High School Diploma

Course credit and the high school diploma

The American system of education uses Carnegie units. A Carnegie Unit is a measure of time in which a student studies a subject during the course of a school year. A set number of credits are required in specific subject areas in grades 9 through 12 to fulfill requirements for graduation and the American high school diploma.

Students transferring from non-English speaking schools, or systems that do not use the credit system, will receive credit accordingly. One unit of credit is given for successful completion of a course that is normally scheduled for a 45-minute class period that meets five times a week for the duration of a 36-week school year.

Credit is awarded for the satisfactory completion of courses on the following basis:

• Full-year courses which meet 5 periods per week receive 1.0 credit.
• Semester courses which meet 5 periods per week receive 0.5 credit.
• A course must be taken in its entirety and passed for credit to be awarded.

All students must also complete 10 hours of community service for each year of enrollment as part of the Diploma requirement.