Appropriate High School Correspondence Courses

What will the high school recognize as a course for the purpose of giving high school credit? For example, does it need to be within your state? I think high schools are accredited for specific states. Many private high schools, including distance schools, aren’t accredited. This doesn’t mean they’re not good — just that you might have a problem getting your high school to grant credit for the course.

http://www.migrant.org has good, free high school courses.

A distance course would likely follow traditional teaching methods and curriculum, and therefore be hard for him. A better alternative (if accreditation is not a problem) would probably be to do Shurley grammar (http://www.shurley.com) and Sequential Spelling (http://www.avko.org) at home.

Shurley is a grammar curriculum that you can do almost completely orally and is very effective. There is a homeschool version available for about $70 from vendors on the “for sale” homeschooling boards at http://www.vegsource. The only problem I see is that I think the highest level it does is 8th grade. Your son would still learn what he needs to know from it, but the school credit issue might arise again.

Sequential Spelling is a very helpful approach for dyslexics and takes only 10 minutes per lesson. Many of us do two lessons a day (ideally, separated by an hour or more). This has been *very* helpful for my dyslexic 11yo, who reads on a 6th/7th grade level but spells on a beginning 3rd grade level. This is the only spelling approach that has worked for us.

After we had done about 60 lessons of SS, we discovered that dd’s ability to memorize words for her school spelling lessons had dramatically improved. (I use a system of writing a word on an index card using two colors — one for the letters she is likely to get right, usually consonants, and one for the letters and letter combinations that require special attention, usually vowel sounds.) I think SS developed some spelling subskills my dd needed, such as sensitivity to letter patterns in words.

Hope this helps!

Mary

Yes, American School and Keystone National High School is just what you’re asking for.

Both schools have the accreditation that your public high school wants to see. Many public high schools accept credit from either school. You could continue to help your son. Read to him, help with the writing, etc.

Both schools are fine, but if you only want one course, the pay structure is simple with Keystone. You pay by the course. It’s simple. Keystone is set up and organized to deal with people just like you, because many people do what you’re planning to do.

American School’s pricing is more set up for people who want the diploma from American School.

My son took Keystone’s English 1 course (for 9th grade). It’s a nice literature text, fair exams, fair grading, helpful teacher if you have questions.

But do check with the public school first, to see if they will accept the course. Keystone communicates with school officials, and is very helpful in this regard.

Many people also use the public school for courses they want, and then transfer them to Keystone, and wind up with a diploma from Keystone. Either way is fine.

Keystone is located in PA. The director is J. Burns.
Good luck. If you have any more questions, ask!
Be happy to help. kathy

My son is dyslexic, and it’s working out just fine. He is transferring the credits into the public high school. Both schools require and have the same accreditation.

Hi! I’m new here and have some questions on another topic myself, but I wanted to respond to this first. My dd just finished w/ American School, and students can take just one course through them.

I also want to add that my dd had significant difficulty with math, and I now wish I’d had her take it through the community college instead of doing it ourselves at home. I don’t know about all cc’s, but ours offers free tutoring to any student who needs it, and she would’ve started accumulating dual credits sooner had we done it that way. Our state also has a program that allows any high school age student to take one class per semester free of charge at cc, so maybe other states have the same or a similar program.

Might be worth looking into….

Barbara

Wow! Thank you all for responding and for all the advice. Beforehand, I had talked to the high school guidance counselor about this and he said no one has ever done what we want to do but seemed willing to work with us. It is good to see other parents are already doing it and have been successful.

I checked out Keystone. What would you recommend for a dyslexic student? On line class or the traditional correspondence course? (The correspondence course is cheaper.)

The advantage to online courses: quick feedback on objective sections of exams, and being able to email the teacher daily, with any questions or help.

My opinion is that quick feedback on objective part of exams is not important. I was happy to wait 2 weeks, for the results to come by snail mail, along with responses to essay questions. Exams are mailed in (with correspondence) and you wait about 2 weeks.

With most correspondence courses by mail, you may have to speak to the teacher via telephone for help. Some of those correspondence teachers have email, and are willing to accept emails, however, some teachers can only communicate by telephone.

We have taken literature & science courses, and have always been happy with mail correspondence. I don’t think e-school is worth the extra money. We typed all essays on the computer, and sent them in, by mail.

If you decide to go with Keystone, don’t hesitate to ask for assistance, if you need it. The teachers are very helpful.

Did you ask your local h.s. yet, if they will accept Keystone’s credits? I would be interested in knowing if you have a problem with that and if you’re from NJ. I am going to approach our local public h.s. in NJ next week. I want to do the exact same thing you’re doing.

I know that some LD students have left high school in frustration, and finished their diploma with Keystone. I know that because Keystone’s newsletter had an article about a student who did this, and the student was very glad to finish up with Keystone.

Either way you do it, good luck. Ask more questions, if you want.