Transcript Resources
College/Career Connections
Disclaimer: This page will be updated often with helpful guides and information to assist you in your homeschooling as you prepare your student for college. This information is NOT intended to be used without your own further research to confirm the content nor is it a complete list of guides or resources. As the parent, it is your responsibility to conduct your own research to find the information that is most helpful to your family. Please let us know if you find other sites or information that you believe would benefit other families. We welcome any and all information as we work together to build a great resource page!
Transcripts
What is a high school transcript and why do I need one?
Transcripts are records of the courses that your children completed in high school, the credit earned for each course, and each course’s final grade. Transcripts also include personal information used for identification purposes and usually a grade point average (GPA). Colleges and other post-high school institutions will likely request a transcript from your child in order to consider him for admission.
Home School Legal Defense
http://www.hslda.org/highschool/docs/EvaluatingCredits.asp
Evaluation of High School Credits
There are several ways to evaluate credits. If your child completes a high school-level text by a reputable publisher in an academic course (math, science, English, foreign language, or history), consider the material covered to be one credit. A one credit course typically requires one school year to complete. A one-half credit academic course (such as American Government or perhaps Constitutional Law) typically requires one semester or one-half year to complete.
Covering the material in a textbook does not necessarily mean doing every problem, answering every question, or reading the book from cover to cover, but you should diligently cover the material presented. Some authors calculate teaching 75% of a textbook to equal one credit, but the bottom line is, don't shortchange your child. As an example, you may not spend as much time nor go into as much detail on the Vietnam War as you do on World War II, but you would still want to be certain that your child has an understanding of the main points regarding the Vietnam War. Let integrity be your guide.
For courses that do not use a standard high school-level textbook (perhaps you are putting together your own unit study, or you are using an integrated curriculum), log the hours that your child spends completing the course work. One credit is approximately 120-180 hours of work. The upper end of this range (180 hours) is usually appropriate for lab science courses, while 150 hours is the average for a year long academic course such as English or History. Don't become legalistic in keeping track of each minute, but generally, when evaluating credit for an academic course, a good rule of thumb is 50 minutes a day, 5 days a week for 36 weeks, for a one-credit course.
Logging hours is a good method of determining credit for elective courses such as art, music, sewing, carpentry, web page design, etc. The lower end of the range (120 hours) is fine for elective courses. For a half-credit elective, log approximately 60 hours; for a quarter-credit elective, log approximately 30 hours.
If your child is enrolled in a course at a community college, you should keep in mind that a one-semester college course is comparable to a one-year high school course. Therefore, if your child takes English 101 for one semester at the community college and earns 3 college credits, this is comparable to satisfying a full-year, one-credit high school course. High school credits and college credits are calculated differently. College credits are determined by hours of instruction and don't equate to high school credits. Local policies may differ so it is best to check with a specific college or state to see how they treat dual enrollment courses.
http://www.hslda.org/highschool/resources.asp#transcripts
Donna Young Website:
Donna Young started this web site in 1998. She was teaching her children at home, had bought a new Internet capable computer, and decided to put her homeschool and household files online. Aside from a few donated files, Donna makes all the content for donnayoung.org using several programs such as drawing programs and word processors. Most of all, donnayoung.org is a place on the Internet from where you may print Lesson Planners, Household Planners, Calendars, Handwriting Lessons, printable worksheets or papers for several subjects. DonnaYoung.org has grown into a large website over the years and it continues to grow. Meanwhile, Donna's children have graduated from home school and life goes on.
Below you will find course description and transcript examples. Both may be needed for the college you choose to attend. Another tip is to photo copy the front and back cover of you books to keep with your records. You may also find the course description on the curriculum website where you purchase your books.
Well Trained Minds Forum
http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/forum/5-high-school-and-self-education-board/