Do we have enough credits for 10th grade?

[Kassia]

I am so confused.  Here is what the plan is for tenth grade and I don't know if it's enough.  

 

English Lit and Composition - outsourced - provider counts it as 1.5 units, but I count it as 1

 

American History - 1 unit (American History Odyssey)

 

Portuguese - 1 unit (self-study - my guess is that she will achieve Portuguese 2 or 3 level by the end of the year)

 

 

Dual Enrollment:

 

Art Appreciation (took this in the summer) - 3 credit class - I was counting it as 1 unit, but many say it should only count as .5

 

Elementary Chemistry w/lab - 4 credit class (fall)  - I'm counting it as 1 unit

 

Trigonometry (fall) - 3 credit class - I was counting it as 1 unit, but it seems most would count it as .5?  

 

Calculus (5 credit class) OR Statistics (4 credit class) in the spring - counting it as 1 unit

 

 

 

Am I giving too much credit for the DE classes?  If so, should I add something else in the spring - like health for .5 credit?  She is very bright and we are hoping for honors programs and merit scholarships.  I don't want an admissions officer to look at her transcript and think her workload was too light.  

 

Thank you!  

 

 

 

Edited September 25, 2017 by Kassia

[Lori D.]

Looks like you have scheduled:

1.0-1.5 credit = English

2.0 credits = Math (Trig; Calculus or Statistics)

1.0 credit = Science: Chemistry

1.0 credit = History: American History

1.0-2.0 credits = For. Lang: Portuguese

0.5-1.0 credit = Fine Arts: Art Appreciation

 

If you award credit on the low end, DD is completing 6.5 credits.

If you award credit on the high end, DD is completing 8.5 credits.

 

In either case, DD is hitting all of the 5 academic subject areas all year (English, Math, Science, Soc. Studies, For. Lang.), plus Fine Arts.

 

Looks good to me! :) However, one thing to consider is how this is scheduled -- the spring semester might be "light" unless you are go light on the History and Foreign Language in the fall while DD's fall semester is heavy with Math and Science, and go heavy with the History and Foreign Language in the spring. Typically, students have roughly similar credit loads in each semester -- 3.0-3.25 credits per semester would be average (for a total of 6.0-6.5 credits for the year), while 3.5-4.0 credits per semester is more rigorous (for a total of 7.0-8.0 credits for the year), but nothing set in stone that credits have to be "balanced" in the same amounts each semester.

 

Summer 2017 = 0.5-1.0 credits

0.5-1.0 credit = Fine Arts: Art Appreciation

 

Fall 2017 = 3.5-4.25 credits

0.5-0.75 credit = English

1.0 credits = Math (Trig)

1.0 credit = Science: Chemistry

0.5 credit = History: American History

0.5-1.0 = For. Lang: Portuguese

 

Spring 2018 = 2.5-3.25 credits

0.5-0.75 credit = English

1.0 credits = Math (Calculus or Statistics)

0.5 credit = History: American History

0.5-1.0 = For. Lang: Portuguese

 

The Art will look great on the final transcript, but because it's already completed, and the Science will be knocked out in the Fall, that leaves the Spring semester a bit light... One thought is that leaves you time in the Spring semester for working towards an elective credit (partial credit or 1.0 credit) in an area of personal interest to her, OR, schedule time for DD to get involved in extracurriculars or volunteering of personal interest to her.  :)

 

JMO: as far as Electives -- Health is not cared about by colleges, whereas Electives or Extracurricular Activities in areas of personal interest help students have talking points that make them stand out for admissions and scholarship essays.

 

In general: if you feel the need to show more rigor for scholarships, you might look at a possible AP test for the American History or the Math, or start working on ACT/SAT test prep this year to score high on those tests (as the scores on those tests are often what colleges use to award merit aid).

 

Have a super 10th grade year! Warmest regards, Lori D.

Edited September 25, 2017 by Lori D.

[GoodGrief]

Personally, I don't angst about the number of awarded credits.

 

I think what you've got going is fine. I would probably do science in spring as well in some form, but not everyone would make that choice if the fall science is dual enrollment.

 

 

[Kassia]

The Art will look great on the final transcript, but because it's already completed, and the Science will be knocked out in the Fall, that leaves the Spring semester a bit light... One thought is that leaves you time in the Spring semester for working towards an elective credit (partial credit or 1.0 credit) in an area of personal interest to her, OR, schedule time for DD to get involved in extracurriculars or volunteering of personal interest to her.  :)

 

In general: if you feel the need to show more rigor for scholarships, you might look at a possible AP test for the American History or the Math, or start working on ACT/SAT test prep this year to score high on those tests (as the scores on those tests are often what colleges use to award merit aid).

 

 

 

Thanks!  She has a lot of activities outside of school that take up a lot of time.  She actually designed her own Spanish curriculum and is teaching classes online to homeschool students - Intro to Spanish and Spanish 1.  She also volunteers at the library, takes tumbling lessons, and spends a lot of time on hand balance/acrobatics at home and just started learning to juggle.  :p   She also took the SAT last spring and did very well (much better than I expected) and will take it again this spring along with the SAT II in Math 2, so she will prep for those.  I agree that spring looks kind of light, though. 

 

Is the DE on the quarter system? If so, I would award .5cr for the 3 cr classes. So, she would have 1.5 Cr for math, which is great.

 

DE is semesters here.

 

Personally, I don't angst about the number of awarded credits.

 

I think what you've got going is fine. I would probably do science in spring as well in some form, but not everyone would make that choice if the fall science is dual enrollment.

 

I agree about science, but she hates it and would rather take anything else!  

[2_girls_mommy]

We were told in our homeschool convention high school workshops that DE counts as 1 credit, so I would give a full credit for the 3 hour classes. 

 

 

[Penelope]

I plan to count DE exactly as my local schools count it, as I find that to be the most consistent way to account for local factors including rigor. I also compare number of credits locally as a benchmark. I am not trying to replicate public school, but the students there are whom my kids will likely be compared with for state school admissions and scholarships.

[Kassia]

I plan to count DE exactly as my local schools count it, as I find that to be the most consistent way to account for local factors including rigor. I also compare number of credits locally as a benchmark. I am not trying to replicate public school, but the students there are whom my kids will likely be compared with for state school admissions and scholarships.

 

That's a good point.  In our state (OH), a 3 credit class counts as a full high school unit.  But that is recent - when my older sons did DE, a 3 credit class only counted as .5 high school credit, which meant they had to graduate with a lot more college credits.  What dd is taking will be so much lighter than what they graduated with (although I think it was too much for them taking full courseloads every semester with very challenging classes).  

[Kareni]

Here was my thought process when it came to assigning high school credit for the classes my daughter took at the community college.

 

Amongst the first classes my daughter took at the local community college were College Algebra (a five hour class) and Trigonometry (a four hour class). She did these two classes in consecutive quarters as our community college is on the quarter rather than semester system. Had she taken a year long class in Precalculus at home or at the local high school, she would have earned one high school credit. Since the combination of College Algebra and Trigonometry is considered Precalculus (and in fact the text used in both of these classes was Sullivan's Precalculus), I assigned each of these classes one half high school credit. To me, it would have seemed too generous to give two credits for this combination of classes.

 

On my daughter's transcript, I included this information in the Notes section:

 

Courses taken at Z Community College (ZCC) as a high school student; 0.50 credit assigned to each 4 or 5 quarter credit class taken at ZCC.

 

Regards,
Kareni

[Kassia]

 Had she taken a year long class in Precalculus at home or at the local high school, she would have earned one high school credit. Since the combination of College Algebra and Trigonometry is considered Precalculus (and in fact the text used in both of these classes was Sullivan's Precalculus), I assigned each of these classes one half high school credit. To me, it would have seemed too generous to give two credits for this combination of classes.

 

 

 

Thank you!  This is what is confusing me.  Dd took a full year of Algebra 2 at home last year.  She is taking trig as DE for one semester and then moving on to DE calculus in the spring.  If she were at the local high school, she would have taken pre-calc for a full year for one high school unit.  The trigonometry is taking the place of that and that is one semester, but only three credits.  I don't know if it's enough to count as one high school unit even though that's what it's replacing.  Not sure if that makes sense - sorry.

[Kareni]

Thank you!  This is what is confusing me.  Dd took a full year of Algebra 2 at home last year.  She is taking trig as DE for one semester and then moving on to DE calculus in the spring.  If she were at the local high school, she would have taken pre-calc for a full year for one high school unit.  The trigonometry is taking the place of that and that is one semester, but only three credits.  I don't know if it's enough to count as one high school unit even though that's what it's replacing.  Not sure if that makes sense - sorry.

 

I do understand what you're getting at.

 

Despite my approach to credit calculation, a 3 credit class counts as a full high school unit according to my state university.  The state university however was only one of the ten college to which my daughter applied, and I was operating under the assumption that some of those other colleges would have higher standards.

 

One question for you ~ At the local community college, the prerequisite for Calculus would be College Algebra (akin to Algebra 3) and Trig.  Is that not the case at your daughter's community college?

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Kassia]

I do understand what you're getting at.

 

Despite my approach to credit calculation, a 3 credit class counts as a full high school unit according to my state university.  The state university however was only one of the ten college to which my daughter applied, and I was operating under the assumption that some of those other colleges would have higher standards.

 

One question for you ~ At the local community college, the prerequisite for Calculus would be College Algebra (akin to Algebra 3) and Trig.  Is that not the case at your daughter's community college?

 

Regards,

Kareni

 

I don't really know.  When dd took the placement test last year, she tested into trig even though she hadn't even taken Algebra 2 yet.  I was told by the DE counselor that students usually take College Algebra and then Trig before Calculus, but I checked with the Trig professor and he agreed that dd didn't need College Algebra (I told him that she placed into Trig and also sent him the topics covered in her Algebra 2 course).  

 

This is the course description for College Algebra at our community college (4 credit class).  I don't know if it's Algebra 2 or 3:  

 

This course investigates relations and functions numerically, analytically, and graphically. Topics include solutions of polynomial and rational equations and inequalities; exponential and logarithmic equations; systems of linear and non-linear equations; conic sections; sequences and series

[Sebastian (a lady)]

Personally, I don't angst about the number of awarded credits.

 

I think what you've got going is fine. I would probably do science in spring as well in some form, but not everyone would make that choice if the fall science is dual enrollment.

 

 I agree about not worrying too much about the way you count DE credit on the high school transcript, as long as what you do is reasonable and consistent.

 

I really think the biggest thing is to be clear in your documentation about what your policy was.  

 

I did one high school credit for any DE course 3 credits or higher.  It didn't matter if it was an English course in which the student learned little new info or a really hard Calculus course where they fought for every point.  (This was also consistent with the practice in my local district,  however my student didn't apply to any in state schools.)

 

Remember that even in situations where there is a document outlining specific credit for specific DE courses, this is directive only for public schools.  Any private school can decide how they award high school credit for courses taken elsewhere.  I find that some of the big lists have credit concordances that don't really make sense to me.  For example, the Florida list has a lot of variance in foreign language.  Some languages have less credit for second year than for first.  Some credit practices vary from one language to another.  

 

There are so many different districts with different dual credit arrangements.  Just be up front and clear.

 

(I would caution you not to make it seem that your credit policy awarded higher credit to courses with higher grades than lower grades.  Ex. 1 high school credit for a 3 credit DE course with an A, but 0.5 high school credit for a 4 credit DE course with a C.  I don't think most people would do this anyway.)

[Sebastian (a lady)]

I don't really know.  When dd took the placement test last year, she tested into trig even though she hadn't even taken Algebra 2 yet.  I was told by the DE counselor that students usually take College Algebra and then Trig before Calculus, but I checked with the Trig professor and he agreed that dd didn't need College Algebra (I told him that she placed into Trig and also sent him the topics covered in her Algebra 2 course).  

 

This is the course description for College Algebra at our community college (4 credit class).  I don't know if it's Algebra 2 or 3:  

 

This course investigates relations and functions numerically, analytically, and graphically. Topics include solutions of polynomial and rational equations and inequalities; exponential and logarithmic equations; systems of linear and non-linear equations; conic sections; sequences and series

 

There is not consistent content for what is titled College Algebra.  At some schools it replaces all or part of pre-calculus.  At other schools it comes before pre-calculus.  I've even seen it used to refer to an algebra course that looks to me like something remedial for college students.

 

You might want to include some of the bolded above as part of your school profile on college applications or as a note in course descriptions.