Starting High School: Credit Hours

Our state requires 180 days of attendance. Most of the subjects won't have 180 days' worth of lessons. I'm going to follow the charter school's example and have some optional/review days built in.

Planned Number of Lessons in Each Subject
(this is an estimate right now -- it may change)


* Catholic Studies -- 150
* Geometry -- 150
* English Studies -- 300 (90 for Literature, 90 for Composition, 40 for Vocabulary, 70 for Grammar)
* Ancient History -- 150
* Science -- 120, with 30 extra hours for videos or lab/field projects
* Latin Studies -- 150
* Study Helps ~ 100 (with elective credit)
* PE -- 100 minutes a week (we'll keep a log)
* Reading -- We will keep a log -- reading done in "subject" areas goes into credit for that subject.

More on High School in California

# How many units are required to earn a California high school diploma?
Local school districts establish the total number of units required to earn a California high school diploma. Most California public high schools require the equivalent of between 22 and 26 yearlong courses. Two semester courses equal one yearlong course. A yearlong course constitutes one Carnegie unit. Semester courses constitute one-half of a Carnegie unit. But most school districts award ten local units for each Carnegie unit and five local units for a semester course. These districts require between 220 and 260 local units for high school graduation. However, local school districts vary in how local credit units are awarded for one year of study. To determine how many credits entering students have earned toward local graduation requirements, multiply the local credit units awarded for one year of study times the number of qualifying yearlong courses they have completed.
# What constitutes a year of study in terms of instructional minutes for a specific subject area?
A year of study is two semesters of study in the same or related subject area. In general, the course is about 50 minutes per day, five days a week, for two semesters. However, local school districts determine the actual organization of instructional time depending on their master schedule. Variances apply depending on holidays, professional development days, and block scheduling.

A Carnegie unit gives a framework for how I plan the number of lessons in a year.

the Carnegie Unit is 120 hours of class or contact time with an instructor over the course of a year at the secondary (American high school) level. Strictly speaking, this breaks down into a single one-hour meeting, on each of five days per week for a total of 24 weeks per year. However, knowing that classes usually meet for 50 minutes yields a value of 30 weeks per year. A semester (one-half of a full year) earns 1/2 a Carnegie Unit

So whenever you finish a year's worth of lessons, that is a unit. Your siblings' transcripts usually had about 25-27 credits or units, which added up to basically 7 year-long classes each year. You will notice that you have 9 classes listed but that 2 of them are not really "classes". PE will have credit but is not an academic course and reading of course is something that you would do anyway. But listing it helps us to remember to use it for credit.

End of lesson