Awarding Credits for College Classes in High School

[RootAnn]

We've had lots of discussions on this on here previously - some even lately! I'm doing a Fun Friday poll on the topic to see what the current trend is.

I've tried to give lots of options. You should be able to select multiple choices for each question.

 

As always, there is a "nothing seems to fit me" choice at the end of each question.

[Matryoshka]

I honestly might only award a half-credit for some of the stuff dd has taken - but I checked our the local high-octane high school and they have a one-credit per course policy.  So that's what I'm doing.

[katilac]

I follow the local standard of one high school credit for each semester-long college course. My one exception was precalc algebra, which I gave a half credit for. If she had taken the one semester precalc with algebra and trig, I would have given a full credit. 

[Kassia]

Thanks for posting this poll.  This is something I really struggle with.  

 

When my older kids were in ps, credits were awarded like this:

 

1-2 semester hours = .25 credits here

3-4 semester hours = .50 credits here

5-6 semester hours = 1.0 credits here

 

 

But it changed since they graduated and now ps awards them this way:

 

Successful completion of a three or more credit-hour college course will result in 1.0 Carnegie unit earned at the high school. A two credit-hour college course will earn students 2/3 of a high school credit and a one credit-hour college course will convert to 1/3 of a high school credit.

 

 

So, now three credit hours are worth twice as much as they used to be!  

 

The whole situation makes me very stressed since I don't know how much to award dd for many of the classes she takes and I don't want to do anything that will hurt college admissions when the time comes.  

[Mom22ns]

I would award 1 credit per course unless there was something unusual about the course. For example, I would only give 1/2 credit if the class was 1-2 hours, but that is fairly unusual. Our local pubic schools do all their DE courses at the high school and normal semester long college classes are taught 5 days/week for 50 minutes a day all year. I'm assuming the kids get 1 credit each for them but I really don't know. 

[FriedClams]

GA MOWR (DE) POLICY

 

One to two semester hour credits = .5 high school unit credit Three to five semester hour credits = 1 high school unit credit

One to three

quarter hour credits = .5 high school unit credit

Four to eight quarter hour credits = 1 high school unit credit

[Corraleno]

Our state does 1 HS credit for a 3-4 credit semester class or 4-5 credit quarter class, and that's what I did for DS.

[MerryAtHope]

LOL at cupcakes and kilts!

 

We didn't do DE (and I actually don't know our local policy!), but my thinking is this:

 

For a 3 credit course at our local CC (which has an automatic transfer agreement with in-state U's, at least one out-of-state U, and many private schools), the student spends 3 hours in class, and 2-3 hours per credit hour outside of class (per their course catalog), for a 16-week class. That translates to 144-192 hours. I personally wouldn't have any problem awarding a full credit on that basis for any academic transfer course. 

[Lori D.]

Explanation of my area:

- No state regulations requiring homeschoolers to award credit in a particular way.

- Several public school districts award credit by hours in classroom; so 3-, 4-, and 5-unit courses are counted as 0.5 credit because that is how many hours/week the student is in a classroom for the semester. (This policy is a result of local public schools feeling the threat of the CC taking away per-student-$$ from the state due to dual enrollment.)

 

Awarding credit for DE looked like this for our homeschool:
1-2 unit class = 0.25 credit
3 unit class = 0.5 credit** (or 1.0 unit, if the class is time/writing or an upper division college course)
4 unit class = 1.0 credit
5 unit class = 1.0 - 1.25 credit

* = where a course required college-level rigor, volume and speed of materials, but didn't take as many weekly hours to complete as *our* average credits per hour (135-165 hours = 1 credit), I would still award 1 credit (like awarding 1 credit for completing the Algebra 2 textbook, even if it took less than the 36 weeks of a school year to complete).

My lengthy explanation for how I arrived at this is below -- don't feel you have to keep reading.   For my own homeschool policy, I strove for credit consistency (where possible), taking into consideration several factors:
1. rigor and volume of material, and speed of covering it
2. amount of hours accrued:

. . . . . . . . . . . .min.* . .avg. . . ., max*   hours
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

* where these numbers come from:

- minimum = 120 hours of classroom contact = Carnegie credit, with the understanding that additional hours are spent outside the classroom as homework, practice, projects, study, etc.
- maximum = 180 hours = 1 hour/day x 5 days per week x 36 weeks of a school year

** = seriously, folks, I just could NOT make myself award 1 credit for a semester of DE Writing class, when the college classes do less writing and literature than we did in a semester of homeschool high school English -- and we were NOT doing rigorous/advanced/honors English  :eek:

Edited January 18, 2021 by Lori D.

[Lori D.]

oops! failed to read the post carefully.  :blushing:  move along, nothing to see here... ;)

 

 

Edited February 2, 2018 by Lori D.

[Omma]

What if it is situation where only 1/2 the topics are covered because of only taking one semester, such as 1/2 a year of physics w/lab?  We were torn, but went with 0.5 credits in the end.

[MerryAtHope]

;) whispering:

3 class hours + 2-3 outside of class hours = 5-6 hours per week

5-6 hours per week x 16 week semester = 80-96 hours of work for the semester, not 144-196 hours

 

High school credits are calculated at anywhere from 120-180 hours = 1 credit, so 80-96 hours would = 0.5 to 0.75 credit, depending on the "hours-to-credit" chart you use. I totally agree that 144-192 hours = 1 credit. :)

 

2-3 hours PER CREDIT HOUR is what our catalog says--so they expect 6-9 hours outside of class plus 3 hours in class, for 9-12 hours per week per class. (And I've found their estimates to be pretty accurate too.)

Edited February 2, 2018 by MerryAtHope

[Lori D.]

2-3 hours PER CREDIT HOUR is what our catalog says--so they expect 6-9 hours outside of class plus 3 hours in class, for 9-12 hours per week per class. (And I've found their estimates to be pretty accurate too.)

 

THANKS! Missed that the 2-3 hours time estimate was PER CREDIT HOUR. ;)

 

That is not what I typically see as volume of outside the class work at our local CC classes for the *3-unit Writing, English, and Humanities* courses. It is more like 2-3 hours total per week (for a course with 3 hours per week in class), which probably also explains why I am reluctant to award more than 0.5 credit for a 3-unit course. Since your CC's catalog is pretty accurate in their estimates, then I would also have no problems awarding 1 credit for 144-196 hours of work for a 1 semester class. :)

Edited February 2, 2018 by Lori D.

[MerryAtHope]

What if it is situation where only 1/2 the topics are covered because of only taking one semester, such as 1/2 a year of physics w/lab?  We were torn, but went with 0.5 credits in the end.

 

That would be hard. I guess in that case, the depth of the coverage would matter a lot to me.

 

move along, nothing to see here... ;)

 

Lori, you crack me up! It's funny how different experiences can be. 

[TracyP]

I haven't done this yet, but it looks like my state has a policy for awarding credit.

 

My state law says:

A district shall grant academic credit to a pupil enrolled in a course for secondary credit if the pupil successfully completes the course. Seven quarter or four semester college credits equal at least one full year of high school credit. Fewer college credits may be prorated.

 

I assume that means

1 credit DE = .25 HS credit

2 credits DE = .5 HS credit

3 credits DE = .75 HS

4 DE = 1 HS

5 DE = 1 HS but could be added to a 3 credit course to make 2 full credits. So if a student took College Algebra (3 credits) and Precalculus (5 credits), you would award 1 full credit for each