Charter

Grice is applying for admission to a new collegiate charter high school opening here in the fall. It's on our local state college campus and operated by our county school board. Because it is a county public school there is no tuition and books and travel are free. Upon graduating, students will have earned a full associates degree in addition to the usual high school diploma. They are accepting only 100 ninth grade students. All applying, and that includes two of her best homeschool buddies, should be enrolled unless applications exceed 100, in which case students will be chosen in a lottery. A week ago this past Friday, before the college closed for its spring break, her friend's package was accepted and marked #47. We will be turning her package in first thing tomorrow morning before the March 20 deadline and waiting for the announcement on April 1.

So these past couple weeks have been busy with doctor visits, shots, digging up records, and taking tests. Grice was especially unnerved by the college placement exam she was required to take and the timed essay she had to write. I tried to allay her fears by reminding her the test was meant for those who have already completed high school level work and used only as an indicator of where students are academically rather than as a qualifier for admission, and pointed out to her that an essay is merely a short piece of writing on a particular subject, in this case on your reasons for wanting to attend, and again, was not being judged for entrance but used as a sample of student's writing for the file. Learning plans will be created and customized for each student so that by the end of tenth grade all students should be on track to begin and complete the college coursework in eleventh and twelfth. She did well, 91% Reading Comprehension; 88% Sentence Structure; and 31% Math. She was horrified by the math score until I reminded her this was a test designed to be taken after completing high school and she therefore is nearly one-third of the way toward being ready to begin college level math work in two years and ready now for college level English only having graduated eighth grade. She was skeptical until her friend reported nearly identical scores. With the test out of the way she is now rather low-key about the whole thing. She's excited to go, but only if her friends get in. Otherwise, she's happy to continue homeschooling.

My big concern is that four years of staying in one location is a big commitment...