How To Master The High School Transcripts

Does creating a high school transcript make you nervous, do you feel like if you don’t get this right, you fail your high schooler? If so, I am here to tell you, don’t worry! You do not need a professional to help you with your transcripts, in fact it’s as easy as creating a homeschool high school 4-year plan, understanding how credits work, and figuring out where extracurricular activities fall in. In this article, I am going to show you how to master the high school transcripts!

The Transcript

First, I want you to note that a transcript isn’t just a form to fill out at the end of your student’s senior year. It’s a continuous record and an ongoing process. Keep it in mind throughout high school, and when the time comes, filling out the form will be a breeze! You can access our homeschool high school helpers and download our 4-year high school plan and transcript form. They will not only make this process a breeze (especially dealing with multiple high school students), but help you realize how easy it is.

Make A Plan

Before you even start this process, make a plan. To build a strong transcript, it’s important to realize that high school planning can’t be done one year at a time like before. Instead, you need to plan with all four years in mind. Think about your student’s future goals and plan state requirements as well as extracurricular activities accordingly.

This can cause some serious anxiety in some parents, it did for me. Take it one day at a time, even if your student isn’t sure about their exact post-graduation plans, they likely have a general idea. Use electives and extracurricular activities to help guide them on a career path.

There are many options!

Options might include college, trade school, internships, apprenticeships, the military, potential employers, or other relevant paths. If your student has a preference, you can tailor their high school courses to align with that direction.

Plans Change but be flexible!

However, it’s important to remember that your student doesn’t have to stick to a specific track. There are basic credits required for all high school students, which can range from a basic “just graduate” level to a college-prep level. Be flexible. Have your student write down anything they want to investigate or plan, then sit with them and create a high school 4-year plan.

Plans change, and the final transcript may look different from the initial plan. But with thoughtful planning from the start, you can ensure that nothing is overlooked, even as adjustments are made along the way.

How To Structure The Transcript

Let me start by saying there are two ways to structure the transcript and you can choose one or do both. Personally, I like the traditional method, where every course from that grade is listed together.

My students are dual enrolled and have taken some courses in middle school. If this is you, and credits were earned outside the traditional high school plan, separate it, or choose to join it with one of the four years. For example, an English 1 course taken in 8^th grade can be listed in the freshman year with an * (asterisk), and footnote explaining the course was taken in a different year.

The second method simply lists credits by subject. All English, math, etc., courses would be listed together along with the level of the course (freshman, junior, sophomore, and senior). Anything more than the four core subjects of English, math, history, and science, would be listed as additional courses, elective or extracurriculars.

No matter what structure you choose, list course titles and grade levels and credits fulfilled clearly. Find out more about high school credits, extracurricular activities, and more on our Homeschool High school Resource Page.

First, Document Student Information

On our interactive form, you will see that I created a section for your students personal information. Never include your social security number on a form like this. Colleges don’t need your students SSN on their transcripts, and this can lead to identity theft.

Instead, the information needed at the beginning of your students transcripts are their name, date of birth, student ID, phone number so the college or university can contact them, address, email, and parents name and phone number.

Next, all the information for your homeschool. The school name, phone number, address, contact number and email address.

Second, List Course Titles

No matter the structure chosen, you need to list all course titles your students have taken or are currently taking. Refer to your 4-year plan for this. If you fill out a homeschool high school 4-year plan, all courses will be listed on this form.

Third, Enter Final Grades and Quality Points

Next to the courses your student took, list their final grade for each one. If you need help calculating letter grades and credits, refer to our article How To Master high School Credits. It goes into details about the credit and grade system.

Fourth, enter credits Earned

List the credits for the course. Again, the article How To Master high School Credits go into details about the credit system and how to use them. But here is the gist: typically, one high school credit equals 120-180 hours of coursework, but this can vary by state. As the parent of a homeschooler, you can use your state’s credit value or convert it to the more typical 1.0 credit value. Usually, each course is one credit earned, refer to the article for more details.

The Small, Yet Important Details

After this, head down to the bottom of your transcript and record your students cumulative GPA, total credits earned, expected graduation date, and optionally, their class rank.

Test Scores, Attendance Records, Achievements!

All three of these deserve a place on your students transcript. Create a side bar section where you can list any test scores from the ACT, SAT, etc., and the dates received. Also, for each grade level, list the hours of attendance since one high school credit equals 120-180 hours of coursework (varying by state).

Achievements and skills are next! If your student was class president,  member of a homeschool honor society, has basic or advance skills for HTML, video editing, etc., they are listed in this area. Refer to the illustration for reference.

Close Out

Close out the transcript with any notes. If you used an asterisk next to any courses to alert personnel of something important, include those notes here. Finally, sign and date your transcript. Since you, the parent are creating this transcript, make sure it’s your name as the principal of your homeschool and administrator.

In Conclusion

Hopefully, you feel a little more confident in the transcript making process. Remember, you can find templates online that can help you, or you can use our interactive forms found in our homeschool shop.

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Disclaimer

Our interactive forms for the homeschool high school 4-year plan and the transcript form are sold to you in good faith and created as accurate as I can get them with all the information available today, as of the date of this article or listing. We want to help! However, I will advise that you are responsible for checking the accuracy of all information in the completed transcript. We (Randomnestfamily, or Tasha Moore) are not responsible for potential errors, so please use it at your own risk.