BHS Parent Meeting 3-22-16

Whether you are on general diploma or general diploma with an advanced honors endorsement, the college only looks at the transcript to see which classes you took and your grades. General diploma can mix and match—they can take honors classes in their areas of strength and regular in areas of weakness, while the General Diploma with Honors Endorsement must take all honors, dual enrollment, or AP classes. All (including this year’s algebra students) must take four years of math in high school, so those who took algebra do not get a year off because they already took it here. The high school algebra is not quite the same as algebra here, just as a beginning literature class in college isn’t the same as a class here.

English Requirements—Listed in order 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th grade years

General DiplomaGeneral with Honors Endorsement

English 9Honors English 9

English 10Honors English 10

English 11Honors English 11

English 12Honors English 12

The Math Requirements—Listed in order 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th grade years

General DiplomaGeneral with Honors Endorsement

Pre-Algebra I in 1st semester (not a core class) withAlgebra I (fast paced) or HR Algebra I

Algebra 1 in 2nd semester (core class)

Pre-Geo./Geo. (1st & 2nd semester) or Geometry or HR Geometry

Geometry (fast-paced; 1 semester)

Algebraic ConnectionsHR Algebra 2 with Trigonometry

Algebra 2Honors Level Math Elective/Pre-calculus/AP Calculus

Note that the math ACT is all algebra and geometry with only four trigonometry questions.

The block schedule has 80 minutes in a class.

The Science Requirements—Listed in order 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th grade years

General DiplomaGeneral with Honors Endorsement

Physical ScienceHR Biology

BiologyCP (College prep) Chemistry I

Two approved science electivesCP Physics

(such as Anatomy, Aquascience, Forensics, etc.)Upper Level Science Elective

The state looks at your 8th grade Aspire and compares it to the 10th grade Aspire, looking for growth.

BHS counselors track student credits to make sure students are on track to graduate.

Keep in mind—lack of any credit, even PE/Fit for Life, can keep you from graduating!

Social Studies Requirements—Listed in order 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th grade years

General DiplomaGeneral with Honors Endorsement

World HistoryHonors World History

U.S. History to 1877Honors U.S. History to 1877

U.S. History to PresentHonors U.S. History to Present

Government and EconomicsHonors Government and Economics

Honors may also take AP or dual-enrollment, which will give you college credit without requiring a national test like AP does. It’s an agreement with Bishop State community college.

You need 6 ½ elective credits of your own choice. Remember that PE could keep you from graduating!

Required Electives

General DiplomaGeneral with Honors Endorsement

Physical Education/Fit for Life (which may be replaced with two semesters of varsity athletics, marching band, JROTC, cheerleading) AND Career Prep in 11th grade AND Health Education (not a P.E.—it’s a book class). Health is a 9 week course for ½ credit.

Career Tech Ed, and/or Arts Education and/or Foreign Language (Honors must take 2 semesters of the same foreign language). 3 credits may be taken from these areas in any combination. However, students are encouraged to complete 2 in sequence.

6 ½ additional electives of your own choice

Other Requirements

General Diploma: 28 credits to graduate

Honors Endorsement: 30 credits to graduate and a 3.5 GPA (grade point average). A 3.4 in December of senior year will keep you from the honors endorsement!

10th grade testing: ACT Aspire; 11th grade ACT + writing (college entrance exam, and the first one is free to you); 12th grade ACT WorkKeys, which is an employment exam used by many companies, including Ingalls Shipyard and MCPSS. You may take the results to job interviews. Credentials are called Silver, Gold, and Platinum.

In 9th grade, you could earn up to 9 points; in order to end the year and go into 10th as a sophomore, you must have 7 credits.

GPA is based on a point system. Weighting of Grades:

AP or Dual EnrolmentHonors & College Prep (CP)General Courses

A=5.5 pointsA=5 pointsA=4 points aka 4.0

B=4.5 pointsB=4 pointsB=3 points

C=3.5 pointsC=3 pointsC=2 points

D=2.5 pointsD=2 pointsD=1 point

E=ineligible in all grades/diploma credits

****Important!****

If you sign up for a class that you can’t handle, you may only change classes within the first two weeks. The school is audited by the state department and won’t accept getting black marks for too many schedule changes, so you will be out of luck after that.

A general diploma can mix and match, taking some advanced/AP and some general courses, matching your strengths and weaknesses.

When you get your schedule, look at it to make sure there are only two core classes per semester. It sets you up to fail when you have more than that. You may get overwhelmed and stressed. If you have more than two in a semester, please e-mail the school at and put “Too many core classes” in the email subject line.

The link to the BHS Guidance page is