Advice for a child who may want to attend public high school?

[Grantmom]

I hope this is the right spot to post. DS has expressed pretty strong interest in attending public high school. I can see lots of good things about it, like being able to play the sport he loves and having access to some interesting STEM programs. But I am also torn because we were just getting into the good stuff of homeschooling in the teen years, and there are just endless possibilities of the things one can do.

 

I am looking for advice, mainly on how to help him make the decision, but also on preparing for making that transition if he decides to do it. I know some have started in 8th grade to have a year to transition and others have just jumped in at 9th grade and it was fine.

 

Any advice or shared experience? Many thanks!

[Candid]

You need to find out how the public school is going to work with this. Some systems will let your student pick and choose. Others, it will be all or nothing, and this includes that if a student comes as junior the public school will make them go back and retake freshmen courses. So you need to learn what your local system does. Find other home schoolers who made the jump to the public school and find out what worked for them and what didn't. 

[G5052]

Yes, your best bet is going to be local information, frankly.  A friend of mine planning for this made an appointment with a guidance counselor two years before she planned the transition so she knew what she was in for, and then she asked around until she found homeschoolers who had done this.  

 

For our area, you definitely have to go in no later than 9th if you don't want to lose credits.  They want to see standardized test results, several writing samples, a reading list, and most people I know had to schedule their student for a math placement exam.  If you go in for 10th or later, they only seem to grant credits if the student can pass both semester exams in the equivalent course, which is pretty difficult.  Going to public high school is pretty common for those who want group sports or music.  Most people in our area make the transition in 9th.

 

Frankly we've been completely happy with continuing even though many of our friends in the immediate area have not.  We're academic types though, and for us at least, the local high school would not be a good choice.

[Grantmom]

Thanks, all.  Yes, we have done all of the above.  I was really looking more for advice on how to guide this decision, both for me and for him.  Thanks!

[school17777]

We sent our twins to b&m 8th grade to help us decide what to do for high school. That way, they could learn the school way without it affecting their transcript in high school. I do think that it might take a marking period to adjust to the requirements of school (showing work for each math problem (was a battle for here for years for ds), keeping the notebook organized, writing enough, etc...) - not really a whole marking period, but there is an adjustment period.

 

One of the deciding factors for me was attending the curriculum fair for upcoming 9th graders. (The school's version of a curriculum fair is different than a homeschooler's.) Teachers from different subjects spoke about what the students would be learning in 9th grade. Each teacher was passionate about the subject that they taught. I want my kids taught by someone who is passionate about the subject. I am not. So far, my twins teachers are passionate about their subjects and it comes across in their teaching. My kids like subjects at school that they probably wouldn't have enjoyed under my direction such as physics & chemistry.

[Grantmom]

Thank you for sharing.

[AuntPol]

Both of my kids went back to public school this year because they wanted that experience.

 

My oldest started 9th grade at a small charter school. We spent the summer helping do volunteer projects around the school (paint, move furniture, etc) so she got a good grasp of the layout, met the administrative staff and met a few other kids. We also did some light prep work for her classes (Did Ellen McHenry's Cells for Biology, Watched some Crash course videos, reviewed her math and writing, etc.). The only issue we had was math. She had done Algebra I in 8th grade but the school is doing Integrated Math (Common Core). Math is her hardest subject and she has test aversion so she did not place into Math II. So now, she is is Math I and bored because most of her class needs to be remedial math. However, the teacher recognizes this and we are working on a differentiation plan so that she can take placement test in the summer and hopefully skip Math II (she's much stronger at Geometry). 

 

I think letting her go back was a good decision. Her teachers are exciting and passionate about their subjects. She loves the social interaction (she had lots of homeschool socialization but it's not quite the same thing as school socialization by any means). She has had a big shift in priorities and maturity, Last year, I fought with her to get her work done and done well, fought with her over algebra (constantly couldn't remember what she learned even if we had done it every day for a week), keeping her off social media during the school day, being boy crazy, focusing on clothes and make up, etc. Now she is studious and has disdain for the kids in school who are texting in class, talking about nothing but boys, clothes, and make up, and now that she is stuck doing Algebra all over again and covering things that I covered before (which she swore "real schools" don't do and I was mean and making it up), she is seeing that maybe her mom wasn't a moron.

 

 

My son has never had the social or executive function skills that my daughter had, so we decided to put him in the middle school as a year of prep. He's doing well academically. He's struggling on the long days and homework. He's only on his second week (and he started on the school's 5th week as they are year around) so he's still adjusting to figuring out the teaching schedule, etc. I had a meeting with his teachers at the end of the first week and got the flow of the week (this due on this date, this type of test on this date, etc.) and he's much better this week. Now we have to work on handing stuff in instead of leaving it in his folder. He has great teachers who love their subjects. he is in Math II (geometry) and has some peers at his intellectual level (Which did not exist in homeschool -hate to say it but I am very disappointed in homeschooler academic levels in my area). I'm glad we are putting him now because he really needs this adjustment time whereas my daughter didn't.

 

**edited to add -We did have a bit of trouble getting my son placed into Math II without an EOC for Math I.

 

**Other homeschoolers we know had trouble getting credits at our school because they had done Apologia Biology in 8th grade and the charter school would not give credit unless they could pass the EOC test. None of them that I know of passed.  Each school has their own policies of what they will and won't accept and sometimes it seems to be an individual thing (they were going to take the Biology credit of the rising sophomore who had it in 9th but not the rising Freshman who had it in 8th until one pointed out the unfairness so then everyone had to take the test.

[Laura Corin]

Calvin went into school for the equivalent of 9th grade.  

 

Things he found difficult: social life - learning the mores of the school; having to do homework; organising his papers and his time; having to do sports that he hated

 

Things he found easy: academics (in general)

 

Things he has enjoyed particularly: music (two choirs, bass guitar lessons, jazz band); some really excellent teachers.

 

Overall, school has been the best decision for him.

 

Best of luck

 

L