Regarding for homeschooler

operamom
Sun, 02 Jan 2011 14:17:12 +0000

motherofblue: Check out the California High School Proficiency Exam website. If your daughter is doing 10th grade level work, she can take the exam. All of my homeschooled children passed this exam at ages 14 or less. In the early 1990s, there was litigation to secure the right of qualified students (the specific student was a homeschooler) under the age of 16 to take this test. The key for a young student is the achievement of an academic proficiency of at least tenth grade level. We used their level in the mathematics courses – they had all completed precalculus by the time they took this exam.

Passing this exam gave our children access to community college courses in California in the same way that the GED or high school diploma would. With this certificate, a student can apply and be admitted to any California Community College, and s/he can take any course for which the prerequisites have been met and in which space is available. Unlike using the high school connection, a student can take more than 8 units at a time. Calculus and a lab science brings the unit total to 9 at the colleges my children attended. The space-available-issue of course, is the rub, as the community colleges are increasingly over-crowded and new students are last in line to register.

Obtaining enough seniority in community colleges to secure enrollment in desired courses is another project entirely.

Note that the CHSPE is not the same as the GED or high school diploma, and its most useful application is to gain access to courses at the community college level. You would also have to check to see if the rules have changed since 2003 which is the last time we used this option. I do know many other independent study students have used this option in recent years.

A further item to note: When enrolling at a California community college using the CHSPE certificate as the basis, one pays the same tuition and fees as someone with the GED or high school diploma. I believe that when community courses are taken via the high school connection, the course fees and tuition are covered as if they were high school courses.