Credits Needed to Be Considered a High School Senior

Credits needed to become a high school senior are based off of Carnegie Units and vary by state.

Getting to one's senior year in high school is a major accomplishment for students. Of course, what lies at the end of the successful completion of senior year is even more important: graduation. Becoming a senior is not a title granted to students based on the number of years they have spent in school but rather, the number of credits they have earned after successfully completing courses in various subjects.

Standard Requirements

Students are required to complete courses in math, science, English, history, foreign language and electives. Elective requirements may be satisfied by successfully completing courses in art, music, photography, dance, physical education or practical courses such as typing, computing, woodworking or other technology-oriented classes such as computer-assisted drafting. When students have amassed the required number of units in these courses, they are considered seniors.

Carnegie Units

Coursework toward graduation is measured in Carnegie Units. In Carnegie Units, one unit is equal to one year of coursework. States mandate certain numbers of Carnegie Units in various subjects and specific numbers of Carnegie Units to graduate high school. If a high school requires 20 Carnegie Units to graduate, a student is considered a high school senior when he or she has completed three-quarters of the requirements, or at least 16 Carnegie Units. Students who struggle in multiple subjects and fail to pass them may have to retake enough courses to set them back a year from the normal, four-year time period required to graduate. In other words, it takes some students four years, as opposed to three, to complete the course units required to obtain senior standing.

State Variations

Graduation requirements as well as requirements to achieve senior standing vary from state to state. However, there are generalities that extend across the majority of states. For example, 40 states require high school students to take four years of English to graduate. Each state sets its own high school course requirements, which explain what a high school diploma means in that state. Most states have minimum education requirements and mandated end-of-course and end-of-matriculation exams that must be passed to move to the next grade or to graduate.

Local Units

School districts within cities have the choice to require their students to deviate from state standards, if desired. Often, this derivation comes in the form of required electives that vary from one school district to another. For example, within a state, one school district may require more units of art while another may require more units of a foreign language. Each school should clearly lay out for parents and students the requirements of its district for students to move from grade to grade within high school as well as the specific course requirements necessary for graduation. Some local school districts in multiple states will allow community service activities to count toward fulfillment of graduation requirements (such as Oregon City) while others make community service a requirement of graduation (such as Chicago Public Schools).

References

• California Dept of Education: FAQ
• State Notes: Standard High School Graduation Requirements
• Data First: What Courses do our Students Need to Graduate from High School
• Service Learning: K-12 Service-Learning