Transcript question

[Janeway]

I know the local public schools will give credit for geometry and algebra 1, even if they were taken at the middle age. Also, I know of one private school and one charter school locally that allow 9th grade biology to be taken in 8th grade, but only for those students who are taking geometry then. It has to do with keeping the math and science sequence not too out of line. In my case, I enrolled my 8th grader in a private school class for 9th grade in a classical school. So they are doing ancients now. He is doing lit and history and bible. The school even listed that it was worth two credits. I will be listing this on his transcript.

 

Should he basically end up with a 5 yr transcript where I list the years he took things and be fine with there being 5 years worth of courses...6 if you include algebra (it is common to have algebra early though) or should I just adjust the dates to reflect that he took the 9th grade classes later. Maybe just list 2016? The classes this year would be 2015-2016. Should I just list them on the transcript with a date of 2016, or just list them as 2016-2017 school year, or just go ahead and list it as 2015-2016? Or perhaps I should just list "9th grade" next to it and not clarify the dates. Then everything will be listed by grade and then not dates.

[regentrude]

I have simply listed the courses which DD took before 9th grade (algebra 1 and biology) with a note "taken before 9th grade".

 

[Sebastian (a lady)]

Is the school accredited and will they be giving the grade? Or is it more like an organized academic coop?

 

I ended up giving a couple stray credits for math and foreign language. But I didn't give credit for early English done at coop. Things I considered were the fact that math and Latin were sequenced, so it was simple to see that work in the subject had continued to be more challenging.

With the English, I knew that ds would still have four hs credits so it really didn't matter if there was one more or if I just considered it an honors 8th grade class.

 

If the English class had been from an outside or accredited source I might have weighed it differently.

 

Just my $0.02. I think some of it depends on what else is happening for high school and what type of colleges they are applying to.

 

My transcript is arranged by subject and then chronologically within the subject. The early courses are first in the subject with the year of completion and the grade listed.

 

When I had a transcript done by year I had one block that was all early courses. Sometimes people talk about having a line on the transcript with early courses above the line. There are also different approaches to giving a credit or calculating gpa using pre 9th grade work.

 

I don't think you have to decide right away if he's in 8th now. Do keep good records of the course in case you use it. Write a course description this year. Take note of books used. Keep the syllabus if there is one. I'd also consider keeping papers written for the class.

[cjzimmer1]

I just listed prior to 9th without specifying exactly when they took those classes.  I would have opted to leave them off all together (My DS doesn't need the credit to graduate) but since all the typical high school math was taken before high school, felt it was wise to have them listed even though his actual high school math would indicate that he had taken those courses at some point).

[snowbeltmom]

I listed the math, science, and foreign language classes taken before 9th grade on the high school transcript and also indicated when they were taken.

[Mom22ns]

I have simply listed the courses which DD took before 9th grade (algebra 1 and biology) with a note "taken before 9th grade".

 

This is what I did as well. I included math, science and foreign language done at a high school level.

[J-rap]

You can wait a year or two before you decide, I think.  For example, if you end up really needing that year of math to count, then list it.  I always listed high school courses not by year but by subject.  So, I'd just list all the high school math classes under the section, Math.  On the other hand, if he ends up with five years of math (including what he took in 8th grade), I don't think you need to list the 8th grade math.  It will be obvious to colleges that if he began high school math with Geometry, he must have had Algebra while in 8th grade.