Understanding credit hours

[deerforest]

Hi--

 

I'm just doing planning for 8th, but I have high school in the back of my mind, and I've realized that I don't understand how credit hours are counted. In-class time is included in that total, right?

 

180 hours across 36 weeks means 5 hours per week for a course, right?

 

So, if you're in a class that meets daily for 1 hour, does that mean that no extra work outside of class is expected? Or, do you consider like 2 hours in class and 3 hours of work outside of class? I'm trying to remember my own high school experience, and we had every subject daily for about 40 minutes plus a lot of homework. 

 

Thanks!

[deerforest]

I was just trying to make sure if I assume that she and I are working together in some way, like discussing a subject 2 hours a week, then I would just try to not give her more than 3 hours of work to do on her own for a given subject per week.

[Sunshine State Sue]

There are different ways to establish a credit.  When ds was in 8th grade or so, I went to a seminar about homeschooling high school.  Now, this was just a mom who had graduated her 2 kids to college and she put together a workshop to educate those of us coming behind her.  According to her research, in FL, a credit in the school system is 135 hours of "in seat" instruction.  She suggested 4 ways to establish a credit:

1. 100 hours of contact with a subject (google Carnegie Units)
2. Finish the book
3. Demonstrate mastery of the material
4. Combination of the above

I like this post of Lori D's (copied here) from this thread:

High School Credit Hours

Here are the methods I see most people use to determine high school credits:

 

1. Completion of standard textbook (or online class) = 1 credit

(Allows for students who need more time than a standard year to work at one, and those who need less time to not be "penalized" by piling on more work. Not a perfect method, as textbooks do vary in amount of material and rigor. Also, not all texts fit a 36-week school year. So, adapting may be necessary.)

 

(Example: the textbook has 42 chapters, so pick those most important to cover in the time you have. Another example: your student is flying through their math or science text and is done with 12 weeks to go -- use that 12 weeks for an additional "unit study" AND realize that it is time to change to a more rigorous program next year to meet the student's advanced level of work.)

 

 

2. Completion of dual enrollment course -- depending on the course = 1 credit

(Again, not a perfect method, as rigor and quality vary widely; I personally count 3-unit college dual enrollment classes as only 0.5 high school credit, unless the rigor and time spent brings it up in comparison to a 1.0 credit high school course.)

 

 

3. Hours = 1 credit

120 hours = minimum (Carnegie credit*)

180 hours = maximum (traditional school model**)

 

With the extremes as 120-180 hours, that makes 150 hours a nice, solid amount of time spent for 1.0 credit (and so, 75 hours = 0.5 credit). Again, there will be some variation, as English (reading) and Science (labs) tend to take a bit more time, and "checkbox" courses such as Economics, Health, Government often take less time.

 

When using the hours method for counting credits:

- be fair (don't make your student do 200 hours of work and only count it as 1 credit)

- be consistent (as much as possible, have all classes roughly match up to what you decide on for # of hours = 1 credit)

- you can accumulate hours over more that 1 year to eventually add up to 1 credit

- beware of padding (counting a very small amount of hours as 1 credit) -- it can call the transcript and the student's accomplishments into question

 

* = Carnegie credit is defined as 120 hours classroom contact, with additional outside class work assumed.

** = traditional school model credit is based on 1 hour day x 180 days; however, classes are really only about 50 minutes long, and even less of that time has actual instruction/learning -- BUT, homework brings that back up again to an average of 1 hour/day.

 

 

[Lori D.]

On 4/29/2017 at 3:40 PM, deerforest said:

I was just trying to make sure if I assume that she and I are working together in some way, like discussing a subject 2 hours a week, then I would just try to not give her more than 3 hours of work to do on her own for a given subject per week.

Yes, esp. if making your own credit, and esp. with "open-ended" subjects like History or Literature/Writing, it's super easy to over-do, so a maximum of 180 hours for a credit is one way of keeping credits "contained" and giving your student the credit they have earned.

So for example: if you spend 200 (or more) hours on History in one year, don't call that 1.0 credit -- that shorts the student on all of their very legitimate work. Instead, check out the chart below, and award 1.25 (or more) credit. On the transcript, I would probably label 150 to 180 hours of that work as an even 1.0 credit of World History (or whatever you specific time period is), and then award an additional partial credit that I would hang on to and add on to over the following years of high school, and possibly end up accruing an additional 1.0 credit of History by the end of 11th or 12th grade.

Completion of a textbook or program is the easiest way to award credit (as is typical with Math, Science, Foreign Language, or Logic).

If it is a DIY course, in advance, write out what materials will be used and what output is expected, and as you go along, use hours spent on the course to decide if you need to make adjustments in the load.

But with credits that are more "fuzzy" about time and volume of work (like English and Social Studies), it's useful to not only look at the overall volume and level of work (is it of high school level), but also to look at amount of time spent on the credit, in order to stay roughly equivalent in what you are calling "1.0 credit". This chart of how many hours go into a credit-hours may be helpful:

. . . . . . . . . minimum . average .  maximum
1.00 credit = 120 . . . 150 . . . 180  hours
0.75 credit =   90 . . . 110 . . . 135  hours
0.66 credit =   80 . . . 100 . . . 120  hours
0.50 credit =   60 . . . . 75 . . . . 90  hours
0.33 credit =   40 . . . . 50 . . . . 60  hours
0.25 credit =   30 . . . . 35 . . . . 45  hours

Pretty much, the chart shows the minimum amount of hours needed to call a course 1.0 credit. The 120 hour minimum comes from the Carnegie Credit and refers to the minimum teacher/classroom contact hours for 1 credit (it is usually understood that there will ALSO be additional work done *outside of class* that counts towards the credit).

The 180 hour maximum comes, as you suggested in your original post, from public schools which typically are required to meet for 180 days per year -- so 1 hour/day x 5 days/week x 36 weeks/school year = 180 hours. However, most public school classes actually meet for 40-50 minutes per day, BUT, regular homework is assumed to fill up that shorter class time back up to 1 full hour of time.

In general, if you shoot for the average, and you fill out 135 to 165 hours for most of your classes, then the credits on your transcript come out to be roughly equivalent. But, of course, there are lots of exceptions to that ;), such as:

- English and Science classes usually take much closer to 180 hours (or a bit over), due to the extra time needed for reading/writing, and for labs

- some required classes will inevitably end up more as "box checking" classes if the student has a low interest in them -- for example Economics, Government, PE, or Health -- and often, once you complete the program, you find your hours often fall much closer to 120 hours (or 60 hours if just a 1 semester/0.5 credit course)

- dual enrollment courses sometimes cover more advanced material, but in a shorter period of time, so you'll be lighter on the hours for completion, but heavier on the material learned, which balances out

- if a student is completing a program in far less than the 1 year (at the rate of 1 hour/day 4-5 days/week) then you might consider that the program is too light for this student and try switching to material that is more meaty and challenging for the student

- if you have a math struggler, you may need to take much longer than 180 hours to complete the program; if a student needs 2 school years to get through Algebra 1, then it is okay to call that 2 credits (the student put in the time, for sure!), and label it Algebra 1: part 1 and Algebra 1: part 2, or Algebra 1a and Algebra 1b, other designation to honor the student's work, but to accurately describe what content was covered

- sometimes you just have to decide whether or not to count all of the hours spent on reading the Literature for an English credit, or all of the practice hours for instrument practice for a Music credit -- and count some of the hours of repetitive work as homework

A credit is more than just the hours -- it is volume/rigor of material + time for completion. So that's why you can get so much variation. Different students are working at different levels of rigor, and at different speeds so that changes how much volume they can cover, and how much time it takes to cover it. The main thing is to make sure you are using mostly high school level (or above) materials.

All of that is just a long-winded way of affirming your post that I quoted above ? ... Yes, a total of 5 hours a week (your 2 hours of discussion + 3 hours solo work) is a good amount of time, and I would try to not go over that too often. That gives you leeway to cut some material or some assignments if you find you are constantly bumping up against your 5 hour/week limit. And it also gives you leeway if you want/need to drop to just working 4 hours/week from time to time -- like, if you need some sick days, or a special event crops up, or your student absolutely hates a resource and you can't find a substitute -- you can drop or streamline, and you're still well-covered in hours. ?

Also, give yourself permission to "go over" in hours if you have a remedial or struggling or slower student who will just need more time to complete an amount of work that an average or advanced student would complete much more quickly. (I had one of those, and our reality was that we really needed to spend more like 75-90 min/day to complete our 1.0 credit of English, and needed 1.5 years for Algebra 1 and then again for Algebra 2 to complete those 1.0 credit courses... so, that's just what we did.)

Good luck as you move into the administrative aspect of homeschooling high school! ? Warmest regards, Lori D.

Edited June 18, 2019 by Lori D.

[Lori D.]

On 4/29/2017 at 5:20 PM, Sue in St Pete said:

There are different ways to establish a credit.  When ds was in 8th grade or so, I went to a seminar about homeschooling high school.  Now, this was just a mom who had graduated her 2 kids to college and she put together a workshop to educate those of us coming behind her.  According to her research, in FL, a credit in the school system is 135 hours of "in seat" instruction.  She suggested 4 ways to establish a credit:

1. 100 hours of contact with a subject (google Carnegie Units)
2. Finish the book
3. Demonstrate mastery of the material
4. Combination of the above

I like this post of Lori D's (copied here) from this thread: High School Credit Hours

lol, cross-posted with you, Sue! ?

Edited September 25, 2018 by Lori D.

[deerforest]

Lori, you rock as usual and addressed all of my unstated questions! Thanks everyone!

[mschickie]

In NYS a credit (or unit) is equal to 108 hours of instruction.  Many states and colleges go off of a Carnegie Credit which is 120 hours of instruction.  I am not sure I would agree with the poster on the whole lite, general and rigorous credit chart.  The number of hours spent do not necessarily indicate the intensity of the course.

 

[scoutingmom]

In my province a credit is 110 hours and ps needs 30 credits. It means I will have to work hard not to overburden my students if most of the courses I use are designed for about 150 hours....

 

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