Fair Game, playing the system, or ? on credit hours

[elegantlion]

For the state of MO the dept of ed site states that a homeschooler can count a credit hour as 100 hours or more of instruction. Here's the link.

 

I've always heard 120 hours min to count a credit. public school in MO are required to do so many minutes (adds up to 130 hours).

 

I plan on self designing some of our courses, and a few will be done to satisfy a requirement or check a box. Would you have an issue with counting 50 hours as .5 credit, based upon the above? I wouldn't add extra credits for English, Math or something that took more than 100 hours.

 

I plan our year in 3- 12 week trimesters, so technically I could get the 50 hours in for a .5 credit class in 12 weeks. For instance, I was planning on breaking up a fine art credit into 3 - 12 weeks sessions of drawing, art history, and another applied art. According to the DESE I could give 1.5 credits (if we spent 50 hours/ session) instead of 1 credit.

 

Do you think this is playing the system? Would you do it? I tend to be a by the book rule follower, but there it is, the book saying it's okay. Why should I hesitate?

[regentrude]

For me, it would depend on the subject.

I consider 50 hours per half credit or 100 hours per full credit as very light.

I would not hesitate to award a half credit for a subject like health or personal finance because it is just a check-the-box-thing to fulfill a stupid requirement (which IMO should not even be there). But anything else, I'd try to get at least 60 hours for a half credit, possibly more. But that's me.

OTOH, one can spend a lot of time doing fluff or much less time on more rigorous work, so counting hours really does not say anything other than that the student has been busy.

 

I really do not think absolute number of credits matters much - I have a hard time imagining that the admissions official cares at all whether my kid has 1.0 or 1.5 arts credits; I'd think they mainly care to see rigorous courses in the core subjects, and enough electives to look balanced.

[elegantlion]

For me, it would depend on the subject.

I consider 50 hours per half credit or 100 hours per full credit as very light.

I would not hesitate to award a half credit for a subject like health or personal finance because it is just a check-the-box-thing to fulfill a stupid requirement (which IMO should not even be there). But anything else, I'd try to get at least 60 hours for a half credit, possibly more. But that's me.

OTOH, one can spend a lot of time doing fluff or much less time on more rigorous work, so counting hours really does not say anything other than that the student has been busy.

 

I really do not think absolute number of credits matters much - I have a hard time imagining that the admissions official cares at all whether my kid has 1.0 or 1.5 arts credits; I'd think they mainly care to see rigorous courses in the core subjects, and enough electives to look balanced.

 

I agree about the health and personal finance.

 

I guess my dilemma is whether the credits matter. I can see this freeing up some of our elective time and being able to put more time into the electives that ds wants to study. Will it end up looking like he put in more effort than he actually did? He'll most likely be applying at MO schools.

[regentrude]

I agree about the health and personal finance.

 

I guess my dilemma is whether the credits matter. I can see this freeing up some of our elective time and being able to put more time into the electives that ds wants to study. Will it end up looking like he put in more effort than he actually did? He'll most likely be applying at MO schools.

 

I am not at admissions person, so I don't really have any first hand knowledge of the process, but when I looked up admission requirements for various schools, nowhere have I seen any indication that the number of credits matters much. I have seen specific requirements for the core subjects and minimal elective requirements, plus test scores.

At least, that's what we will go by.

 

You could call admissions at a few schools you son is interested in and ask this question directly.

[Ester Maria]

Logging hours is pointless, IMO. The credit should be awarded upon the completion of the course, no matter how long it takes - even in schools I attended it functions this way, nobody could care less how much time you dedicate to the subject on your own, it is concrete results that matter. I would be totally okay with awarding a credit for the minimal hours if you have to log them, as long as the student finished the course - I would NOT "punish" an efficient student by making them spend more time on the course, so yes, going with the bare minimum (but not below) would be totally fine in my book IF it satisfies your content coverage / results criteria. (Likewise, I would NOT reward dawdling and inefficiency by allowing a student to stop with a course at a point the number of hours has been surpassed, because "they did enough".)

[elegantlion]

I am not at admissions person, so I don't really have any first hand knowledge of the process, but when I looked up admission requirements for various schools, nowhere have I seen any indication that the number of credits matters much. I have seen specific requirements for the core subjects and minimal elective requirements, plus test scores.

At least, that's what we will go by.

 

You could call admissions at a few schools you son is interested in and ask this question directly.

 

That's good to know thank you.

 

Logging hours is pointless, IMO. The credit should be awarded upon the completion of the course, no matter how long it takes - even in schools I attended it functions this way, nobody could care less how much time you dedicate to the subject on your own, it is concrete results that matter. I would be totally okay with awarding a credit for the minimal hours if you have to log them, as long as the student finished the course - I would NOT "punish" an efficient student by making them spend more time on the course, so yes, going with the bare minimum (but not below) would be totally fine in my book IF it satisfies your content coverage / results criteria. (Likewise, I would NOT reward dawdling and inefficiency by allowing a student to stop with a course at a point the number of hours has been surpassed, because "they did enough".)

 

Thank you. I guess I should focus on the content and let the hours fall where they may. I am a detail person, if there is one I can nitpick, I will find it. :D

[regentrude]

Logging hours is pointless, IMO. The credit should be awarded upon the completion of the course, no matter how long it takes

 

I completely agree for any course where there is a specific "canon", such as a typical textbook to get through.

I found, however, logging hours very helpful for self-designed courses where it is not clear what constitutes "completion of the course". For example: if I design a music appreciation course, I can do this on many different levels. I can have the student work through a college music history text, I can use a high school appreciation text, I can use Teaching Company lectures and throw in a few live performances. There is no widely accepted "canon". So, keeping an eye on the hours spent helps me come up with a realistic work load.