grades

How to grade homeschool work or not to grade

“I can’t teach a teenager”

/ Holly Stoner / Leave a comment

Can I really homeschool high school? I see this topic asked about, or commented on, over and over again on social media, or during one on one or group conversations. People think it is impossible to continue home education through high school and they need some other kind of diploma. People think it’s far too difficult to “teach” a teenager, or to provide them with “enough”. I have already graduated one child, who decided to go on to college, completed one semester, and did exceedingly well. He has a parent issued diploma and a parent made transcript. His college accepted his transcript with no issues and never asked for his diploma. I have currently a 16 year old in what public school would place her as 11th grade. I can only speak from my experience (but I do know there are many parents who graduated teenagers).

I hear this a lot, “I don’t have the patience” to educate my kids at home, or “I can’t get my child to do the work”. Also, I hear parents say their kid begs to go to public school and the parents either do it or consider it because they just keep butting heads with their child. They say their teenager refuses to get out of bed, complete work, doesn’t try, etc. Some seem to think people like myself that continue the journey must have some special skill or ability or never have those issues. I’m here to tell you, that is not so. My youngest began educating at home before she would be entering 5th grade in the public school system. She did not want to leave public school. The decision, however, was not hers, it was mine, I’m the parent. I decided what was in the best interest for my children, despite what a 5th grader thought. She came around pretty quick to the idea, but even if she hadn’t, she wasn’t going back to public school. So, do I have some special skill or ability to continue home education? No. Have my children always done what they were told? Absolutely not. Has school at home never been difficult to do? There are some difficult times. Have I never felt overwhelmed? Of course I have. Haven’t you considered putting them back into public school then? Not even once. That is the absolute truth. My reasons for taking them out of government school don’t change because I have a difficult time getting a child to complete work, or follow the directions or because my teenager gives me an attitude of anger, annoyance, or whatever else. For me personally I can’t imagine any scenario where I would put my child back into the government school system, willingly.

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What are Highschool Credits

/ Holly Stoner / Leave a comment

It’s the end of September already. My home education program for my remaining child has been in full swing for a month. That’s not to say she didn’t have learning happening prior to beginning her curriculum work, because going to the gym 3 days a week, working 4 days a week, and church/youth group 2 days a week all counts. That doesn’t even take in account the work she does at home. Segway into the topic I see come up frequently about how much time needs to be spent on school; what counts, is it enough?

There is a misconception that once they reach high school you have to change your approach, or you have to complete so many hours of work for it to “count”. I always direct people to the law text. There is absolutely no mention of that information that people are passing around in homeschooling groups.

You’ll find the law text below:

“(c)  A child who is enrolled in a home education program and whose education is therefore under the direct supervision of his parent, guardian or other person having legal custody shall be deemed to have met the requirements of section 1327 if that home education program provides a minimum of one hundred eighty (180) days of instruction or nine hundred (900) hours of instruction per year at the elementary level, or nine hundred ninety (990) hours per year at the secondary level:

(1)  At the elementary school level, the following courses shall be taught: English, to include spelling, reading and writing; arithmetic; science; geography; history of the United States and Pennsylvania; civics; safety education, including regular and continuous instruction in the dangers and prevention of fires; health and physiology; physical education; music; and art.

(2)  At the secondary school level, the following courses shall be taught: English, to include language, literature, speech and composition; science; geography; social studies, to include civics, world history, history of the United States and Pennsylvania; mathematics, to include general mathematics, algebra and geometry; art; music; physical education; health; and safety education, including regular and continuous instruction in the dangers and prevention of fires. Such courses of study may include, at the discretion of the supervisor of the home education program, economics; biology; chemistry; foreign languages; trigonometry; or other age-appropriate courses as contained in Chapter 5 (Curriculum Requirements) of the State Board of Education.

(d)  The following minimum courses in grades nine through twelve are established as a requirement for graduation in a home education program:

(1)  Four years of English.

(2)  Three years of mathematics.

(3)  Three years of science.

(4)  Three years of social studies.

(5)  Two years of arts and humanities.”

1949 Act 14 Section 1327.1 Home Education Program
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Applying to college as a homeschooler

/ Holly Stoner / Leave a comment

As promised, this article is about the process of making a transcript and sending one off to college for your home educated teen. Making the transcript isn’t hard, I promise you, it is not. You don’t need to pay for a transcript service. You can make a professional looking transcript all on your own. I have provided you with an example in my FREE FORMS page. I put that printable form into a word document format to be easily edited by you, but you will want to export and save your final document into a PDF when you’re ready to send it to a college. I will explain the steps in more detail. The image to your right is exactly what I use for my children and what I sent to college for my graduated teenager. To be honest with you, I wasn’t worried about what was on the transcript or how it was presented, it was only nerve racking because it was a homeschooled transcript, and I wasn’t sure how it would be received. I need to point out that my graduated teen applied to community college which is generally an easier process to begin with. He went this route to save money on his general education classes as opposed to starting out in a 4 year university. He had other choices in his list of colleges. Whatever college your teen is interested in you should look at their admission’s process. If they don’t have it on their website (most do), call and ask.

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Free Forms

/ Holly Stoner / Leave a comment

If you haven’t checked out this entire blog, I wanted to direct you to a few resources contained here. I have a link to free forms that you can, and should use for your homeschool record keeping. You can take a look and use them or get an idea of how to create your own. I have not only renamed this area but I have updated all the forms I created. There you can find a free transcript, affidavit, evaluation letters, reading materials log, an attendance record (not required), and a simple report card if you choose to use one (if I use one it’s sole purpose is for keeping a record in their academic record). I have also included forms from other places (of which many I can’t recall from where or I’d link the source) for your generic objectives that are required to be included with your affidavit and alternate affidavit, as well as the PDE diploma and immunization record (if you wish to use it). Your 12th grade evaluator needs to sign the PDE diploma. The Pennsylvania Department of Education has approved this diploma to be the “acceptable” parent-issued diploma. My suggestion is to print it, get it signed and in the event a college or some other entity requires a copy of their diploma you’ll have it. This does not mean you can’t make and issue your own and provide your graduate with that one for them to keep, but they should keep the PDE one as well.

Below are screenshots of some of the items mentioned. Visit the Free Forms page to download them.

Below is what the home education law states about the diploma:

(d.1) (1) Notwithstanding any provision of this act or any other law or regulation to the contrary, a high school diploma awarded by a supervisor or an approved diploma-granting organization shall be considered as having all the rights and privileges afforded by the Commonwealth, a Commonwealth agency, including, but not limited to, the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency, a political subdivision, a local agency and an authority or instrumentality of the Commonwealth or a political subdivision to a high school diploma awarded under this act, subject to subparagraphs (i) and (ii): (i) In the case of a diploma awarded by a supervisor the following shall apply: (A) The student receiving the diploma shall have completed all
the requirements in subsection (d) while enrolled in a home education program that is in compliance with this section. (B) The diploma shall be awarded to the student on a standardized form to be developed by the department and which shall be made available on the department’s publicly accessible Internet website. (C) The diploma shall be signed by the student’s twelfth grade evaluator in confirmation of the student’s suitability for graduation. (ii) In the case of a diploma awarded by an approved diploma granting organization the following shall apply: (A) The student receiving the diploma shall have completed all
the requirements in subsection (d) while enrolled in a home education program that is in compliance with this section. (B) The diploma shall be awarded to the student on a standardized form to be developed by the organization. (2) The department shall establish eligibility criteria and an application process for approving diploma-granting organizations to award high school diplomas to students enrolled in home education programs. The department shall maintain a list of approved diploma-granting organizations and post the list on the department’s publicly accessible Internet website.

Home Education Law Text

You can do a search on topics such as curriculum, transcripts, reviews, portfolio, etc and find articles I’ve written since I began the blog in 2017. Please always make sure to follow the latest article for the most up to date information. There is a drop down list for you to select months/years of articles made as well as a tag block for you to click directly onto the topic of interest. Keep in mind that the blog may look different on different devices. You can always view the blog on your browser in desktop mode. I will be working on making the blog easier to navigate so keep an eye out for those changes. I plan to keep the blog current for as long as I have a child that I am homeschooling in the state of Pennsylvania. After that time remains to be seen. Rest assured though that I still have one remaining teenager with 2 more years highschool to go, so updates will continue, Lord willing. Everything I offer here is free to use, however as I am the content creator of the articles, I do retain the copyright to the articles I post. Please do share with others anything you find helpful but always supply the link to this blog. I receive no compensation for the information I have shared. My blog is only to help others navigate home education in the state of PA and perhaps my reviews can be helpful for anyone. Please do check out the other resources I have supplied for you in the Resources section of this blog.

Graduation 2023

/ Holly Stoner / Leave a comment

Today I’m going to share about graduating my first homeschool teen. My oldest is now 18 and he will officially be done with his coursework on May 23rd and his evaluation is set for May 25th where our evaluator will sign off on his final evaluation and sign his PA Department of Education diploma along with myself. This is a recognized state diploma for homeschool students, although you can certainly (as I have one) issue your own that is signed just by you. Both are parent-issued diplomas but the state has said their diploma is more acceptable. You can decide. I will soon be finalizing his transcript as well. Your evaluator does not need to sign that document and unless you print it, have them sign it, scan it and save it, it’s probably just going to be a hassle if you need an “original” document that is not photo-copied. Your signature is sufficient anyway as you are the administrator of your homeschool. You can see my example in my Free Forms with the certification and place to sign it. It does not need to be notarized. You will most likely want to save your document as a PDF before you submit it to prospective colleges. That brings me to my next point.

Applying for college, should your teen choose to go to college, can be daunting. You need to keep good records of your high school student’s grades in order to make their official transcript. How you grade is up to you but you should be consistent. Most people use a grade scale and that itself varies. For example my grade scale looks like this, 90-100 = A, 80-89 = B, 70-79 = C, and so on. In my homeschool they must pass with a C or better so grade scales for D and F don’t factor in. If they would get a grade lower than a 70 they are required to take an alternate quiz/test or redo their assignment. I do have other posts on transcripts that can be worth your while to read. Once you establish a grading system you would convert those into points that also depend on how many credits the course earned. For example, an A = 4.0 points if the course was a 1 credit course. To be a 1 credit course it must have been a yearlong course (2 semesters). If the course was only half credit due to being only a 1 semester (half year) course, an A would earn 2.0 points. Example below:

CourseFinal GradeCreditGrade Points
EnglishA14.0
MathB13.0
HistoryB13.0
ScienceA14.0
ArtA.502.0
MusicA.502.0
Total number of Credits: 5

Grade points are calculated by Grade x Credit. EXAMPLE: 4.0×1=4.0 GPA, 4.0x.50=2.0 GPA. Calculate the yearly total GPA like this; 4.0+3.0+4.0+3.0+2.0+2.0 = 18. Divide 18 by the number of credits, 18/5 = 3.6, which is the GPA for that year. Calculate the cumulative GPA (that’s the GPA from each school year) like this: (9th) 3.6, (10th) 3.8, (11th) 3.5, (12th) 3.9 – add the numbers together and divide by 4 and it gives you the cumulative GPA of 3.7

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