Homeschooling and Grading

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Many parents new to homeschooling question how to one-grade homeschool assignments, keep track of those grades, issue report cards, and/or issue transcripts if they are graduating a homeschool student. The first thing any homeschool parent should do if they have questions about homeschool and grading is research what the requirements are for their state or country. Some locations require you to maintain more detailed records, while others may request a portfolio examination once a year.

Research the laws that apply to what grades you need to keep in your homeschool. 

What Age Is Your Child? 

After you discover just how detailed you need to be in grading and record-keeping for your homeschool, think about the age of your child and what grade they are in this homeschool year. For younger children—unless you are required to by law, you do not need to have detailed grades. If you remember seeing an elementary report card, many of them list the subjects, objectives, or areas of study/growth and then 'grade' using satisfactory, unsatisfactory, needs improvement, or not observed (usually meaning they did not look for that objective during that marking period).

For younger homeschooled children, it is important to mark work for accuracy and go over any wrong answers. But you do not necessarily need to take these 'grades' and input them into a spreadsheet to calculate a grade point average (GPA) or marking period grade. For example, I mark our second grader's math worksheets to check to see if he answered the questions correctly. If he missed one, we go over how to get the correct answer. I may put a stamp or sticker on the page or even write down a letter grade (he has seen his brother's high school grades) but I do not track these grades in an online program or spreadsheet.

For elementary-aged children (and even for middle school-aged children), check for accuracy of assignments to review concepts they do not understand. 

When it comes to high school, it is important to continue to check for accuracy and understanding, but also to grade assignments as you will need to create report cards or transcripts if you are graduating your homeschooled child. There are many different ways to go about doing this. If you are proficient with Excel or another spreadsheet program, you could create a spreadsheet that helps you maintain (and even calculate) grades for each course that your homeschooled high school student takes. For our oldest son, I use Excel to track his grades throughout the year. Each course has one sheet in the document. I then calculate those grades together (weighing quizzes and tests more than 'homework' or 'classwork' assignments). I input these final grades into a system called Applecore that I have access to, thanks to my membership with SchoolhouseTeachers.com. I can then use Applecore to create report cards and a transcript for our son.

For high school-aged children, check for accuracy, but also maintain records of grades to help you produce report cards and a transcript. 

How Do You Grade in Your Homeschool?

As a former high school teacher, I have a system that works for me when it comes to grading a high school student. I assign labels to the work as classwork (things that might be completed with me), homework (assignments that will be completed independently), quizzes (assessments on small pieces of information for the courses), and tests or exams (a large assessment). Research papers or essays might be weighted the same as a quiz or test, depending on how much time was necessary to write it.

Personally, I use a point system rather than a percent system. This makes it easier for me to track information and grades. All graded assignments are worth anywhere from 5 to 200 points. Smaller assignments like classwork or homework would be worth 5 to 45 points, quizzes are worth 50 points, tests are worth 100 points, and projects, exams, or research papers may be worth 100 to 200 points. So, if our son got two questions wrong on a quiz, he would score 40/50 which would be 80%, if you wanted to calculate it that way.

Would You Like to Do More Research into Grading? Check out These Resources and References: 

Read my review of Transcripts Made Easy: The Homeschooler's Guide to High-School Paperwork to see if this resource might help your family during the high school years.

You might find useful information on The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine Resource Guide page. They have resources to help you with many homeschooling decisions.

In the Homeschooling with Heart blog, you can read how to create a transcript in five easy steps. How awesome is that!

And if you are looking for some inspiration regarding grading, read this excellent poem from A Net in Time called Keep Track of Grades.

Homeschooling Through High School: A Review of Transcripts Made Easy: The Homeschooler's Guide to High-School Paperwork

We are homeschooling a high school student. Something I did not think was going to happen because our teen was happy attending our local public high school. Last summer he made the decision to be homeschooled so we set forth on a new journey. Getting the opportunity to review Transcripts Made Easy: The Homeschooler's Guide to High-School Paperwork by Janice Campbell from Everyday Education has been so helpful. Even though I was a high school history teacher and I have had experience with writing curricula, teaching teenagers, and grading and submitting grades, I have never had to do that for all the subjects nor think about preparing a transcript. The digital eBook that I have read for this review has been very beneficial for me as I prepare for our teen's final two years of homeschooling.

There are 6 parts to Transcripts Made Easy: The Homeschooler's Guide to High-School Paperwork: 

1. Meet the Transcript
2. Plan with the End in Mind 
3. Keep Simple Records
4. Grades, Credit, GPA
5. Create the Transcript
6. References, Resources, and Reproducibles 

I reviewed an updated 4th edition which answered questions posed from earlier readers and includes tips from experts providing guidance in their areas of expertise. The experts include:

• Professor Carol Reynolds – how to prepare a student for success as a freshman in college
• Judith Munday – a special-needs consultant who provides a chapter on records and transcripts
• Kathy Kuhl – provides advice on timing & testing requirements

So what is a transcript and why is it important? 

Part One of  Transcripts Made Easy: The Homeschooler's Guide to High-School Paperwork breaks down the definition ("record of what a student has studied"), who sees it, the parts of the transcript, and an overview of the process for creating one. Just in the first six pages, one can learn so much about the requirements for preparing older children beyond one's immediate homeschool. The first part ends with "Where to Start in This Book" so even if you are under a time constraint (i.e. your homeschool child is submitting applications for college right now), you can use Transcripts Made Easy: The Homeschooler's Guide to High-School Paperwork.  

Basically, a transcript "can be seen as a snapshot of a student’s intellectual foundation, and as a passport into the next stage of life." It provides basic information about your homeschool and your teen's identity as well as the list of courses taken, their grades, and credits earned. 


Providing all the necessary information on a transcript is very important for your teen whether or not they choose to attend college making Transcripts Made Easy a valuable book for any homeschooling family.

Just a part of what Transcripts Made Easy presents! 

Transcripts Made Easy: The Homeschooler's Guide to High-School Paperwork is not just about transcripts! It also discusses the necessary skills and habits that should be cultivated in high school. Reading about the skills reinforced my own desire to work on essay writing, research papers, and citation with our 10th grader as well as continue guiding him in time management.

If you are starting to homeschool a freshman next year, then the chapter on scheduling courses may be very helpful. Options from a college-style schedule with humanities on Monday and Wednesday and math and science on Tuesday and Thursday to year-round homeschooling are described along with a sample four-year schedule laid out in a chart with tests to take, skills to develop, and a course plan.

A fantastic chapter to help parents prepare their children for the freshman year is written by Professor Carol Reynolds. Not everyone's college experience was the same and the further removed we are from that time, we may forget the reality of that first college year. Reading through this chapter helps provide good talking points for you and your homeschooled teen.

Other topics discussed include standardized tests, keeping simple records, naming of classes, defining a grade scale, and more!

Worried about grading? Transcripts Made Easy: The Homeschooler's Guide to High-School Paperwork covers this important homeschooling topic and offers advice on objectivity, standards, grading written work (essays, papers, etc). There is also information on how to prepare grades if you are unschooler.

What If Your Child is Not Headed to College? 

There is a chapter of college alternatives that discusses skilled trades (such as mechanic, builder, electrician, etc), along with resources for trades, entrepreneurships, apprenticeships, and guilds with lots of resources listed (e.g., websites to check out) and finally a small section on the military. And of course, the information provided on skills and habits to cultivate and even tips for surviving the first year as a freshman are all useful whether or not your son or daughter attends college.

What I Liked 

I really find the titles of the parts and the sections to to be very helpful in navigating the book. While I am not looking for any specific information at this time (our teen is just finishing his 10th grade homeschooling year), I know that as I prepare for the junior and senior years in homeschooling I will need more assistance.

I found Transcripts Made Easy: The Homeschooler's Guide to High-School Paperwork to be easy to read. While it could be an intimidating topic – preparing your teen for college – I felt that Janice Campbell walked me through each step clearly and concisely.

I love how all the information is presented. For example, there is a "High School Q & A" chapter, where I found answers to common homeschooling questions such as "How can I teach subjects I do not remember?" or "Does my student have to take a foreign language?"

How I will Use Transcripts Made Easy 

The information presented by Campbell that I was most interested in is that on granting credit and calculating a grade point average. I need to incorporate our teen's freshman year at public school and our homeschooling grades into one seamless transcript and this book has made me more confidant in my ability to do so.

Having the step-by-step instructions on how to create different transcripts—as well as the samples—is terrific. And having the sample text for high school diplomas? Perfect! I am also happy to be able to print out the subject worksheets and fill those out. I think sharing them with our homeschooling teen will also help him understand the process of choosing his classes.

I can see myself referencing Transcripts Made Easy: The Homeschooler's Guide to High-School Paperwork  on a regular basis as we progress through these next two years with our teen. It will also be useful to direct questions our teen may have about the process to the book for him to read up on grading, college, and more. I know that I will also want to look at it again when our younger children move onto their own high school years.

Looking for more information about Everyday Education or the author Janice Campbell? 

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Don't forget to check out the other reviews!