Dual enrollment English 1: Does this really count for a full-year high school English course?

[g1234]

 

My daughter is considering taking English 1 at our local community college. The main reason is that we want to start having some outside validation--she works very hard at home and learns a lot, but right now my word is all we have to go on...not very convincing to an admissions office, I know! All her other courses would be at home this semester. We're not yet sure whether she'd take a second class next semester.

 

From what I read on these boards, this one-semester class would count for a year of English for her. Is this true? And if it is, how do you handle that in terms of work load? Say she does not take a cc class next semester. Do you save another home-based class that you do not start until second semester, and then do it double-speed?

 

And while I'm piling on the questions...does anyone have any opinions on what kind of class is best to take for this purpose (outside validation)?  Is English as good as any?

 

Thanks for any perspective anyone can offer. This would be our first foray into cc classes, and I'm feeling a little confused and unsure about the whole thing!

[Guest2]

Hopefully someone else will chime in , as I am no expert. Usually, a CC non remedial course does count as a full high school year credit. To balance the workload, you could offer a one semester class such as Economics or Government in the spring. Classes done outside our home with hard deadlines, tend to get done, although that sometimes means we have to play catch up with other courses. English is a great idea if that is her strength and the subject matter is appropriate to her age. HtH

[Mom22ns]

While we count most 3 credit college courses as a full credit, English has been one exception. I gave dd .5 credit for composition and will do the same for Intro to Lit (if they offer it at a time that works in the spring). I think you can do whatever you want with this, but I consider a year of high school English to be a combination of literature and writing and our CC English classes are just too light. I would say she did more in 1 semester of Blue Tent Honors English 2, than she would in 2 semesters at the CC. I don't think a college would question you giving a full credit though, so do whatever you are comfortable with.

 

[AngieW in Texas]

I gave all three of my girls one semester worth of credit for each English class. The work was definitely worth one semester, but not worth a full year.

 

 

[plansrme]

As for what is a good class to use for outside validation, you also may want to consider math, especially if she plans to enter a STEM field or anything else math-heavy (economics, for example).

[The Girls' Mom]

We use it as a full credit.  Our umbrella school also takes it as one credit.  We did a little extra lit just as a filler.

[Sunshine State Sue]

Our CC publishes the HS equivalencies.  Perhaps your does as well?

 

We have no English classes per se.  Only literature and composition.  Most count for 1 year of HS credit.

[Sunshine State Sue]

how do you handle that in terms of work load? Say she does not take a cc class next semester. Do you save another home-based class that you do not start until second semester, and then do it double-speed?

Ds started with 2 classes at CC:  The College Experience and Intermediate Algebra.  Second semester, he took 3 classes:  College Algebra, Earth Science (with lab), and Critical Reading and Thinking (terrific for ACT prep).  The first semester, he also took a semester long Sports Management and Exercise Physiology class online through Landry Academy.  He had an interest in it, and it helped to balance out the semester/year.  So, I chose a semester long class rather than a full credit done at double speed.

 

And while I'm piling on the questions...does anyone have any opinions on what kind of class is best to take for this purpose (outside validation)?  Is English as good as any?

We are counseled by more experienced hs moms to start dc in a class called The College Experience.  Either that or a subject that they are strong in.  I started ds in both.

 

ETA:  Just realized I misread that question.  You are not asking what to take first, rather what other classes to take to provide outside validation.  I would probably suggest a variety and/or your students strongest subject(s).

 

SLS 1101 The College Experience

This course is designed to strengthen skills essential to success in college, with further applications to post-college plans. Included are study and test-taking strategies; effective interpersonal skills; time management techniques; creative and critical thinking skills; college services and resources; educational policies, procedures, regulations and terminology; and library resources, research strategies, and information skills for online, blended, and traditional learning environments.

 

REA 1105 Critical Reading and Thinking

This course is designed to develop and enhance literal and critical reading skills and vocabulary. Emphasis is also on critical thinking skills: analysis, interpretation, synthesis, and evaluation.

[Ellie]

My daughter is considering taking English 1 at our local community college. The main reason is that we want to start having some outside validation--she works very hard at home and learns a lot, but right now my word is all we have to go on...not very convincing to an admissions office, I know! All her other courses would be at home this semester. We're not yet sure whether she'd take a second class next semester.

YES!!!! A full high school credit! :-)

 

From what I read on these boards, this one-semester class would count for a year of English for her. Is this true? And if it is, how do you handle that in terms of work load? Say she does not take a cc class next semester. Do you save another home-based class that you do not start until second semester, and then do it double-speed? I'm not sure what you're asking. If my dc didn't take a class the next semester, we'd just work on the next thing, I don't know why we'd do it at "double speed." Are you thinking that if your dc took a c.c. class one semester but not the next, that you'd have to fill up that space at home???

 

And while I'm piling on the questions...does anyone have any opinions on what kind of class is best to take for this purpose (outside validation)?  Is English as good as any? We didn't do c.c. for the purpose of validation. It never occurred to me that outside validation was even a thing. My dd did c.c. classes to fulfill their lower division requirements for college, instead of doing those same courses at home for "high school" and then repeating them for college. In short, my dds did c.c. instead of high school (possible in California, possibly not in all states. YMMV).

[SkateLeft]

I gave my oldest a full high school credit for each semester long college English course, but I required her to take both a composition class and a literature class each year. So her first semester of 11th grade is College Writing, then the second semester she took a literature class. She took another writing class during the first semester of her senior year, and another literature class that spring.

 

My younger daughter attends a different college where the English 1 course is split into two semesters, but the second semester is only 2 credits and focuses on writing a research paper. I gave her a semester of high school credit for that class, but a full credit for her first semester class, which was 4 credits at the CC.

[Renaissance Mom]

My oldest is taking a 4-credit science class dual enrollment this fall. It is a college semester compressed into 8 wks. Therefore, I will not have her start statistics and personal finance until after the 8-wk class is done. She will work on statistics at a pace to complete a full high school credit in about 3/4 of the year...so, yes, at a faster than "normal" pace. The personal finance class is a half credit, so it will be fine. In other words, if you lighten her regular load at home to allow for the increased demand of a DE class, yes I would pick up whatever you lightened during the DE semester.

 

BTW, the college dd is taking the DE class thru suggests that a 4 credit college class be awarded 1 high school credit, while a 3 credit college class be awarded 3/4 credit if you consider 150 Carnegie units your normal high school credit for honors, advanced, or college prep courses. A regular high school class at 120 Carnegie units would be 1 high school credit for a 3 credit college class...but then I would label it accordingly.

[J-rap]

I would always assume that a full semester college course equals a full year high school course.  In fact, it would never even occur to me that it wouldn't.

[Wildcat]

I gave 1 credit for each cc class. My dc took programming, maths, sciences, and economics stuff so I can't compare the English classes, but if they had taken English, I probably would have given 1 credit for that, too.

 

My school district gives .5 credits for a 3 credit cc course. I don't agree with that. Unfortunately, that is the norm for our area, so I think I would have trouble counting a 3 credit course as a full hs credit. But I think it also depends on who is reading the transcript and what their norm is.

 

My ps district also uses the .5 credit for cc classes thing. I looked at the curriculum for my local high school and saw what they award one credit for and had no problem issuing the credits that I did. My theory is they do that because they want the kids' butts in the schools for the federal funds AND they want them in AP classes to boost their stats. There are PLENTY of high schools in the country that award 1 credit for cc classes. I awarded 1 full credit for each cc class because I am not obligated to follow what the ps schools do. My dc applied to a total of six universities (none are on the common app, in case that matters) and they didn't blink an eye and accepted my dc without question. Five of those six unis have a high percentage of students from our district applying as they are state schools, so it obviously wasn't an issue. My dc also had a lot of credits overall and good ACT scores, so they may have looked at the whole package and figured it didn't matter. Or, they recomputed our transcripts to suit their institutional needs. I just figured I would share my experience and YMMV. 

[LisaKinVA]

In our county back home, CC classes, taught at the high school received the same credit as a high school class...but they were paced at high school pace. CC classes taken at the CC like a normal CC class were awarded 1 full credit for a semester.

[charlotteb]

Our local public schools has an agreement with the local community college that  allow a child in 12th grade to count their full year AP English class towards one semester of College English.  So if your child did one semester of college English at the community college, it should count the other way around too, right

[ThisIsTheDay]

We counted 1 full high school credit for a dual enrollment basic 101 Composition class at CC. 

 

In the past, I've seen more people here disagree about counting it as a full high school credit, so I'm a bit surprised by the responses.

 

I've also counted a 5 credit CC foreign language class as one full credit of high school credit. It didn't matter to me if the CC class was 3 credits or 5.

 

For the following semester, is there a class your dd would like to take?  Mine took sociology, so I counted it as a social studies-type credit for high school.

 

It's helpful for colleges to see that the student is capable of college level work, but for my dd, the biggest advantage was proving to HER that she could do the work.  She was concerned by her "mommy grades," that maybe she wasn't as capable as I kept telling her.

 

Dual enrollment worked out so well for her that my 12th grade ds will begin in a few weeks.

[Kareni]

Here was my thought process when it came to assigning high school credit for the classes my daughter took at the community college.

 

Amongst the first classes my daughter took at the local community college were College Algebra (a five hour class) and Trigonometry (a four hour class). She did these two classes in consecutive quarters as our community college is on the quarter rather than semester system. Had she taken a year long class in Precalculus at home or at the local high school, she would have earned one high school credit. Since the combination of College Algebra and Trigonometry is considered Precalculus (and in fact the text used in both of these classes was Sullivan's Precalculus), I assigned each of these classes one half high school credit. To me, it would have seemed too generous to give two credits for this combination of classes.

 

On my daughter's transcript, I included this information in the Notes section:

 

Courses taken at Z Community College (ZCC) as a high school student; 0.50 credit assigned to each 4 or 5 quarter credit class taken at ZCC.

 

That said, our local state university gives one high school credit for each over 100 level college course. 

 

Regards,
Kareni

[g1234]

Thanks so much, everyone!  This is really helpful.  It feels like such a confusing subject, and you all have a lot of good thoughts.

 

 

From what I read on these boards, this one-semester class would count for a year of English for her. Is this true? And if it is, how do you handle that in terms of work load? Say she does not take a cc class next semester. Do you save another home-based class that you do not start until second semester, and then do it double-speed? I'm not sure what you're asking. If my dc didn't take a class the next semester, we'd just work on the next thing, I don't know why we'd do it at "double speed." Are you thinking that if your dc took a c.c. class one semester but not the next, that you'd have to fill up that space at home???

 

Well, maybe I'm thinking too "inside the box," here, and I'd love to be further enlightened....my thinking is that if she were doing everything at home, she'd be doing six credits, as she has for the past number of years: math, english, history, science, and two electives (in her case, a foreign language and music).  So I was thinking that we should stick to that idea generally, especially as colleges she'll likely apply to will want to see four years of most of these things.  So if she takes English at the cc, and if we count it as 1 full credit being accomplished in one semester, then to even out the work load more or less, she would take one of her other subjects and NOT do it first semester, and do it all (thus, double-speed) second semester, or else take it at the cc second semester.  Does that make sense?  If it doesn't, please do tell me!!  I'm new at this and want to hear all about it.  Fwiw, she'll be in 10th grade.
 

[The Girls' Mom]

Thanks so much, everyone!  This is really helpful.  It feels like such a confusing subject, and you all have a lot of good thoughts.

 

Well, maybe I'm thinking too "inside the box," here, and I'd love to be further enlightened....my thinking is that if she were doing everything at home, she'd be doing six credits, as she has for the past number of years: math, english, history, science, and two electives (in her case, a foreign language and music).  So I was thinking that we should stick to that idea generally, especially as colleges she'll likely apply to will want to see four years of most of these things.  So if she takes English at the cc, and if we count it as 1 full credit being accomplished in one semester, then to even out the work load more or less, she would take one of her other subjects and NOT do it first semester, and do it all (thus, double-speed) second semester, or else take it at the cc second semester.  Does that make sense?  If it doesn't, please do tell me!!  I'm new at this and want to hear all about it.  Fwiw, she'll be in 10th grade.

 

 

When mine have taken DE classes, we haven't adjusted anything at home to fit in a semester.  She would either take another class at CC the next semester (an extra-curricular? another needed credit?) or she would have a slightly lighter class load the 2nd semester with nothing filling the slot.  In the end, the transcript will still show X number of credits.  They don't really look at whether you filled every available space with school work.  (I hope I'm making sense)

[Ellie]

Thanks so much, everyone!  This is really helpful.  It feels like such a confusing subject, and you all have a lot of good thoughts.

 

Well, maybe I'm thinking too "inside the box," here, and I'd love to be further enlightened....my thinking is that if she were doing everything at home, she'd be doing six credits, as she has for the past number of years: math, english, history, science, and two electives (in her case, a foreign language and music).  So I was thinking that we should stick to that idea generally, especially as colleges she'll likely apply to will want to see four years of most of these things.  So if she takes English at the cc, and if we count it as 1 full credit being accomplished in one semester, then to even out the work load more or less, she would take one of her other subjects and NOT do it first semester, and do it all (thus, double-speed) second semester, or else take it at the cc second semester.  Does that make sense?  If it doesn't, please do tell me!!  I'm new at this and want to hear all about it.  Fwiw, she'll be in 10th grade.

 

 

You're thinking way too inside-the-box. :-)

 

Do the other five subjects for the whole year as usual. The first semester she'll earn a whole English credit. The next semester, she'll do another c.c. class, which will actually give her *seven* credits for the year, not six. Or plan ahead and do four subjects at home for the year, with English the first semester, and one of the others for the second semester, and she'll still end up with six credits.

[EKS]

Thanks so much, everyone!  This is really helpful.  It feels like such a confusing subject, and you all have a lot of good thoughts.

 

Well, maybe I'm thinking too "inside the box," here, and I'd love to be further enlightened....my thinking is that if she were doing everything at home, she'd be doing six credits, as she has for the past number of years: math, english, history, science, and two electives (in her case, a foreign language and music).  So I was thinking that we should stick to that idea generally, especially as colleges she'll likely apply to will want to see four years of most of these things.  So if she takes English at the cc, and if we count it as 1 full credit being accomplished in one semester, then to even out the work load more or less, she would take one of her other subjects and NOT do it first semester, and do it all (thus, double-speed) second semester, or else take it at the cc second semester.  Does that make sense?  If it doesn't, please do tell me!!  I'm new at this and want to hear all about it.  Fwiw, she'll be in 10th grade.

 

 

If you decide to count the CC class as a half credit (I did), you could do the other half of an English credit at home the next semester (so not double speed).

[MarkT]

Our CC publishes the HS equivalencies.  Perhaps your does as well?

 

We have no English classes per se.  Only literature and composition.  Most count for 1 year of HS credit.

Why is it inconsistent for HS credit from course to course?   3  semester hours ~ 1 HS year

Managerial Accounting is 0.5 HS - why ?  Maybe the class is easy at this college??

Many colleges give 6 semester hour credits for AP US History because it covers the equivalent of two actual courses.

[g1234]

Read all of your helpful followup replies and then forgot to acknowlege them!  Thanks, Ellie, for kicking me out of the box :001_smile: and thanks everyone else, too.  All of your thoughts make sense--just let her do seven credits, or balance this semseter with another class next semester, or whatever.  I think this thread has helped me loosen up a bit and realize there are several perfectly legitimate ways to go about this.  I'm feeling much better, and appreciate you all talking sense to me about this!

[Ellie]

 

 

We have no English classes per se.  Only literature and composition.  Most count for 1 year of HS credit.

 

Literature plus composition *is* an English class. :-)

[Sunshine State Sue]

Literature plus composition *is* an English class. :-)

 

Yes, but they don't call it English at the college.  The classes are either Lit or Comp.  One semester of either one counts for a year of HS English.

 

[Guest jillg]

Our local public high school with a big concurrent enrollment program gives 1 full high school credit per 3 credit hour/1 semester long college class.  They give 1.5 high school credits for 4 credit hour classes, and 1.5 or 2 high school credits for 5 credit hour classes.

 

Some of the equivalencies are based on university entrance requirements.  For example, DS16 took a full year of Spanish at the local community college last year, so a total of 10 (2x 5 credit) semester credits.  The entrance requirements to the engineering program he likes include either 1 full year of a foreign language at the college level or 2 full years at the high school level. In this case, the university sees a 1 semester, 5 hour college language class as worth one year of high school credit. 

 

On the other hand, the same university is willing to treat College Comp 1 (3 credits) as meeting 1 year of high school English. Comp 1, Comp 2, a lit class, and a speech class (all of which are 3 credit hours) will count toward the 4 years of high school English required for university admission, and work toward his general education requirements for his engineering degree at the same time.  

 

The complicated part of all of this has not been figuring out how to grant credit on his high school transcript. It has been more about making sure he takes classes that meet basic standards for applying to a university. Most universities have a list.  4 years HS English, 4 years, HS math, etc....    DS is trying to take classes that create a high school transcript that will get him into the engineering program he likes and at the same time wants the classes to count toward the engineering degree. For a detailed example....

 

This fall he's taking

Calc-based physics 1 (5 credit hours)

Speech (3 credit hours)

Programming (4 credit hours)

 

Spring (probably - or something like this)

Calc-based physics 2 (5 credit hours)

History (3 hours)

Psych (3 hours)

 

-I will count the speech as a year long high school English class. That plus Comp 1 means 2 years of English finished, plus 2 required college general eds done.

-Programming will count for 1 year long high school elective plus is a required class for the computer engineering degree.

-History and psych each count for a 1 year long high school social studies elective. Combined with last years econ class that makes 3 of 4 required years of high school social studies done, and continues to meet the gen ed requirements at the university. 

- Physics 1 & 2 will actually count as 3 years of high school science.  He needs to take Chem for finish his high school science requirements and will also then meet all of the science requirements for the engineering degree. 

 

 

[Mom22ns]

Thanks so much, everyone!  This is really helpful.  It feels like such a confusing subject, and you all have a lot of good thoughts.

 

Well, maybe I'm thinking too "inside the box," here, and I'd love to be further enlightened....my thinking is that if she were doing everything at home, she'd be doing six credits, as she has for the past number of years: math, english, history, science, and two electives (in her case, a foreign language and music).  So I was thinking that we should stick to that idea generally, especially as colleges she'll likely apply to will want to see four years of most of these things.  So if she takes English at the cc, and if we count it as 1 full credit being accomplished in one semester, then to even out the work load more or less, she would take one of her other subjects and NOT do it first semester, and do it all (thus, double-speed) second semester, or else take it at the cc second semester.  Does that make sense?  If it doesn't, please do tell me!!  I'm new at this and want to hear all about it.  Fwiw, she'll be in 10th grade.

 

 

You don't have to do this, but we do. We do almost all our classes in semester blocks in high school. That means we do roughly 2 hours/day for 1 semester for 1 full credit - just like a CC course. It does make it easier to balance CC courses to keep the workload more even throughout the year. I think it actually a bit outside the box to do that. I don't think most people do, but it works for us.

 

I can't tell you what to do. Either way works, but what you are saying does make sense. :)

[Bambam]

I would have thought so, but our local ISD has already assigned high school credit to the dual credit classes their students are allowed to take at our local two options.

 

 

And they are assigning .5 high school credits for a 3 credit one semester college English class. 

 

So, I'll follow their lead on this one.