In today’s world, when you think of credit you probably think of credit cards, or money loaned to a person to buy something. But to a teenager, credit means what they earn every time they complete a high school class on their graduation plan. For incoming freshman, this is a difficult concept to master. Below is a summary of the important details in general terms.
Students attend school 5 days a week. Each class is approximately 1 hour long. Therefore, by the end of a typical school week, students have been “in contact” with the course content for 5 hours. This is how contact hours, or seat time, is calculated.
There are typically 18 weeks in a school semester (August to December is semester 1…January to May is semester 2). Five hours a week multiplied by eighteen weeks is 90 hours. When discussing this with students, it is good to equate this with their lives (i.e. that is forty-five movies; that is traveling in a car from Phoenix to New York and back).
In order to earn credit for a high school class students must both earn a passing grade (usually 60% or better, but some schools it is 70%) AND acquire a minimum amount of seat time (60 hours is the 0.5 Carnegie unit, a semester high school class is typically 90 hours). Most high schools develop an attendance policy that allows for a maximum amount of time a student can be absent from school and still earn credit. That is right…a students could earn an “A” grade in the class, but if too much school is missed then the seat time requirement was not met and schools do not have to grant credit.
Watch this video for more information on this topic. Contact Jennifer Blackstone with questions! (602.906.4820 or jenniferb@blueprinteducation.org)
