate the “credit system” your province is using on their transcript. For the sake of expedience, unless the student knows exactly what they want to do after high school, and the student is hoping to go directly into college, it’s probably a good idea to just line up their high school courses with the expectations of the state, province or country in which you live.
Required courses and Elective courses: Some courses are non-negotiable, all students must have them to graduate (bear in mind, that even if your child isn’t receiving a diploma, most universities and colleges want that “typical course of study”). Elective courses are the courses that offer a full range of choice. Required and Elective courses must add up to a certain number of total credits over the high school years to graduate (or be eligible for post secondary consideration). An example of this is, in B.C., these are the required courses:
A Language Arts 10 (4 credits)
A Language Arts 11 (4 credits)
A Language Arts 12 (4 credits)
A Social Studies 10 (4 credits)
A Social Studies 11 or 12 (4 credits)
A Mathematics 10 (4 credits)
A Mathematics 11 or 12 (4 credits)
A Science 10 (4 credits)
A Science 11 or 12 (4 credits)
Physical and Health Education 10 (4 credits)
An Arts Education and/or an Applied Design, Skills, and Technologies 10, 11, or 12 (4 credits)
Career Life Education (4 credits)
Career Life Connections (4 credits)
Some of the above course would have flexibility, like which branch of science or math. The Elective courses can be virtually anything. A gargantuan list is available HERE. And it’s not even complete. So under our province’s grad requirements, a total of 80 credits minimum are required, 52 credits from Required courses, and a minimum of 28 elective credits. Remember, in our system here, we are using a "4 credit per full year course” system.
Post secondary credits: just to make things extra confusing, credits at post secondary are typically three per semester course.
When I was designing this worksheet for parents homeschooling high school, I wanted to have it cover a wide variety of possible areas of study. So, the headings don’t represent everything they SHOULD study, only what they COULD study.
I’ve got the PDF for this on both pinterest HERE and as a file on facebook HERE.
The intent of these pages was for parents to print off four copies, one for each high school year…pop them in a duotang, and label the years. Write down everything they do. Seriously. You will not remember what they did four years ago, guaranteed.
Trust me, I speak from experience…
