Recently I was invited to speak to a homeschool support group on the topic of transcripts and granting highschool credits to homeschooled students. It was a lively discussion with many educational philosophies represented, but one question was common to all. How do we represent our non-traditionally schooled highschool students on a transcript in a way that colleges recognize and respect?
I suggest reading several different books on homeschooling highschoolers to get an understanding of how to grant credits and to help you decide what you're comfortable with regarding how and when to grant academic credits to your highschool student.
While I appreciate creative methods of showcasing our students' acheivements, I have choosen to produce a traditional looking transcript - even when our educational path has veered from the traditional. Following is a summary of how I did this:
I personally found Barbara Edtl Shelton's book, Senior High: A Home-Designed Formula a great book for getting my mind around granting credit for non-traditionally completed work. Also, Inge Cannon's, Transcript Boot Camp has a very thorough coverage of the topic of granting credits. And I found David & Laurie Callahan's book, The Guidance Manual for the Christian Homeschool to be of great help as I polished up my first son's highschool transcript.
Having gone through the process, I'll give you a glimpse into how my mind works on this topic of highschool credits. And just so you know my experience.....I graduated my first son this past spring and he's leaving for college in just a few weeks. We have homeschooled from the beginning and our homeschool (from elementary through highschool) has been an eclectic mix of traditional texts, real books and life experiences, yet I was able to create a very traditional looking transcript for my son that was accepted by each college it was submitted to. Edited to add... in 2014, we graduated our third and last son from homeschool and we successfully applied the same principles to all three son's transcripts, and their transcripts were all accepted by the colleges they were submitted to. The last submission was in 2016 when youngest son transferred to a second college.
There are actually several ways you can decide to grant credit, and you can feel free to mix and match your methods for different courses. The simplest method is to decide that when a student has finished a textbook and the accompanying work you will grant credit for the course (whether it's a semester-long course or a year-long course, you can simply grant credit for the work completed). There is no need to count hours using this method. The student may complete the work in 6 months, or it may take them a year and a half. It doesn't matter. Text (and required work) completed = credit earned.
You can also count hours spent "on task". I do this for courses that are nontraditionally completed. For example, I loosely keep track of Phys Ed type activities until my highschooler has completed approximately 60 - 75 hours, at which time I grant a semester's credit. My teen doesn't suddenly stop physical activity, but I don't worry about counting the hours beyond what are needed to grant a semester's credit (or a year's credit, if I've decided a course is to last a year). Truthfully, I don't worry about counting the 60 - 75 hours precisely, but I do keep a record of activities and an approximation of time spent on them. Using this method, my highschooler may, in reality, complete a course over several years, and in that case I need to decide where it makes the most sense to plug such a course in on a transcript. Courses like Phys Ed, Art Study, Music History.... actually, all sorts of courses can be completed in this manner and I believe the end result is a more well-rounded and better educated individual (as opposed to having a student study a subject for a specified and limited period of time never to revisit the subject again during highschool). Any of the resources named above provide detailed explanation about how to figure credit hours based on time invested in a course.
If you decide to combine methods and grant credit based on hours spent on task for a course that uses traditional textbooks, keep in mind that your child is probably doing a lot of work independently and completing the work more efficiently, so he may not need to spend the same amount of time completing a course or textbook that a traditionally schooled highschooler would. Afterall, he isn't likely sitting through a lecture prior to reading the material and then doing the assigned work. No doubt, he just gets right to the work and probably completes it all much quicker and in many cases with little direct supervision. In any case, whenever I count hours spent completing coursework, I use my understanding of the Carnegie unit credit granting system (which is what credit hours are roughly - or were originally - based on) to help me figure out if what I'm expecting of my highschooler is at least what the government schools would be expecting. If I am satisfied that my highschooler is completing work at at least an "equivalent" level, then I grant credit.
Personally, I think getting overly hung up on hours accumulated is about as productive as worrying about counting school days and being obsessed with state standards. I count school days because Indiana law requires it, not because it means anything. I peruse state standards and use them as guides, but I am not bound to them, nor to a government-sanctioned education timetable. While I comply with the law regarding compulsory attendance, I am much more interested in proficiency and understanding of the material covered and my child's ability to go on to the next level than if he has "put in the time" in a particular course.
As homeschoolers, we often find ourselves trying to make round pegs fit into square holes (or in the case of transcripts - little rectangular boxes). Our children just don't always fit perfectly. Does that mean a legitimate and valuable education wasn't obtained? Of course not, but because some colleges are stuck in their academic/educationalese-lined "boxes", I do encourage you in whatever methods you employ to grant credit (and figure grades, for that matter), to be comfortable enough with your methods and philosophy that you can explain (and if necessary, defend) these things to college admissions officers if they ask. My experience has been that when given the opportunity college admissions officers are pretty open to the idea that homeschooled students come to the application process differently, but often equally or better educated than their traditionally-schooled counterparts. But still, admissions officers have their formulas for determining who gets admitted and who receives merit aid. The easier we make it for those in admissions to sift through information, the smoother the process may be for our students.
On a related note: During my son's interview at his college of choice, he was asked to provide a reading list for his highschool years. When I offered my detailed and attractively prepared course description pages that I'd typed up to accompany his transcript, I was told a reading list was all they really needed.
Well, a reading list they got! I was so thankful I had kept a record of all the books, articles, speeches, poems, etc. that my son had read during his highschool years. In the end, I concluded....if they really read that long list (it was 9 pages typed and spaced neatly with books listed under the course they related to) they were provided with a pretty good reflection of all the ideas and knowledge my son had been exposed to in his 4 years of highschool. So... while you're documenting course work completed and counting up hours, don't forget to also record all those wonderful books your teen is reading during the highschool years!
Now I'm on to the task of doing this record-keeping for my second son. This son's highschool education is going to look different from his older brother's and that's okay. It should look different because he is a very different person with different strengths, and goals. I look forward to seeing how highschool shapes up around here the second time around.
