When you are transitioning to homeschool you may wonder if you will be creating report cards.
Virginia parents do not need to issue grades for their children when homeschooling grades K-8. In grades 9-12 parents will need to issue grades to create a transcript. Even without grades you can still celebrate the completion of a course or skill.
Even without issuing grades it is a great idea to mark your student’s progress as they gain new skills and complete academic classes.
It can be a hard transition to go from a world of report cards, progress reports, test scores and lots of grades in parent portals to an education without grades. I want you to know that you can do it.
You do not need grades to determine if your student is progressing.
In this article I will give you ideas, inspiration and information for grading homeschool course work.
I am a homeschool mom and public school teacher, the information below is designed to help get you thinking, but it is not legal advice. Consider reaching out to HEAV or HSLDA if you have legal questions.
How To Issue Grades for Homeschool Classes
If you choose to issue grades for your records there are several ways to do so:
- Choose a program that includes tests and quizzes
- Grade based on completion
- Assign grades based on mastery (correct answers or demonstrated skills)
- Grade Based on Effort
- Use outside classes
- Use a Rubric
Depending on your student, their goals and your family’s priorities you can choose to assign grades many ways.
Tests and Quizzes
Some curriculums come with tests and quizzes that can be taken and graded by parents or teachers.
Teaching Textbooks is a math curriculum that is popular with many families that assigns grades automatically.
Programs like Abeka, Rod and Staff, and Acellus use regular tests and quizzes to measure student understanding.
Parents can use these assessments to assign grades to students.
Use an online report card maker to enter the grades and you will get an average from a year’s worth of work to record on the transcript.
In Virginia you are not required to give tests or quizzes, you can choose not to use them even in a curriculum that recommends them.
Completion Grades
You may choose to assign a grade to your student based on how much of a program that they completed.
This works well when you are using a curriculum like Khan Academy that displays a completion percentage. You can use that percentage as a grade if it is a good reflection your student’s learning.
Some curriculums are mastery based. This means that you cannot move on until you have demonstrated that you completely understand the material. A completion grade makes sense with these courses.
If you are working through a set of books, a list of novels or doing a project based approach this approach works well too.
Grade Based on Mastery
Mastery means that you work on a concept until your child understands the material completely.
If you work on a concept until it is completely mastered you can assign a grade based on the level of mastery achieved.
You may choose to assign a grade based on skills completed as well.
I love to use skills checklists when I am working with my students. A skills checklist can be a great substitute for a report card.
Choose 3-5 goals for a semester and work towards mastering the skills.
- Some skills could be:
- Learn a poem by heart
- Correctly identify 15 sight words
- Describe the causes of WWI
- Create a family budget
- Shop and cook dinner for the family
- List 3 artists from the 1600s
- Read 3 non-fiction books about the Renaissance
- Identify all uppercase and lowercase letters
- Count to 100
Parents can set these goals or the goals can be set by a curriculum.
Read more about creating a course of study or learning goals in the linked article.
Grade Based on Effort
You can choose to assign a grade based on how hard your student worked in a course.
This should just be part of the consideration when assigning the grade. Consider their level of understanding of the material and their completion of the course material as well when assigning a grade.
Be careful not to use grades to punish your student. If your learner is not successfully completing a course, be sure to check in regularly, and allow more time whenever possible to complete a course.
The beauty of homeschool is a completely personalized education, so it is ok if World History takes a year and a half.
Consider allowing students to retake or try again if they struggled with a concept.
Use Outside Classes
When you approach high school you may consider outsourcing a few classes.
When exploring homeschool course offerings, ask if they will be assigning grades.
You can use classes at a homeschool co-op, community college, private school, or some public schools.
These places will determine the course of study for your student and assign a grade based on their judgment.
Use a Rubric
A rubric is a document that helps you fairly assign a grade based on multiple criteria.
A rubric allows you to assign a grade based on all of the above criteria.
Here is a rubric that I made that you can use to discuss with your high school student.
I set it up with the idea that an average score of:
5 – A
4 – B
3 – C
2 – D
1 – F
This is a great way to talk together about how successful the course has been for your student. Remember, that you have full authority to assign the grade that you feel is appropriate.
This rubric is just one example of how you can use a rubric to assign grades.
It can be helpful to present the rubric at the beginning of the year so that expectations are clear.
Do I Need To Give My Homeschooler Grades in Virginia
You do not need to think about grades until high school. Until then enjoy learning, keep records and assign appropriate work.
When you are building a transcript for your student in preparation for graduation, start assigning grades.
Remember that you are the principal of your homeschool and you can determine grades.
If you are doing high school level work in middle school grades, you can include these classes in a high school transcript.
It is not uncommon for public school students to enter high school with 2 or more credits. (Generally these are Algebra 1, Spanish 1 and 2)
If you would like to support building your transcript, reach out in the comments and I am happy to set up an appointment.
