snowbeltmom Posted November 5, 2012 Share Posted November 5, 2012 (edited) I posted this on the General Board, but it may have made more sense to start a thread here. Just a heads-up to those of you living in Texas who are considering sending your children to public school for the high school years. Based on the comments in this thread (link below) on College Confidential, some high schools in Texas are including high school level classes taken in middle school in the students’ gpa’s, which is not unusual – all of the schools in my area have this policy as well. However, this policy can have negative ramifications for a student in Texas who enters the system in 9th grade, since the public universities in Texas have the auto-admit policy and class rank is extremely important for those students who wish to attend a public university in Texas. It appears that kids who don’t also attend the middle school in these systems will have their gpa’s negatively affected and possibly fall out of the “auto-admit” zone. So if you have plans to send your child to a public high school in Texas and your student wishes to attend a public university in your state, you may want to check into your system's middle school grading policy and enroll your child in middle school instead of waiting for 9th grade. http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/...lection-3.html ETA: The link works, but it takes you to the wrong page. The discussion about this issue starts with post #26. ETA: Hmmm... the link worked when I initially tried it. Let me post it again: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/engineering-majors/1411188-engineering-school-selection-2.html Edited November 5, 2012 by snowbeltmom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chez J Posted November 5, 2012 Share Posted November 5, 2012 (edited) I'm in Texas. My understanding is that students can only pull math and foreign language from 8th grade. Health is no longer required, so students often take that in 8th grade now. I'll take a look at the thread to see if that has changed. Edited November 5, 2012 by Chez J better flow Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chez J Posted November 5, 2012 Share Posted November 5, 2012 Post #26 where? I cannot find the discussion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juniper Posted November 5, 2012 Share Posted November 5, 2012 Post #26 where? I cannot find the discussion. :confused: Cannot find it either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowbeltmom Posted November 5, 2012 Author Share Posted November 5, 2012 Post #26 where? I cannot find the discussion. I have no idea why the link isn't working now. I added another link in my original post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobbeym Posted November 5, 2012 Share Posted November 5, 2012 The middle schools in our district offer high school credit for Algebra I, Spanish I (if taken both years of middle school), Speech, and Art I. The high school credit classes that DS18 took in 8th grade did not count towards his high school GPA. Only the courses actually taken during 9th-12th grades counted for the final GPA. Since we pulled DS14 out of school mid-8th grade year, it's a non-issue for us now, since we don't have any option other than to graduate homeschool. Looking at the high school's course catalog, the district includes grades taken from our middle schools, any accredited high school, and our local CC when determining class rank and GPA. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chez J Posted November 5, 2012 Share Posted November 5, 2012 I have been digging around since this first post. I have found some school districts only offer math and foreign language. BUT, I found some others that offer speech, art, and even world geography (Friendswood). It must be that so long as the course is a high school course, one can receive credit. I did see that most stipulate a 70 passing to get credit. I have an accelerated DD who is already taking algebra 1 in 7th and will begin high school classes in earnest next year. I have no intention of letting her graduate early, though. So, I am pondering how to manage the transcript. This helped a lot! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowbeltmom Posted November 5, 2012 Author Share Posted November 5, 2012 I have an accelerated DD who is already taking algebra 1 in 7th and will begin high school classes in earnest next year. I have no intention of letting her graduate early, though. So, I am pondering how to manage the transcript. This helped a lot! I am in the same situation with my three kids, and they will not be graduating early either. I am organizing my kids' transcripts by subject and indicating on the transcripts those courses that were taken officially before 9th grade. The schools in my area award high school credits in middle school, but I don't know how they organize their students' transcripts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chez J Posted November 5, 2012 Share Posted November 5, 2012 I am in the same situation with my three kids, and they will not be graduating early either. I am organizing my kids' transcripts by subject and indicating on the transcripts those courses that were taken officially before 9th grade. The schools in my area award high school credits in middle school, but I don't know how they organize their students' transcripts. I am leaning toward the subject style also. But, I'm not sure yet. It depends on accomplishments per year. If we have outside accomplishments to include, then I may switch to a year-at-a-glance style. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chez J Posted November 5, 2012 Share Posted November 5, 2012 (edited) The Texas Administrative Code states that districts may offer courses designated for grades 9-12 in grades 7 and 8 and shall verify that students who take these courses have satisfactorily completed the prerequisite grades 7 and 8 Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) essential elements. The academic achievement record shall reflect that students have satisfactorily completed the courses in grades 7 and 8, and have been awarded state graduation credit. For more information regarding high school credit, please see page 13 “Awarding Credit” and “Denial of Credit” and the Graduation Program Chart on page 7. There is no limit on the number of high school credit courses a student can take in junior high from those offered. However, for elective courses which reach capacity, priority will be given to those students with fewer or no high school courses. High school credit courses will count towards students’ high school grade point average (GPA). I copied this from Katy ISD. This seems to suggest that any high school course can be taken in middle school so long as it really is a high school course. Edited November 5, 2012 by Chez J formatting Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blittle6 Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 My oldest daughter, who is now an electrical engineering major in college, graduated in 2011 from public school. She graduated a year early, and she received a Latin credit and an Algebra 1 credit in junior high. They are listed on her transcript at the top along with the school year and a (J) beside them. The legend at the bottom of her transcript shows (J) junior high. My son who also was in PS until the end of 8th grade has the same courses listed the same way on his PS transcript. How the school in my Texas town explained which classes were able to be counted as HS credit was to say that the teacher had to be certified to teach the subject in high school, students had to pass the course, and they also had to pass the EOC (TAKS at the time). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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