Numerical grade vs. letter grade on transcripts?

[mlktwins]

For high school transcripts, do you always use numerical grades (with the grading scaled included) or do you just put A, B, etc.?

Also, what do you do when you don't provide a numerical grade for a class done at home?  For example, for our Intro to Photography credit, they completed all the assigned work.  They are getting an A, but I didn't give them a numerical grade.

I do have quite a few numerical grades from outsourced classes and some of my home classes too, but I don't for everything.

What do I do in this situation?

 

[UmmIbrahim]

I only assigned letter grades (I had a key on the transcript with something like 90-100 - A, 80-89 - B, etc.). Our dual enrollment transcript from the community college also only had letter grades. Actually, my oldest took one class at the local high school as a part-time enrollment student and he also only got a letter grade there.

Do people even put numeric grades?

[mlktwins]

1 minute ago, UmmIbrahim said:

I only assigned letter grades (I had a key on the transcript with something like 90-100 - A, 80-89 - B, etc.). Our dual enrollment transcript from the community college also only had letter grades. Actually, my oldest took one class at the local high school as a part-time enrollment student and he also only got a letter grade there.

Do people even put numeric grades?

This is what I have done, but I'm looking through samples and templates of transcripts and there are some with numerical grades.  

[LinRTX]

I only assigned letter grades. Most of our classes were done at home. And I have graduated 4. There has been no problems with schools accepting my transcripts.

[kokotg]

I do letter grades. Any outsourced numerical grades I convert to a letter grade and put on my transcript. And I think it's completely fine (and very common for homeschoolers) to give your grades based on completion and/or mastery. 

Edited October 26, 2021 by kokotg

[mlktwins]

Thank you all!  That is what I thought, but I've been working my way through a bunch of threads on transcripts that include links to samples, and I was seeing some with numerical grades.  The letter grade makes total sense to me :-).

 

[mlktwins]

I have a related question 😋!

This is my county's grading scale.  They assign higher point values for B+ over a B, C+ over a C, etc.  Would you follow this grading scale on a homeschool transcript?

This hasn't been an issue through Grade 10, but who knows for this year and next.

 

[kokotg]

I keep it simple with just a letter grade, no pluses or minuses. 

[regentrude]

I only assigned letter grades. No plus/minus.

As an academic advisor at a college, I have seen many highschool transcripts; all of them had letter grades.

Edited October 26, 2021 by regentrude

[daijobu]

You can use whatever grading scale you prefer.  There's a field on the Common App (or maybe a pulldown menu) to tell them what you use.

 

I used +/- distinctions, but they are different from what you cited.  I add 0.3 for a + and subtract 0.3 for a -. 

So B = 3

B+ = 3.3

B- = 2.7

But you can do whatever you prefer.    

[Sebastian (a lady)]

Use the grading scale that you think makes sense. You are not obligated to use what the local public schools use.

Some states (Georgia & Alabama come to mine) seem to use a lot of numerical grades. But for the most part colleges will be used to seeing lots of different systems. Explain you scale and if you do weighted grades, explain your weighting system.

[lewelma]

I only used letter grades, and they were based on a qualitative assessment of *mastery* in a subject, and not based on testing with percentage correct. 

There are many ways to assign grades. In NZ the national testing system bases grades on blooms taxonomy.  So a C is memory/comprehension, a B is for relational thinking, and an A is for Generalization/Abstraction/Insight. 

Homeschooling allows you the freedom to educate as you wish, and you don't have to use the grading system you were brought up with or what your local school currently uses. Remember, what you assess is what is learned. So think about what you want your child to learn to do. I wanted high-end thinking and that is not a percentage type thing.

[ShepCarlin]

I did letter grades and have not had questions from any college admission counselors. Oldest has received two acceptances so far, no questions asked about anything. I put the numeric scale indicating what an A is (100-90 =A, 89-80=B, etc). I believe that is what my local county scale is but I didn't worry about it. 

Edited October 29, 2021 by ShepCarlin

[EKS]

I did letter grades with +/- and then converted them to a standard 4 point scale to compute the GPA.

I did not show that 94%+ was an A, 90-93 an A-, and so on because I think that sort of information is meaningless without additional context--and is frequently meaningless even with that context.  

ETA:  Actually, to be clear, I think that letter grades are also meaningless, and the +/- designator is even more meaningless, but I wanted to have some consistency between the mommy grades and the outside grades.  That, and colleges expect grades, and we were already far enough outside the box that introducing any more weirdness was probably not a good idea!

Edited October 29, 2021 by EKS

[lewelma]

This is what I put in a little box on the homeschool transcript:

An 'A' is:    'Excellence' from Te Kura    

                   'A' from AoPS    
                   'A' from Victoria University    
                   'Distinction' from ABRSM    
                   High mastery for homeschool    

Basically, I used the transcript to summarize all the work that he had done both at home and through different organizations that used different grading systems. The transcript used A,B,C... even though the organizations sometimes used different words. Where the courses were taken was indicated by a superscripted code, and I had a different little box listing the codes and what educational institution they indicated. 

In my course descriptions, I listed what the homeschool grade was based on, but gave no grading scale since we were using 'mastery.'

For example:
Course requirements included reading assignments, participation in discussions, and oral presentations.

 

Edited October 29, 2021 by lewelma