How Many Courses a Semester in HS

[Paige]

How many courses do you have your HS students do each semester? Our local schools have kids take 8 classes with an A/B schedule. When I was in school, we had 6 classes. Most of my DC are taking 7 this year and it seems too much. I'm thinking about planning 6 for next year, but we don't want our schedules to look super light if 8 is the norm now. 

If we do 6 classes, we only get the core (English, History, Science, Math), foreign language, and 1 elective which seems a little boring, but it seems like if we do 7-8 classes that none of them get the time they deserve or the kids end up overworked.

[maize]

Maybe look at high school graduation requirements for your state; if you are meeting those I think you are fine.

Schools here also do the A/B schedule thing but not every student has a class in all 8 slots. 

Are your kids doing any dual enrollment? A one semester college class is usually counted like a two semester high school class. 

[Lori D.]

Assuming you are homeschooling: lots of ways you can do more than 1 elective a year without overloading the schedule; or only do 6 to 6.5 credits per year and leave students some free time or time for extracurriculars and hobbies.

- Don't do a full 4 credits in each of the 5 core academic subjects
Most non-top-tier/non-competitive colleges only require 2 credits of Foreign Language and 3 of Social Studies -- that would free up 3 more total credits for electives. If you have a student who wants to do the "4x5" amount of credits in academics, great! Go for it! But if you have students who are not shooting for top tier/competitive/selective schools or for rigorous STEM fields, and who are only interested in checking the minimum amount of boxes in one or two subject areas, then don't feel you have to do a full 4 credits in those subject areas if the colleges your student is interested in don't require 4 credits.

- Limit time-consuming rigorous courses
Only do AP or heavy-rigor courses that require more work if the student is really motivated and interested to do it.

- Accrue credit hours outside of your "school" hours
Electives such as PE and Fine Arts often accrue naturally on weekends/evenings/summers if the student is already doing a sport, music, art, etc., so that can leave time in the school day for scheduling another elective.

- Do summer school
Knock out a 0.5 credit like Econ or Gov't over the summer as summer school; do that for two 0.5 credit courses and now you have room during the school year for another 1.0 credit of elective.

- "Bring up" high school credits earned in middle school
Also, what credits might your students be "bringing up" from 8th grade -- math (Algebra 1 and above), science (Biology and above), or foreign language (high school level work and progressing to the next level upon entering high school) -- that may free up a space for an elective.

- Dual enrollment
Dual enrollment of something like foreign language can knock out your credits in half the time (since 1 college credit of DE = 1 YEAR (1 credit) of high school) -- that can open up space for 2 credits of electives in the years when not doing the dual enrollment.

Edited February 9, 2021 by Lori D.

[Sneezyone]

Our schools use block scheduling so the students take four full year classes each semester. Seniors have the option to take three classes instead of four each semester. They don’t have eight all at one time.

Edited February 9, 2021 by Sneezyone

[fourisenough]

My junior has had 6 each school year and it’s plenty. We’ve been able to sneak in one additional credit during an intense summer session each year for a total of 7 credits per year.
 

This year, with 3 APs and 3 Honors-level classes, there is no way she could have done more on top of her heavy (20-25 hrs/wk) ballet schedule.

My older girls who attended our ‘great’ local PS, took 6 credits per year (no block scheduling). There was no way to take more than 6 credits at their school.

[Sherry in OH]

My sons' school has a schedule similar to the one Sneezyone describes.  Four classes per semester, eight total per year.   A full year's work is completed each semester.   The school requires 3 extra English classes. Students take one English class per semester freshman through junior year and one semester of English senior year for a total of 7 English classes.  Otherwise, minimum requirements are standard - 4 math, 3 science, 3 social science ... Students have room in their schedules for at least 6 electives, more if some high school coursework was completed prior to 9th grade and/or the student gets approval to take summer or evening courses from other providers.

The school requires a minimum of 28 credits to graduate, most students have 32+.

 

 

[kristin0713]

My DD is doing 6 this year for 9th grade: Math, English, Science, History, Fine Arts (guitar), and Health/Phys Ed.  Next year I plan to add a foreign language.  She will do more electives as she finishes her core requirements.  

[Paige]

2 hours ago, Sneezyone said:

Our schools use block scheduling so the students take four full year classes each semester. Seniors have the option to take three classes instead of four each semester. They don’t have eight all at one time.

I like that schedule better, except for maybe math and a foreign language which I wouldn't want to have such a long break. At our HS they do take 8 classes all year, but when they were enrolled, I thought most classes were very light and not as in depth as what I had with 6 classes. It seems even the public schools recognize you can't have it all. I think my issue is I want it all! My 8th grader has 6 classes and she took a summer school course for an extra credit (that she doesn't need). Maybe we'll continue that schedule in HS.

I don't want to bring up Algebra or Geometry from middle school and we don't have dual enrollment because the college is so expensive and there's no discount. DS could probably put 2 years Lukeion Greek on his transcript from middle school, but he already has 3 years of HS Spanish so we don't need it. 

 

[Sneezyone]

15 minutes ago, Paige said:

I like that schedule better, except for maybe math and a foreign language which I wouldn't want to have such a long break. At our HS they do take 8 classes all year, but when they were enrolled, I thought most classes were very light and not as in depth as what I had with 6 classes. It seems even the public schools recognize you can't have it all. I think my issue is I want it all! My 8th grader has 6 classes and she took a summer school course for an extra credit (that she doesn't need). Maybe we'll continue that schedule in HS.

I don't want to bring up Algebra or Geometry from middle school and we don't have dual enrollment because the college is so expensive and there's no discount. DS could probably put 2 years Lukeion Greek on his transcript from middle school, but he already has 3 years of HS Spanish so we don't need it. 

 

Some students take their FL back to back to back. DD hasn’t done that but it’s actually been ok. Several of the AP and DE classes are full year, full block (90 minute) classes too. I think it discourages kids from taking a crap ton of them because you have to love the subject enough to give up two slots.

DD, for example, loves math so she doesn’t plan to take any breaks. She started the year with algebra 2 and has trig, stats and probability now. Next year, it’s math analysis and calculus 1. I was a little skeptical at first but I’ve been pleasantly surprised. I think this is also why the students, even the regular non-college track ones, have so few problems transitioning to college classes/pace. We are lucky to have a technical CC nearby and a lot of defense sector jobs so the CC offers math at least through differential equations. There may be one more too.

The kids here seem to go deeper in their areas of interest vs. chasing APs. 🤷🏽‍♀️

Edited February 9, 2021 by Sneezyone

[MamaSprout]

Our district school does the block system (2 x 4), and math and FL are a real problem, although slower students get double math.

A private school an hour a away from us has a modified block with one of the blocks cut in half for year-long  FL and math. They do a weird thing with their lunch time where they roll together lunch/ office hours/ etc. I think they have some classes that meet just one day a week, too. Their schedule makes me dizzy.

[Roadrunner]

Our school also has kids doing 7 courses, but they aren’t all heavy ones. Always in the mix is a PE or Art or electives that don’t even have homework. Most honors courses also have very little homework. Freshman and sophomores are only allowed one AP per year. 

[Lori D.]

36 minutes ago, Paige said:

... I think my issue is I want it all! My 8th grader has 6 classes and she took a summer school course for an extra credit (that she doesn't need). Maybe we'll continue that schedule in HS.

I don't want to bring up Algebra or Geometry from middle school and we don't have dual enrollment because the college is so expensive and there's no discount. DS could probably put 2 years Lukeion Greek on his transcript from middle school, but he already has 3 years of HS Spanish so we don't need it...

It sounds like you've got advanced AND motivated students, so I doubt taking 7-8 credits of classes each year, especially if 2-3 of those credits each year are electives, will overwork them. 😉 

Edited February 9, 2021 by Lori D.