What about Report cards and grades.

How do you organize what your children have done into a record of work? Discuss this and other related issues here!

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andall
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What about Report cards and grades.

Postby andall » Wed Apr 18, 2007 10:32 pm

Questions I have been asked now that I am homeschooling is who or how will my dc get a report card and advance by grade each year. I really don't know how to answer that question because I don't know. Do you grade your childrens work and make a report card just like the public school does. If my son is in 7th grade this year does he automatically go to 8th grade next year and so on. What if I want him to go to High School in the future is the school just going to take my word that they are in a certain grade. :? I don't see any postings on this matter thats why I decided to ask.
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Postby Theodore » Thu Apr 19, 2007 1:37 am

That depends on the school. Some schools might have your dc take one or more placement tests; others might just take your word for it, or if that's not enough, accept a portfolio of work as equivalence. If you're thinking of putting your dc back into public high school, my advice is to contact the school now and find out what their entrance procedure is. Get it in writing. Incidently, the reason there aren't many posts on this subject is very few people go from homeschool to public high school - it's a lot more common to just wait a year or two and start with community college courses.

Short version: The only way to tell for sure is to contact the school.

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Postby Calla_Dragon » Thu Apr 19, 2007 7:27 am

I'm not sure if you're thinking DC will go back to the public school at some point or not. If that's the case, I would definately go with what Theodore said. If you're thinking you are going to homeschooling him through his school career, I want to ask you why you consider this a necessity. Lots of homeschoolers don't do report cards or even grades, for that matter. I don't do grades or report card for my 1st grader and we don't advance to the next grade. We school year round and we just keep plugging on through our work. We work on stuff until DC has it mastered and we move on. For some things that may be at Kindergarten level and at other things that could be at 2nd grade level. He's really spread out across 3 grade levels. It's an ok thing and it's very typical of homeschoolers. He and I tell people he's in 1st grade, but that's strictly based on his age since I have to provide that in order to sign him up for community ed classes (i.e. a science class for a 2nd grader means the child should be 7-8 years old - not a 6 year old working at a 2nd grade level in science).

There's a lot of beauracratic nonsense that happens in the public school system that we don't have to deal with as homeschoolers - unless the state makes it legally required. Report cards are often one of those things. I don't worry about them and won't be since in my state you only have to do quarterly report cards if you are a homeschooling parent without a bachelor degree. Unfortunately, people have a hard time wrapping their head around how different homeschooling is. We're not tied down by a lot of things and our days are typically very different from your average public school family.

Good luck!
To be idle is a short road to death and to be diligent is a way of life; foolish people are idle, wise people are diligent.

andall
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Postby andall » Thu Apr 19, 2007 10:35 pm

So the grade depends on the age of the child right because there is no report cards in home school, right? The only reason that i'm asking this is because family members ask me how do I know if they have passed a grade. I'm thinking about high school so that they can get a diploma so they can attend college or when they apply for a job in the future. How are they going to get a diploma if they dont go to high school. I am a bit confused about the way this works. :?: Please make it a little more clear for me.

Thanks
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Theodore
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Postby Theodore » Thu Apr 19, 2007 11:53 pm

High school is simple - there are graduation standards for each state, and it's easy to find out what prereqs you need for entrance to any specific college. So there's no confusion there, just cover the material and AP / CLEP / DSST as much of it as possible.

Grade school is both more and less complicated - more complicated in that standards vary all over the place and are much more difficult to lock down, and less complicated in that nobody's going to bother to check up on your child's grade level unless he's going back into the public school system, in which case he'll probably be tested anyway and you can get his grade level from that.

Bottom line, don't worry much about grade levels. Grade school is just preparation for high school, and you know what high school is going to cover, so you know what level you need to get up in each subject by x age. If you really want a concrete grade level, several of the major curriculum publishers offer placement tests, and your state and/or third-party test providers may offer similar services. Testing is useful for identifying weak areas.

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no gpa

Postby suzie » Fri Apr 20, 2007 9:17 am


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Postby Ramona » Fri Apr 20, 2007 3:28 pm


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Postby Theodore » Fri Apr 20, 2007 5:16 pm

Thing is, schools are so lousy these days that a high school diploma doesn't necessarily mean you even know how to read and write, never mind have a firm grasp of math, history, science, etc. So a diploma is just a piece of paper - it's how you did in individual subjects that matters. Same goes for class rankings and GPA, it's easy to have an inflated ranking if nobody in your class actually studied the material, and GPA's are often wildly inflated so that schools (or the teachers in them) can make themselves look better. Extracurriculars and leadership roles probably mean a lot more to colleges.

Ramona: Which colleges did you apply to, and what did you send them? I'm a little skeptical that a good college would accept even a homeschooler based on word alone, they generally want test scores or a portfolio of work.

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Postby Ramona » Mon Apr 23, 2007 3:04 pm

I was talking about myself, 25 years ago, applying to colleges after the standard 13 years of public school. My point was that they didn't ask for a diploma. They wanted my transcript--which is different--and standardized college entrance exam scores.

As for homeschoolers, I think sending in test scores and a home-made transcript meets the requirements for most colleges/univs nowadays in the US. They want some idea of what courses have been studied (and maybe grades). They're not going to look up every high school by name to see whether or not it's accredited.

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Postby Theodore » Mon Apr 23, 2007 4:45 pm


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Postby novo4 » Tue Apr 24, 2007 7:31 pm

Heidi

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Postby Theodore » Tue Apr 24, 2007 10:06 pm

You can have your tests done at any official testing center, which generally means any school, community college, college, military base, etc. You just contact the testing center, make sure they can fit you in, then fill out a proctor form or whatever other paperwork is required and send it in to the test supplier.

Depending on the community college, you can theoretically start to take college-level courses as early as age 10. One of my sisters will be taking courses at age 14, which is older than 10 but still pretty young.

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Postby andall » Tue Apr 24, 2007 11:06 pm

Thanks to all of you for answering all my questions so well I really appreciated. One more questions do all of you have your dc take a state test every year?
AndAll

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Postby Ramona » Fri Apr 27, 2007 11:30 am


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Postby andall » Mon Apr 30, 2007 4:46 pm

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