Credits and Transcripts

Start in 9th Grade

Starting in high school, public schools and homeschool charter schools begin tracking all the academic work a student does, assigning credits and counting towards requirements in different categories.

If you are independently homeschooling, you don't necessarily have to do this in Oregon.  No one requires you to show what you learned, it's up to you.  

However, there are reasons to track things, even if you are independent.  Apprenticeship programs and four-year universities will want to see a transcript of work completed. Community colleges *might* want to see it.  If you apply for the Oregon Promise program at the end of high school, you need a transcript and test scores to get free community college for 2 years.  

TIP:  Don't get behind in keeping notes for the transcript - it's easy to forget what you did a few years ago!

Credits

If you want a transcript to look similar to the familiar public school one, you can assign "credits" to the work your teen does.  Different school districts in Oregon have different amounts of credits they require to graduate.  You can certainly decide on your own what is "enough" and what categories are most important to you.

If you will be applying to a 4-year college, they may have requirements in addition to the minimum for Oregon graduation. (Such as 2 years of foreign language, or certain math classes.)

Below is one example of the minimum to graduate in most Oregon homeschool support charter schools.  

• 4 cr English Language Arts

• 3 cr Math

• 3 cr Social Studies

• 3 cr Science

• 11 cr Electives

Total:  24 credits

Usually, included in the "Electives" is some required Health, Physical Education, Arts, and CTE - Career and Technical Education, Financial Literacy or similar life skills class. 

What counts as a "Credit"?

You can decide this as well, but a common rule of thumb is:  

• 0.5 credits for 60 hours of work

Sixty hours is one hour per day, 5 days a week, for 12 weeks (approximately one trimester).  Or roughly four hours a week for 16 weeks (one semester). 

Even if you are unschooling, you can tally up the activities your child did that could be bundled in one heading, and call about 60 hours work "half a credit".

Smaller amounts of time (say one day a week) can be assigned a smaller amount of credit.

Transcripts

There are many examples for creating your own transcript online - Google "sample homeschool transcript".  If you worry that your ASD child has not done "traditional" learning in academic format, look for transcript advice from Unschoolers.  

Some places to start:

• The Ultimate Guide to Creating an Unschool Transcript

• The Homescholar - Provides free webinars and transcript ideas, plus an outsource service

• Samples at Lets Homeschool High School.

• Google "homeschool transcript image" for more examples

Universities may also ask for course descriptions too, but most advise keeping it brief.  The important thing is to keep track of study details from 9th grade.