? about Clonlara

[freesia]

We are considering using Clonlara next year for my ds. He will be in 9th grade.

 

I have a couple of questions:

They state that the work with all types of homeschoolers (despite being of an unschooling bent). Does that work well? We tend toward classical and structured here. If they speak with my son, come up with curriculum suggestions and then we go ahead and use the curricula that we had already decided to use, is this really okay?

 

How does it work if you do an online class with another organization? Do you submit your work and hours to them separately or would they accept the grade?

 

When it comes time to apply to college, how do you apply? Are you still considered by schools to be a homeschooler? private schooler?

 

Thanks in advance (Oh, and I do know that we don't need to use Clonlara and can just apply to colleges as a homeschooler. I am not sure that, being in NY, we can issue our own diploma, and that is one of the reasons we are considering it.)

[dragons in the flower bed]

They will not go over your head to co-design a curriculum with your son without your input. They will send a packet of information. You can talk to your son about it and look at it with him, let him know your requirements and boundaries. They will respect those. It really is completely, 100% okay to use whatever you choose.

 

To answer your second question, let me explain a bit about how Clonlara records work and grants credit. You will get a grid that has days across the top and spaces for subjects down the left side. You write in any credits your kid is working towards in the spaces down the left. Then, each day, as your kid works, he fills in the box where credits and day meet with the number of minutes he spent on that subject. When he has a certain number of hours (I don't recall how many -- maybe 120?) he is granted a credit in that subject and it will go on his transcript however you choose to title it.

If your child takes classes at other accredited schools, they will also appear on his final high school transcript. If your child takes classes at unaccredited schools, time spent on those will be recorded and credited to your child using the monthly log sheets I described above.

I have a high school diploma from Clonlara and I have applied to colleges either as a homeschooler or as a private schooler depending on which I thought the college would better receive. At out-of-state colleges, they like seeing homeschoolers. In NYS, I just say I went to private school because of the weird Board of Regents requirement that to graduate you must have a diploma.

I also was homeschooled in NY (and live here now, with a ninth grader of my own) and no, you can not issue a diploma as a homeschooler. Most colleges around the country do not care if your homeschooler has an actual diploma or not, but in NYS, the Board of Regents forbids graduation to any college student who does not have one. A college student may get around those requirements by doing any of the following:

- not attend a NYS college (since no other colleges anywhere give a darn about it)
- earn an equivalency degree by taking 24 specific credit hours while in college
- send in homeschool paperwork all four years of high school and ask the superintendent in your district to write a "letter of equivalency"
- take a GED

 

 

 

[freesia]

Thanks so much, this was exactly the information I was looking for.

[freesia]

Rose,

I have another question. What goes in the portfolios that you send in? For math would it be just assessments or work samples, too. For lit is it reading lists and any writing you do? I am just trying to get an idea of how much they need.

 

Thanks so much.

[dragons in the flower bed]

Unless they have radically changed and are not mentioning it on their site, you don't have to send them a portfolio, just the forms they initially send you -- log sheets, credit request forms, etc. The "contact teacher" or advisor your student is assigned will become a mentor, a correspondent, almost a family friend. (I graduated 14 years ago and I am still in touch with mine and that is common.) If they get a funny feeling that you aren't working as much as you say, they will talk to you about it, and are probably authorized to request documentation of some sort (though I can't imagine them ever saying, 'no credit because you have no tests!' -- if you had no tests and needed to prove something, they'd find an alternative way to let you) but mostly they accept as proof your correspondence with them.

 

They are really very reasonable, homey folks. They're professionals, yes -- running an actual brick and mortar school for so long, as they have -- but they are not bureacrats. Not at all.

[Kate in Arabia]

There are some changes, Rose.

 

My ds 15 is in 10th grade with Clonlara, he completed 9th with them last year.  I have used Clonlara with all my kids since my oldest was in 1st grade.

 

There aren't any grids that I've seen.  At the beginning of each school year ds and I have a conference consultation with our adviser to discuss what we're looking at credits-wise for the year.  She then sends me an email with a summary of our conversation.  I then prepare credit planning forms, one form for each course.  These are not set in stone, they are designed to give Clonlara an idea of what you are going to cover and how you're going to do it; the adviser reviews them and then lets you know if all looks ok, or if they think something is not going to work for whatever reason.  You have a lot of flexibility here, this is where I think the "unschooling" aspect of Clonlara comes in -- there are a lot of ways you can design a credit, kwim?

 

Once the forms are approved, I don't have any contact with Clonlara, unless I am making a major change to one of our courses in which case I send a heads up to our adviser (for example, last year I changed one of our textbooks mid-semester; and one course I had as 1 full credit and I scaled it back to a half credit).  At the end of each semester we fill out credit request forms, which have sections for both the student and teacher to complete on what was covered and achieved.

 

At the end of the highschool experience, you do have to submit a portfolio of work.  Again, this is pretty flexible, but it should be something that would reflect work achieved over the four years... they had as an example a website one student designed where he uploaded samples from different courses he took, etc.  But it could be a project that encompassed a wide range of subjects/curricula, they are pretty flexible on that.  You also have to submit a reading list that covers the four years, and must include from a variety of genre. And you must complete a set number of community service hours and submit forms for that (that have been signed by supervisors), I split it out and it comes to about four hours per month of the school year.

 

I don't have any experience with applying to colleges (yet), I can hopefully comment on that in a couple of years! ;)

 

 

[Kate in Arabia]

I forgot to add, they also require an exit exam at the end; they send it to you at the beginning of the school year (so you have a lot of time to work on it).  From the Secondary Guide:

 

The Exit Exam is a required part of earning a Clonlara diploma. You are
allowed to research your answers and take your time on this examination.
The Exit Exam is not designed just to test your knowledge. In fact, many of
the questions are opinion questions.

The Exit Exam has been redesigned to give students the option between the
regular exam and a research paper.

[Kate in Arabia]

Rose,

I have another question. What goes in the portfolios that you send in? For math would it be just assessments or work samples, too. For lit is it reading lists and any writing you do? I am just trying to get an idea of how much they need.

 

Thanks so much.

 

I just read through the Secondary Guide on this topic, here's part of what they have.  As I mentioned before, they give links to eSamples of what other students have done, to give you an idea.  The one I recall looking at, the student had made a website (like a blog) with links to a handful of scanned pages of work on each subject/course.  So, like, 2-3 essays from a writing a course, etc.

 

Every Clonlara student must submit a Graduation Portfolio as a

requirement for graduation.

 

Your Graduation Portfolio should be a reflection of your individual high

school experience with Clonlara. This is your chance to showcase your

talents and abilities, educational activities, greatest achievements, and

personal growth.

 

A portfolio can contain writing samples, artwork, math calculations, science

lab reports, an annotated reading list, photos documenting your academic

and non-academic pursuits, brochures from field trips, certificates of

achievement, your resume, letters of recommendation, and anything else that

highlights what you take pride in and/or demonstrates your personal and

academic advancement. Be creative. The sky is the limit!

 

Your Graduation Portfolio must be one cohesive document.

 

[Guest joeysmom]

Hi

I also am considering signing up with Clonlara. Anyone used them successfully and willing to answer a few questions?
Quick background on us

17 year old son who is headed to culinary school as soon as he can.  Culinary school requires HS diploma of any kind.  Son works 20 hours a week in a commercial kitchen and loves the hands on cooking.  We are looking for the easiest way to get his HS diploma. He was in private school through 10th grade. Tried a very alternative school for 11th grade and now should be graduating 12th grade.

Thanks in advance for anyone who can help with information!

[Kate in Arabia]

I will need to check through the paperwork, but I do recall there was something mentioned in there about transferring in during high school, I can't remember offhand if it was a time requirement (like you had to do something different if you were transferring in senior year?  or maybe it was different calendar dates?  I need to refresh my memory).

 

Actually, if you're looking for the most straightforward way, I would consider the American School.  My sister-in-law transferred there as a sophomore and the procedure was pretty seamless.  The remaining coursework she had was basic, you could obviously add more on the side as you wished, but she was just interested in finishing up and getting her diploma.  She then went on to undergrad and ultimately got a graduate degree, so it worked for her.

 

hth!

 

 

[Guest joeysmom]

Thank you Kate!

You recommend the American school? Is that the correspondence school? I would love to hear more about it. My son wants to do the absolute minimum so he can move on to culinary school.

thanks!!

[Kate in Arabia]

It is the correspondence school.  They will send you all the books, etc.  With Clonlara, you will have to select whatever books you want to use, and in fact design the courses you want your high schooler to take.  From what you're saying here, I think the American School would be a better fit.

 

If you search the board you should find a number of threads talking about it.  I'm pretty sure there are several people here who are currently using their program.