League Policies
In their article, “Evaluation of High School Credits,” our friends at HSLDA write, “A one credit course typically requires one school year to complete…For courses that do not use a standard high school-level textbook, log the hours that your child spends completing the course work. One credit is approximately 120-180 hours of work…when evaluating credit, a good rule of thumb is 50 minutes a day, 5 days a week, for 36 weeks, for a one-credit course.”
Remember to take your state requirements into account. You have several options when classifying Speech & Debate. Some may lend themselves to a particular year’s resolution:
- Physical Science (a non-lab science course, focused on a specific area of research)
- Politics and Policy (an elective course, focused on a certain policy)
- Research (an English course focused on the process of acquiring knowledge)
- Rhetoric (an English course focused on the art of persuasion)
- Debate (an elective course focused on research, logic, and rhetoric skills)
- Speech (an elective course focused on the communication of ideas)
If your student has enough credits, consider including Speech & Debate as extracurricular activities, documenting the approximate hours of participation and the skills acquired.