What constitutes a credit?

[~Tara~]

As I look forward to Eldest starting high school, I wonder, what constitutes a credit?

 

Oh sure it's easy if you have a book! Finish the book, pass the course, credit earned.

 

But what about some of those extracurricular activities?

 

For instance - automotive. I was just sitting here talking to Eldest about credits due for each diploma offered. I mentioned electives and we glanced through this list of possibilities given by our cover school. (not as in classes they offer, just a list of suggestions on their simple credit tracking sheet). He noted automotive. Ok, great...now how would he earn a credit for that? His dad could teach him stuff, I know that. But, how do we know/decide what needs taught and if/when that qualifies as a credit? See what I'm saying?

 

And do sports count for credits?

 

Oy...my head is spinning. I need to see if we have 'preparing for high school' class/seminar coming up!

[momofkhm]

According to "Transcript Boot Camp" by Inge Cannon, a credit is equal to a carnegie unit which is roughly 200 hours of work in a regular school. She doesn't really waver from that number even in the homeschool setting.

 

Ultimately, though, it's up to you. I have a friend who is counted her son's time in a band as a music credit. There was personal practice time. Band practice time and performance time. It did not add up to 200 hours in one year though.

 

The sports question - it really depends. You can give credit for those, or you can list them as an extracurricular activity or I like to use them as PE.

 

Disclaimer: My oldest is still in high school. I have not actually written a transcript that anyone else has seen. She has not been accepted at a college. This is just information that I have gleaned over the years.

[~Tara~]

Disclaimer: My oldest is still in high school. I have not actually written a transcript that anyone else has seen. She has not been accepted at a college. This is just information that I have gleaned over the years.

 

Well that's a start at least, thank you.

 

I'm liking the sports as PE idea, that's for sure.

Music - my son plays in our church's worship band, so has group practice for that as well as personal practice and lessons..sounds worthy of a credit like your friend, ya think?

[regentrude]

According to "Transcript Boot Camp" by Inge Cannon, a credit is equal to a carnegie unit which is roughly 200 hours of work in a regular school. She doesn't really waver from that number even in the homeschool setting.

 

 

200 hours???

I have seen several other sources that cite 130 hours as a Carnegie unit.

With 200 hours, a class that is one period a day for each school day of the school year would not qualify.

Edited February 3, 2011 by regentrude

[Brindee]

If you check around at what different places consider worth 1 credit, I think you'll find anywhere from 120-200 hours. We do 180 hours for one credit, although I think WA state considers 150 the min. amt. of hours for a credit.

 

PE is usually considered 1/2 a credit.

 

My dd takes piano, voice and is teaching herself guitar. She practices piano 2 hours a day, 5 days a week, and sometimes more on weekends. She practices voice 30 minutes or so a day, helps with praise team at church off and on, helps lead song service at another church off and on, and does special music sometimes. She practices guitar 15-30 minutes a day, and that's it for guitar. She doesn't know it well enough to play it anywhere. Anyway, for all that I'm giving her 1 credit. I think that's really all that would be accepted for music, even if she puts in more hours. It's okay though, she loves it!

 

I'd say track the hours and check with your state on what the requirements are for a credit. You can find out state info. from the HSLDA site http://www.hslda.org/laws/default.asp

 

Really, high school isn't as scary as it seems at first! Best wishes!

[Corraleno]

According to the Carnegie Foundation, a Carnegie Unit is 120 hrs:

The unit was developed in 1906 as a measure of the amount of time a student has studied a subject. For example, a total of 120 hours in one subject—meeting 4 or 5 times a week for 40 to 60 minutes, for 36 to 40 weeks each year—earns the student one "unit" of high school credit.

 

Jackie

[Julie in MN]

According to the Carnegie Foundation, a Carnegie Unit is 120 hrs:

Jackie

 

I think that is classroom time and folks who reference 180 hours mean total time, with homework time. Most courses my kids took in public school required some time outside of the classroom. Credits like math and foreign language required huge time commitments at home. But even a credit in "band" included instrument/music practice at home (assumed daily), as well as participation in band performances (pep bands, marching band, concerts), in addition to the daily classroom time.

 

I think that's why Inge Cannon sets the bar at 180 hours. I've heard 140, 145, 150, and 180 cited most often over the years since I started counting high school hours, with the lower numbers usually for non-academic electives.

 

Julie

[naturelovinmama]

We're new to High School and I'm so glad you asked this question. My daughter does cheer leading and in order to count it for P.E. on her transcript here in GA she had to log 75 hours--per half credit.

[Kareni]

There are several ways of determining what constitutes a one credit course. First, if a textbook is for a standard course and your child finishes that textbook (i.e., Algebra 1 or Spanish 2), he or she would earn one credit.

 

For non-standard courses, you can base the credit on the number of hours spent on that course. (Of course, then there is the issue of determining what constitutes the correct number of hours. NARS considers 80 hours of work to be equivalent to one credit. That seems low to me -- I more commonly hear between 120 to 180 hours.)

 

Another possibility is to search for on-line syllabi to see what others consider to be a one credit course. For example, if you were to Google "high school syllabus Photography", you'd find some syllabi that might help you design a course. For less common courses, you might look for college syllabi. Bear in mind that a semester long college course is often considered equivalent to a year long high school course.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[momofkhm]

200 hours???

I have seen several other sources that cite 130 hours as a Carnegie unit.

With 200 hours, a class that is one period a day for each school day of the school year would not qualify.

 

From my Transcript Boot Camp notebook:

 

School administrators assume that the 135-150 hours of classroom instruction will generate another 65-150 hours in outside preparation (homework, requisite reading, study for tests, etc.). Thus a carnegie unit usually entails a minimum of 200 hours of work.

 

Again, just reporting what it says. There are other things she says that I don't agree with, but this is a starting point to figure out a credit.

 

(Don't agree with: typing a history paper. Count the time researching paper as history. Count the time typing as "keyboarding" so that by the end of high school. So that by the end of high school you can have a keyboarding credit. All that time should just be history.)

[Lori D.]

In case it helps, here's what I've come up with after researching the topic of credits. The bottom line for me was, whatever I decided to call a credit needed to be similar to what the local high schools called a credit (time/amount of work), AND needed to be fairly consistent (without being "legalistic") from one of our homeschool classes to the next -- for example: I wouldn't call one class in which we only put in 100 hours a 1 credit class, when all the other classes we put in 150 hours each.

 

BEST of luck! Warmly, Lori D.

 

 

A. Definition of a Credit

 

1. high school credit = a class that takes the equivalent of a year to complete

(NOTE: A high school "credit" is different from a college "unit". High school credit reflects how much of a school year was required to complete the course -- for example, a 1 credit course usually meets 5 days/week for the entire school year, with a class length of 40-50 minutes. In contrast: a college unit reflects how many hours a week the class meets over the course of the semester -- for example: a 4-unit college course may meet 2 times a week, with each class = 2 hours, OR, may meet 4 times a week, with each class = 1 hour)

 

a. high school 1.0 credit = 1 year class = 36 weeks = 120-180 hours

b. high school 0.5 credit = 1 semester class = 18 weeks = 60-90 hours

c. high school 0.25 credit = 1 quarter long = 9 weeks = 30-45 hours

d. high school 0.66 credit = 24 weeks = 80-120 hours

e. high school 0.33 credit = 12 weeks = 40-60 hours

 

2. all the work and/or hours to complete a high school class does NOT have to occur in the same year

 

 

B. How to Determine a Credit

 

1. completion of a standard textbook -- regardless of hours

a. most common method for math, science, other textbook-based courses

 

2. completion of credit hours

 

a. Carnegie hours: 1 credit = 120 hours

i. also called the "Student Hour" or a "Credit Hour"

ii. used by American colleges to assess high school attainment

iii. 120 hours = time a student is in class, or has contact with instructor

iv. comes out to 200 minutes/week for 36 weeks

(examples: 40 min/day, 5 day/week -- OR -- 50 min/day, 4 day/week)

 

b. academic course: 1 credit = 150 hours

i. used by most public school high school classes

ii. 180 school days x 50 minutes per class = 150 hours = 1 credit

 

c. science lab course or project-heavy course; 1 credit = up to 180 hours

i. allows more classtime for hands-on, projects, experiments, etc.

ii. 180 school days x 60 minutes per class = 180 hours = 1 credit

 

3. completion of a community college class or online course

[MerryAtHope]

According to "Transcript Boot Camp" by Inge Cannon, a credit is equal to a carnegie unit which is roughly 200 hours of work in a regular school. She doesn't really waver from that number even in the homeschool setting.

 

 

While she says that, she also spends an incredible amount of time talking about the research and study of how much time kids in PS actually spend being instructed, when kids and teacher are both "on task," and she comes up with only 364 hours for the year total for all of their classes (out of 1080 hours in school). 360 hours divided by 6 classes is 60 hours per class, plus 65-150 study comes out to 125-210. That's a lot of rigamarole to say virtually the same thing that others say when they say 120-180 hours.

 

So...I don't know if the studies she spent so much time quoting are accurate, but I'm very comfortable with 120-180 hours. If my kids are in that range and have accomplished most of our goals for the year for a subject, I won't have a problem deciding it's worth a credit.

 

Merry :-)

[~Tara~]

Thanks everyone, very helpful. I will look over all this more later, bookmarking.