High School Credit Options

High School Credit Options  - Available for 7th or 8th Grade Students

Tahoma offers the following opportunities for 7th or 8th grade students to earn high school credit. Qualifying courses are listed below:

• Math 3/Algebra I

• Geometry

• Spanish I-II

These classes are considered high school level courses and students can choose to have the course, including the grade and credit value, added to their permanent high school transcript. Remember, the grade will be calculated into the cumulative high school GPA, which can affect college admissions, scholarship opportunities, and NCAA eligibility. Students have until the end of their 11th grade year to make the decision to remove a high school class taken during middle school from their transcript or to change a letter grade to a nonnumeric grade designation (credit/non-credit) so it does not factor into the student’s overall GPA.  The tradeoff in a credit/non-credit designation is the interpretation by admissions staff at post-secondary colleges.  In some cases, a grade of “credit” is interpreted as the lowest possible passing grade of “D”.     

Washington State Law has changed to require classes earning high school credit to be added to the student’s high school transcript unless the student and parents request that not happen (opting-out is now required).  In many cases, unless a student has earned an “A” in the class, students may want to consider opting out of having the course transcripted at all.  Courses not transcripted though do not count for credit toward graduation requirements.  Students can change the grade designation on a course taken prior to 9th grade up until the end of their 11th grade year (from a letter grade to credit/no credit or from credit/no credit to a letter grade) or have it removed from the transcript.