I think I have figured out what didn't make sense to me....

[Janice in NJ]

For me, everything goes back to that original "What constitutes a high school credit question?"

 

120 hours?

160 hours?

180 hours?

120 hours of "instruction" + homework?

160 hours of "instruction" + homework?

180 hours of "instruction" + homework?

 

I've spent a little more time with the R sections of TWTM and I'm convinced that there is some sort of editing problem. Maybe I'm not nuts. :001_smile:

 

For example:

1 hour of math per day is suggested at the high school level. (5 hrs/week)

But in the transcript section 120 hours of math is listed as a credit.

120 hours/5 hours per week = 24 weeks of math for a high schooler? (This can't be intentional.)

 

4 hours per week for science is suggested.

Transcript section lists 108 hours = science credit

108 hours/4 hours per week = 27 weeks of science

 

Great books comes out to 32 weeks of work at 10 hrs/wk

Languages work out to 36 weeks of work at 3-6 hrs/wk

And the Jr/Sr thesis seems to work out to 50 weeks worth? (2-3 hrs per week for 100-150 hrs total)

 

If you simply take the Part III Epilogue (pgs 604-605 in the 2nd edition), it outlines how a 9th grader will spend 36-40 hours per week working. This seems reasonable to me; that's a full day! But then if you flip forward to pgs 651 - 652 and add up the hours that constitute a credit for a transcript, you get between 974 hours and 1082 hours. (In both cases, the higher value seems to assume two languages are being studied.)

But:

974 hours/36 hours per week = 27 weeks of school

1082 hours/40 hours per week = 27 weeks of school

 

THAT's what was messing me up. Math to the rescue. I just kept asking myself, how can we personally keep adding to a 36-40 hr per week schedule and keep out of the looney bin? And then I would flip forward to the transcript pages and think, "We are doing so many more hours than this for a credit. Am I nuts?"

 

Have I done this right? Because if I have, this whole thing makes more sense to me. For high-school, I plan for my kids to be "on-schedule" for about 9 hours per day, but this includes all of the wasted time trying to FIND a pencil, "Where is my math book?", endless trips to the fridge... and then the bathroom, etc. I figure that they are on-task for about 8 hours per day (and even that number is highly debatable :D). This equals a 40 hour work-week.

If we did school for 32 weeks that would be 1,280 hours per year.

40 hours per week x 32 weeks = 1,280 hours

 

We tend to do at least 34 weeks worth of school (170 days)

40 hours per week x 34 weeks = 1,360 hours

 

And then a couple of things spill over (like math and science) into a final two weeks which usually puts us around 180 days total at the high school level - even though those last two weeks are a light sort of 1/2 day mode.

 

So that clears that one up for me. Based on my conversations with other hsing moms we are working on the heavy-side as far as scheduling goes, but my kids work during their work-week and then have their evenings and weekends free. And they're making progress that I'm comfortable with; I feel like I'm giving them a good education. So I'm good. This makes so much more sense to me now. :001_smile: (The whole history output-thing was just compounding the problem in my head. I was starting to feel like I was a complete nut case.)

 

Feedback? Did I botch the math?

Peace,

Janice

 

Enjoy your little people

Enjoy your journey

[cathmom]

I'm not sure I understand, but it's your school and you determine what a credit is worth, however makes sense to you. :)

[PeterPan]

Janice, I evaluated transcripts for a major christian university when I was a grad student, and I can at least tell you how they handled it at one school.

 

A unit and a credit are two totally different things. A credit refers to the amount of material covered. If you work through the algebra 1 book, you get credit for algebra 1. But a unit refers to the amount of time spent. Schools (high schools) will vary whether they assign 1 unit or two to the course of a year, but the general point is working 5 days a week for a year is 1 unit (or 2, as you prefer, makes no difference). Working 2-3 days a week for a year (PE, choir, etc.) is a 1/2 unit. Working 2-3 days a week for 1 semester is a 1/4 unit. If you want to mark it as 1 for each semester, that's no problem. So 5 days a week for a year is a whole, 1/2 pace for a year is a 1/2, and 1/2 pace for 1/2 a year is a 1/4. Units represent time.

 

You get stickywickets with people who say their 12 yo covered xyz amount of material in 2 years. With them you ask the amount of time spent and the transcript evaluator redacts. You can put anything you want, but the transcript clerk will mark it up the way they want. 1/4 unit markings are pretty much worthless and get ignored. Grades get ignored because homeschoolers have no basis for comparison to assign helpful grades, sorry.

 

The key is to look at the admissions material for your prospective school and see what they want. At the school I was working at, they were looking for a minimum of 14 UNITS of high school level work during the 4 high school units in order to enter without deficiencies. In other words, nothing done in 8th grade counted toward their standards for entering without deficiencies. Nothing sub-high school level counted. It all got marked off with red ink. The mom can write what they want, but the evaluator is just going to chop anything they don't count.

 

Just as an aside, you distinguish between academic and non-academic units. Academic units are things like math, foreign language, history, lit. Non-academic units are things like Bible, philosophy/worldview, PE, choir, art. At least that's how it was at the school I worked at. Some may go further, having specific requirements in specific categories. I point this out to suggest that people doing Omnibus and lots of worldview as their academics should be careful how they word it on a transcript to make sure it gets counted the way you intend. If your Omnibus (or whatever you're doing) is history, call it history, not something vague the evaluator doesn't recognize and axes. Now who knows, you may apply to a school where they recognize your specific curriculum or want novel titles. But I'm just saying, in general, make what you did look like something they'll recognize.

 

In general they accept at face value anything you put on the transcript. They're not going to call you up and ask if your dc spent 120 or 180 hours on their algebra 1, lol. But that time spent, that general concept of working on it 5 days a week, a full time course, vs. 2-3 days a week, a part time course, is what distinguishes full vs. partial units. And coverage of the material is what determines a credit.

 

Helpful? I can't guarantee my comments work for every school, but the quick online searches I've done make me think it's pretty similar. At least it gives you a place to start researching, with that distinction between credits and units.

 

And just to clarify, it makes no difference whether you assign 1 or 2 units for a year's work, so long as your standard is consistent. The evaluator determines what method you used and then translates it into the college's terms. If people saw what their transcripts looked like after the evaluator spills red ink all over it, they'd be horrified. :)