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:
| Course | Final Grade | Credit | Grade Points |
| English | A | 1 | 4.0 |
| Math | B | 1 | 3.0 |
| History | B | 1 | 3.0 |
| Science | A | 1 | 4.0 |
| Art | A | .50 | 2.0 |
| Music | A | .50 | 2.0 |
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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