For homeschoolers during the elementary years, it can be difficult to answer the question “What grade are your children in?” They may be doing 5th grade level in math, 3rd grade level in reading, and 2nd grade level in writing. What grade are you supposed to choose, anyway? Well, the problem is the same in high school. It’s really difficult to decide what grade they should be! In this question from Eileen, you can see how complicated it gets.
Hope you don’t mind me asking: my son just finished 10th grade and wants to repeat it. To make a long story short he went to Montessori, then public school for 2 years now homeschool. Public school didn’t know how to figure his grade was he was held back a year. At 6th grade he was straight A homeschool and we let him “skip” 7th. Now he wants to go back to catch up. Can I put what he did in “9th grade” on his transcript? It will look like 5 years of high school depending on how I write it. Is that ok? ~Eileen on Facebook
This is a big question without an easy answer. Without knowing enough about the situation, my instinct would be to first decide what year you want him to graduate. That will be senior year. Then count backward four years to his freshman year. On the transcript, include anything high school level (like algebra or geometry) as “early high school credits.” I have record keeping samples on my freebies page. In those samples, you can find an example of “early high school credits.” If you need more support, consider the Gold Care Club.
Until junior year, you have some flexibility. In October of junior year, children can take the PSAT as a qualifying test for the national merit scholarship. It will only be a qualifying test for juniors – not for any other year of high school. For that reason, that’s just about the only time when you really, REALLY have to declare what grade they are.
Eileen was thankful for the suggestions I gave, and wrote back with a sweet letter of appreciation.
The “count backward” idea is great and will work for this situation. I appreciate it. I have just seen your record keeping samples. I’m thankful for your advice Thanks. ~ Eileen
You can get more advice on how to keep homeschool grades, credits and transcripts in my free webinar.
Keep in mind that your transcript doesn’t have to have “grade levels” on it either. My oldest was accepted at all the colleges she applied to with a transcript organized by subject area. This eliminated that “early high school” grade level altogether.
I am working on my next daughter’s transcript the same way. So far, the colleges she’s visited have been very happy with the transcript in this format.
Blessings,
Laura
Very true, Laura! If you arrange your transcript by subject, instead of by year, you can avoid listing the grade they took each class. Here is an example: http://www.thehomescholar.com/images/stories/pdfs/sample_transcript_by_subject.pdf
Blessings,
Lee
My son did a “five-year plan” high school, also, and we got around it by listing his courses under “Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, Senior,” rather than the year (2005-2006). I put the courses under year finished, for the most part. I suppose you could put the early high school credits under freshman year.