Credits at graduation

[saraha]

We are trying to use our states guidelines for a diploma as guide lines for ourselves.  Our state requires the following:

4 cr. Math (including alg II)

4 cr English

3 cr. Science (has to include phys. sci and bio)

3 cr Social Studies (1/2 cr Am. His and 1/2 cr Am gov)

1/2 cr PE

1/2 cr Health

5 cr Electives (including 1 cr. fine arts, 1/2 cr. financial literacy, 2 cr. Foreign Lan)

 

This only equals 20 credits, but if you assign 6 credits a year (which I thought was a recommendation on here somewhere), that makes 24.

 

Did you do the minimum credits to graduate?

Is there a benefit to doing the minimum vs. 6 credits a year= 24?

[klmama]

Instead of just looking at the minimum required for graduation in your state, look at the recommended credits for admission from the toughest school you expect your dc to want to attend.  Many colleges only require what you mentioned, but they recommend 4 years of math, science, English, social studies, and foreign language, plus additional electives, as their admitted students tend to have that much.

[kiana]

In addition to what klmama said:

 

The only benefit I could see to doing the minimum would be if a student genuinely couldn't handle any more. Even if they had a career plan that did not require college readiness, I would want them prepared to enter a college of reasonable quality in case they changed their mind. For most, six is not sufficiently onerous to preclude other activities.

[regentrude]

What the others said. Work backwards form the admissions requirements of target schools.

 

And, to look at this from a different angle: what is the student doing with the rest of her time?

I see a benefit in doing the bare minimum in a few cases: a struggling student with learning disabilities for whom doing the minimum is already a challenge; a student with a  very strong talent  and plans in a non-academic area who needs to free up time to pursue, for example, a path as professional musician or dancer and who would devote several daily hours to practice; a teenage mother who needs to free up time for her responsibilities as a parent.

 

Other than that? Why give the kid the minimum education instead of a better one?

[MomatHWTK]

Is that 1 credit per semester?  Our state offers a Core 40 list that would total 40 credits altogether, about a third of which are various electives.  Kids can graduate with a regular set of credits (whatever that is) but the Core 40 or Core 40 + is the goal.  Our credit hours are listed as 1 per full class per semester, which works out to about 75 hours of instruction per credit hour. 

 

 

In our case, I will aim to have our kids cover as close to the Core 40 as possible but I may have to make changes to meet their various needs (career path, LD's, etc.). 

 

[saraha]

Thanks for  all the replies.  I guess I was worried about having too many credits, and then it might look like we padded the transcript. I just wanted to make sure that having more than the minimum would not work against him somehow.  Six credits a year is an appropriate amount of work for my son.  Less than that would be a very short school day, but too much more and it would be too hard I think.

 

I am glad to hear that though, because now we have more room to fit in some things he would like to study that wouldn't necessarily fit the requirements, but would be neat, Like the Movies as Literature class.

 

 

MomatHWTK  our state counts a full year of a subject, say Algebra I, as 1 credit.  So one semester of something would be 1/2 credit.  It sounds like our system is half of yours, meaning we need 20 credits to graduate and you need 40.

[regentrude]

Thanks for  all the replies.  I guess I was worried about having too many credits, and then it might look like we padded the transcript. I just wanted to make sure that having more than the minimum would not work against him somehow. 

 

Just to put your mind at ease: my DD graduated with 31 credits and was admitted to highly selective schools.

 

But then, of course, there are quality and quantity. Fewer strong credits are better than many fluffy ones.

[kiana]

Thanks for  all the replies.  I guess I was worried about having too many credits, and then it might look like we padded the transcript.

 

It depends on what your credits are.

 

If you have (for a random and very overdone example) 7 math credits, and they are algebra 1, algebra 2, college algebra, geometry, trigonometry, pre-calculus, and analytic geometry, it's going to look padded. It's going to look very padded because there is so much ooooverlap between those courses, even though each one by itself is a legitimate course.

 

If you have 7 math credits, and they are algebra 1, geometry, algebra 2, pre-calculus, discrete math, calculus, and probability/statistics (and a SAT/ACT math score to match), it's not going to look padded because those are obviously very different courses and this is clearly a strong student interested in math who has taken the time to explore different fields.

[G5052]

And if you have prep schools is your area, it is good to look at what they have too.  

 

Here's one from my area ($25,000/year tuition):

 

Composition -- 4

Literature -- 4

Math -- 4

Science -- 4

History -- 4

World Languages -- 2 of same language, 4 recommended

Government -- 1

Fine Arts -- 1

Physical Education -- 2

Electives -- TBD

 

Minimum of 27 credits to graduate

 

My oldest will have 30 credits.

[saraha]

Thanks for all the perspective.  I feel better now, especially now that I don't have to ax some of the things they want to do because they don't fit exactly in the requirements.  We can do them in addition to.

[Lolly]

And if you have prep schools is your area, it is good to look at what they have too.  

 

Here's one from my area ($25,000/year tuition):

 

Composition -- 4

Literature -- 4

Math -- 4

Science -- 4

History -- 4

World Languages -- 2 of same language, 4 recommended

Government -- 1

Fine Arts -- 1

Physical Education -- 2

Electives -- TBD

 

Minimum of 27 credits to graduate

 

My oldest will have 30 credits.

But, generally, composition and literature would be one credit total for a full year/not two. Government is usually a half credit.

 

I am coming from where the norm would be 24 credits with 7 hour school days (8-3), that includes lunch and time to change classes which would cut back those 7 hours to 6 of instructional time. 27 hours of credits would be almost 7 hours of classtime a day/no lunch. What hours does this school stay open? The only way I can see to do this is to accumulate hours during the summer or middle school.

[kiana]

But, generally, composition and literature would be one credit total for a full year/not two. Government is usually a half credit.

 

I am coming from where the norm would be 24 credits with 7 hour school days (8-3), that includes lunch and time to change classes which would cut back those 7 hours to 6 of instructional time. 27 hours of credits would be almost 7 hours of classtime a day/no lunch. What hours does this school stay open? The only way I can see to do this is to accumulate hours during the summer or middle school.

 

Or block scheduling.

[G5052]

But, generally, composition and literature would be one credit total for a full year/not two. Government is usually a half credit.

 

I am coming from where the norm would be 24 credits with 7 hour school days (8-3), that includes lunch and time to change classes which would cut back those 7 hours to 6 of instructional time. 27 hours of credits would be almost 7 hours of classtime a day/no lunch. What hours does this school stay open? The only way I can see to do this is to accumulate hours during the summer or middle school.

 

Yes, longer hours and many students bring credits from middle school and summers.  They have separate composition and literature classes taught by different teachers, which most don't.  So they count things a little differently than some.

 

There's another one in the same price range here with similar requirements, although they combine composition and literature into one and say 24 credits with 3 credits of science, 3 of math through Geometry, and 3 of foreign language.  The rest is the same.

 

Just to show how there's a lot of variation.

[Lolly]

Or block scheduling.

The way I know block scheduling to be done it cuts the number of classes you can take (basically) in half for the semester.

[kiana]

The way I know block scheduling to be done it cuts the number of classes you can take (basically) in half for the semester.

In blocks, most students take 4 per semester (so 8 per year) -- the extra time is usually found through cutting down passing time between classes and time for the class to settle down at the beginning.

[HelenNotOfTroy]

My local high school was 7 classes/year before block scheduling and 8 classes/year after. The state requires 24 credits to graduate, so many people had more than the minimum upon graduation.

[Mom22ns]

In blocks, most students take 4 per semester (so 8 per year) -- the extra time is usually found through cutting down passing time between classes and time for the class to settle down at the beginning.

 

This is what the largest public school district in our areas does: 8 classes/year. I was just looking at one of dd's friend's schedules. She is a junior in the IB program. She has 10 classes, 8 credits this year. She will graduate with 30+ credits. No one is going to blink at you being over the minimums.

[klmama]

But, generally, composition and literature would be one credit total for a full year/not two.

 

It really varies by school. In my high school the usual 4-year English sequence for college-bound students was English 9 (1), Grammar (1), American Literature (1), and Rhetoric (1). Additional options for those who wanted them were British Lit (1), World Lit (1), Creative Writing (.5), Newspaper Writing (.5), Play Reading (.5), and Public Speaking (.5). Many people took multiple English credits each year.

[elegantlion]

My state requires 24 for public schools, my local school has 28 and does block scheduling. I think they are downgrading to 26 or 27 this year, not sure why. Ds will have probably have 28 upon graduation.