A Student Comes Home--Now what?

[Wildiris]

Without digressing into the politics of why my 11th grade son maybe returning home, I want to try to maintain his college track by helping him complete college-prep classes this semester. Up to this point in his high school career he has taken and passed all college-prep classes. To remain eligible to play spring sports he must be enrolled in the high school's independent study program--homeschool students cannot play sports at this high school. I've been told independent study is not college-prep. How are college-prep classes different than other classes? How does a homeschool/independent study student design a college-prep class. Playing baseball is this boys life, so maintaining eligibility to play is a priority. To take two years of colleg-pre classes and toss them because a student enrolls in independent study seems wrongheaded to me, so I want to figure out a way to get around this and see him play ball this spring.

Any advice or help in defining college-prep would be helpful.
Thanks,

[Michelle in AL]

"college prep is probably defined differently everywhere. To me, it means being able to express either in speech or writing what you have learned. Honors classes and AP classes are college prep to me. It might help to look at he AP course descriptions on the college board website. From their descriptions you can get a grasp for how the classes differ from normal high school fare.
Looking up Honors syllabi for individual classes may help too.

Here's what we've added to make classes more advanced:
Science: Real labs as much as possible.
History: Not stressing this as much as it's not a high interest here, but college classes are supposed to stress themes that continue throughout the ages.
Add primary source analysis to your text.
Literature: Lots of analysis of great books ala The Well Educated Mind along with writing.

Can you choose whatever you want to use with Independent Study?

[Margaret in CO]

How about taking his more basic classes and adding to them to make it college prep? So, if his class is using a basic sort of social studies text (yawn), then add in readings on military history, biographies, etc. With science, take the basic chem class and add some TC classes. Just because the school's class only goes so far, does not mean that he has to stop there!

[Julie in MN]

My oldest son (public schooled) did pre-calculus as independent study. I considered that college-prep! I think it depends on the curriculum used.

Julie

[8FillTheHeart]

There are a couple of different issues with the scenerio you are describing.

First, homeschoolers obviously complete college prep courses all the time. So, it isn't that the courses can't/don't exist.

However.......this is the part that you should take into consideration.......

You state:To remain eligible to play spring sports he must be enrolled in the high school's independent study program--homeschool students cannot play sports at this high school.

His transcript will be generated by the school as a public school student. This is a far different situation than homeschoolers who create their own transcripts and course descriptions.

How much of an impact that will ultimately have, I have no idea. I would want to know how the school labels those courses. Ask if he takes SAT II subject tests if they would include those scores on his transcript. (Those would verify that they were college prep courses.) I think how much cooperation you have with the school in generating his transcript would either make or break the deal for me.

[katilac]

Without digressing into the politics of why my 11th grade son maybe returning home, I want to try to maintain his college track by helping him complete college-prep classes this semester. Up to this point in his high school career he has taken and passed all college-prep classes. To remain eligible to play spring sports he must be enrolled in the high school's independent study program--homeschool students cannot play sports at this high school. I've been told independent study is not college-prep. How are college-prep classes different than other classes? How does a homeschool/independent study student design a college-prep class. Playing baseball is this boys life, so maintaining eligibility to play is a priority. To take two years of colleg-pre classes and toss them because a student enrolls in independent study seems wrongheaded to me, so I want to figure out a way to get around this and see him play ball this spring.

Any advice or help in defining college-prep would be helpful.
Thanks,

At its simplest, 'college prep' means 'the classes you need to take in order to be admitted to college." For example, many colleges require two consecutive years of a foreign language, and you will not be admitted without that.

You need to clarify exactly what independent study is, and if you are restricted to certain courses. Don't panic before you know the facts.

If it's true that you can't take college prep via independent study, then ds will have two choices if he wants to go to college: he can go back to school, or he can complete additional courses on top of his independent study.

I'm guessing you are going to discover that independent study isn't generally college prep, but might be (with a certain amount of additional work on the part of you and ds).

[asta]

Why can't he enroll in another high school program like Texas Tech or University of Oklahoma? They count as NCAA eligible, so I don't see why a local high school could turn them down.


a

[Pippen]

Since his playing baseball is a priority for you, I would encourage you to meet with his guidance counselor or a school administrator to get the terms independent study and college prep defined. Have them give you a list of courses and course descriptions in writing so there won't be any question that he'll remain eligible.

[Wildiris]

Thank you for your responses. They've given me some things to consider when speaking with the school and negotiating this transition.

A good day to you all.