If your dc has switched to ps during high school

[Storm Bay]

How did you work with the ps with what you have? This high school has a different system of giving credits, which I understand now (5 credits for a full course, such as honours, academic or applied English). Did you write out course descriptions? Did you have to bring in work samples? There may be questions I haven't thought of or that I just forgot when ds just interrupted me, so if you have any other suggestions that would be helpful.

 

Dd is going to transfer at the end of January for the second semester. It was going to be for her junior year, but it's time for me to say that this isn't working well for either of us right now. She's actually working harder now that she has this deadline.

 

They require 40 credits per year for graduation for college bound dc, and there's no way she earned that last year (that's 8 courses per year, 4 per semester, & they pack in those one semester courses so that they are worth a full year). I can give her 35, tops, and that's only because she did enough work & lectures, etc, with English & lit to qualify her for more than one class. I plan to flesh out Logic 1 with the Rulebook for Arguments she did, and to flesh out Logic 2 with some TC lectures on Argumentation (she'll have to work on the questions in he back of the book) and I'm thinking of calling it Logic and Reasoning or something, and hope to get them to accept it as an elective much the same way colleges do.

[distancia]

Where do you live?

 

We once talked about our D returning to public high school, but believe it or not, the h/s would NOT accept her college-earned credits (which are part of her homeschool curriculum) as "good enough" for high school!!!!

 

They said they would test her in each and every subject area, and "mommy couorses" that were not accredited had ZERO weight. This means that D, age 17.5 and well on her way to being classified as a college sophomore (in the college world) would have to return to high school as a junior, repeat a grade, and be penalized for college work. [As a side note, they suggested she enroll in "Board Games" and "Sports Officiating" (football umpire techniques) at the p/s to fulfill her graduation requirements]

 

No way!

Edited September 29, 2010 by distancia

[Dawn in MI]

Two of my four children have taken classes at the local public high school. You are basically at the school's "mercy" for what credits and/or grades they will accept. I would suggest that you pick up their handbook ahead of time so you can see how your transcript might stack up against their classes & graduation requirements. Then type up your official transcript and take it in and see what they say.

 

Whatever system your local school uses may be arbitrary and foolish--such as what the other mom described where they may refuse credit for logic and instead place your child in classes like "Board Games," for which they offer for high school credit. It is up to them and the state laws under which they operate. Sometimes they bend and sometimes not.

 

Having said that, I want to add that I deeply sympathize for things not working out at home for your child. I went through a similar "this is just not working" with my 2nd child and sent him in as an 11th grader. It can be for the best. He had some good classes with excellent teachers at public school and some ridiculous classes with terrible teachers. He ended up coming back to homeschool & graduating in December (1/2 year late) because of his public school "detour." But it all worked out for him and he is now a college sophomore. :)

 

Do you have a college in your area or are there online classes (which include weekly "face time" with other students) an option? Outside classes like these helped my son connect with others when he returned to homeschool and made him accountable to a teacher other than myself for some of his classes & that helped! But if your child needs more contact with other students daily, then public school might be the best option.

 

Hope this helps!

Dawn

[Dawn in MI]

... regarding graduation requirements. Guess I can't bake a cake and work on the computer at the same time! Hope you can work things out with the school. Perhaps you can find out what they do with students that transfer from schools in other states. Our local school offers 5 classes per trimester so the maximum they can earn per year is 15 half credits which equals 7 1/2 full credits. That's very different from your school's system, so they must have some way to deal with credits from transfer students.

--Dawn

[Storm Bay]

Thanks. I'll do what I can. If they refuse to grant her enough credits, dd can always come back home to finish high school when she reaches the Age of Reason. I know that this school has done it in the past, but the administration has changed and I don't actually know the family (but the dd's taught my dc swim lessons about 4 years ago).

[creekland]

Our school district won't take any home credits nor allow a kid to test out of classes using their tests. I was informed of this when I pulled my 9th grader out - and each year thereafter. Even my now junior level son who's tested into Calc at our cc and got a 31 on the ACT last year as a sophomore (getting a 35 on math and a 34 on English) would need to start as a 9th grader according to their standards. He has colleges (including Ivies) sending him info to apply there next year, but our high school wouldn't care... it'd be 9th grade according to them.

 

It's not happening. Fortunately, he doesn't want to return. He's extremely happy with a couple of cc courses instead (and the others via homeschooling).

 

For my last son that wants public high school, he started this year at 9th grade (and is doing quite well).

 

Not all schools are like ours. I guess the info out of this will be mainly that you need to work with your school. I hope they are nicer to work with than ours!

[mcconnellboys]

I worked out my transcript/grades to match the way the school granted credits as closely as possible in order to try to spare them confusion. Those I had to deal with could NOT think outside the box. That seems to be a common problem these days wherever one goes, so I simply tried to facilitate as easy a transition as possible.

 

I did go ahead and write out course descriptions and I also kept reading lists. I thought I would need those for college apps, anyway, so it was best to just get them ready.

 

I did also make up two big three-ring binders full of these descriptions, some samples of work, any awards, transcripts from outside classes, etc.

 

The school in my case didn't want to look at anything of mine. My work was completely discounted. They only wanted to look at transcripts from "official" places and they called them behind my back to try to confirm the courses. (But they wouldn't talk to me about their questions regarding the classes.)

 

In the case of courses that were not listed in the same way they were accustomed to listing them, there was quite a bit of angst on their part but we finally worked things out with my persistence and insistence.....

 

My particular school would never have accepted anything that they didn't list as a course themselves. As I mentioned, they freaked out about clearly labeled courses that weren't listed under the same categories they used by the administering institutions.

 

For instance, humanities is a required course here. One year of not only an art history course, but any sort of art, drama, music, etc. course counts. My son had three solid years of drama, along with major roles in productions under his belt (also multiple years of guitar lessons), but they totally discounted those.

 

He also took an art history course via UK's continuing ed high school courses. Because they had just added it and happened to list it under "social studies", rather than "humanities" (a category they don't even have and so would have had to create for just that one course), the school was all up in the air about whether they could grant my son any credit at all for humanities...... The book used for the course was listed in my course description. The title was something like ART HISTORY.....

 

They never did manage to figure out the dual credit Greek Mythology or Ancient Greek History and Culture courses he took through IU.....oy.....

 

But I had plenty of credits, so I wasn't worried about being short. I think I'd feel safer going in with extras in case some things were disallowed for reasons you might not be able to think of right now.... And hopefully you'll be dealing with folks saner and more intelligent than those I had to deal with....

[Storm Bay]

Thanks for those replies. I know they'll accept some things, but am not sure about how to present Logic & Argumentation. Also, dc have to be tested for honours courses, and I'm not sure what they'll do.

 

The hard part is going to be biting my tongue because they'll make some things a lot harder than a college would.