Things you may not know about Horizons CIS

Things you may not know about Horizons CIS

 

  1. Students in Horizons can do athletics at their home school.  (They have to take two courses there and meet the home school graduation requirements-and be eligible.)
  2. Horizons students can do activities such as dances and proms at their home schools.  (There are forms to be signed.)
  3. Students at Horizons can graduate at their home schools and get home school diplomas (with out going back.)  They have to meet home school graduation requirements, which are 200 credits and include 20 PE.
  4. Academic graduation requirements are the same at Horizons and at the Home Schools.  The only difference is that the home schools require PE:  20 credits.  That is why Horizons is 180 and the home schools 200.
  5. Students in Horizons can graduate early.
  6. Horizons students graduate immediately, as soon as they have completed all the requirements.  They are graduates as of that day, and do not have to continue at school.  They will receive their diploma at the graduation ceremony or they can pick it up in the office after graduation.
  7. Horizons students can take courses at DVC as part of their high school program (as long as DVC has room).  These courses count for both high school and college (and earn much more credit than high school courses).
  8. Students can take one or two courses at their home school, as long as there is room (a serious problem at College Park this year).
  9. The California High School Exit Exams (CAHSEE) tests are being given November 1st and 2nd.  They will be given again February 7 and 8.  February is the first time 10th graders can take the tests.  Every student must pass both English and Math in order to graduate.
  10. Students in Horizons can begin classes at any time, and end classes at any time:  not just at the beginning or end of a semester.  Students can add – or drop – classes at any time. 
  11. Horizons gives variable credit.  Students receive credits for the work they have done (in increments of 0.5).  They are not limited to 5.0 or 0.
  12. That is why Horizons students do not get F’s.  The student does the work until the student does it well enough to “pass” and earn credit.  Until then the student just does not earn credit.  And the student can take as long as it takes that student to learn the material and earn the credit.
  13. That is also why Horizons is not a catch-up program Students can go faster than at regular school.  But it usually takes as much time or longer to learn the material well enough to pass and earn credit.
  14. College preparation and college admission are the same at Horizons as at regular school.  Same requirements for admissions.  Same application processes.  Same likelihood to get in.
  15. The only differences are that Horizons students have to take Foreign Language and lab science classes either at home school or at DVC, because Horizons cannot offer them. 
  16. Horizons can find ways for Horizons students to do almost every elective offered at regular schools.  Talk to your teacher.
  17. Horizons can offer a greater variety of ways to do the course curriculums than regular schools can.  Students – and parents – can be creative, and request and propose alternatives.
  18. Programs, curriculums, and instructional methods can be adjusted, modified, and individualized to meet the unique needs of each student.
  19. If a student misses two appointments, or fails 60 hours worth of required work, we are required by law to do an Evaluation for Continuing Enrollment, which requires parent involvement.  That evaluation determines whether the student gets to stay in program.  It is done in writing, and is placed in the student’s cum folder.
  20. Students in Horizons are required to be “fulltime” students in the program.  That means that they must take at least four courses, or 20 credits, in the program, no matter what they are doing elsewhere.
  21. There is a law that says that students in Independent Study have to have available to them whatever is available at the comprehensive, home school.
  22. Students in Horizons can take Work Experience, ROP, Adult Education, and many “non-school” classes for credit, in addition to their Horizons courses.
  23. Students must have the administrator’s approval to take more than 40 credits in a semester:  but it can be done.
  24. Students in the Mount Diablo School District are not allowed to take on-line courses for credit.  Even though 70% of the districts in California allow this, our district does not at this time.
  25. This fall, the Horizons CIS program is in the process of making plans to offer on-line courses for credit sometime this year, probably in the second semester.