s/o SN thread - "outside the box" and calculating credits?

[rafiki]

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[angela in ohio]

Do you mean for high school? We use hours to calulate credits for non-standard (textbook) courses.

[elegantlion]

When you don't use traditional materials and/or your dc learns at a different pace or at various levels, how are credits determined?

 

Do you do anything different as far as record keeping?

 

We won't keep track of credits until high school, but we will use hours as well.

 

I usually make a syllabus with out non-traditional programs. When we deviate I just add those to the syllabus.

 

As for different pacing, I simply move at my son's level. If it's a matter of falling behind schedule, such as we have done in math, I will quicken the pace to make sure we finish out the book before the end of the year. If it's a matter of my son needs longer to learn the process, such as writing for him, we just move at his pace and strive toward a year end goal. That goal make not mean completion of a certain book or level.

[Mom22ns]

For high school credit I plan to use hours. I think my ds will be handling normal course loads, but hours will definitely define a credit.

[PeterPan]

Carnegie units are hours, credits show amount of material covered. People casually discuss them interchangeably, but they are different. Look to see what your prospective colleges/universities are looking for. Really though, you have to use common sense and TRANSLATE what we do in a homeschool environment to what the transcript clerk looking at the sheet of paper will understand. So you spend time covering world history using non-traditional methods. You put in 180 hours (or put a better way, you did it 5 days a week for basically an hour at a time or twice a week for longer sessions), and you put down *1* beside it on the transcript. You did it 2-3 days a week or one day a week for a long session (for a year), so you put down 1/2. You did it 5 days a week but for one semester instead of a year, so you put down 1/2. It's not really that hard.

 

There are no Transcript Police, and they aren't going to check you (unless of course you put down something really outlandish, which did happen when I worked in an admissions dept). They also don't take seriously your grades particularly or the GPA. You have no class to compare a GPA to, and well homeschoolers don't tend to give B's. (Does happen, but not much, trust me, lol.)

 

Your transcript is really this perfunctory document that shows you put in your time for high school and can enter without deficiencies. (Aside from the personality, interests, and endeavoring interesting to a more competitive school.) Your test scores are what backs it up. You claim all you want on the transcript, but your scores are what they're looking in.

[rafiki]

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[Joyofsixreboot]

Thanks. I guess lots of prep for the ACT and SAT will be on the agenda.