How to Earn Credit with TeenPact

If you are a regular reader of our blog, there is no doubt that you will have come to realize that students around the country love TeenPact because of the life change that they experience and watch happen at every event. The presence of God is felt in worship, sessions, time spent in the Capitol, and fellowship with other like-minded believers.

However, while TeenPact is first and foremost a discipleship ministry, it is also an academic program. It’s true – the number one goal of our staff, interns, State Coordinators, and leadership in the National Office, is to point students to a deeper relationship with their Creator – but there are also matters of curriculum and homework and class time that make TeenPact a scholastic program as well. In fact, all students who complete a Four Day State Class are eligible to earn 1/3 of a Carnegie unit of high school civics or government credit.

Carnegie units are named after Andrew Carnegie, an American industrialist from the early 20th century who developed the system to standardize graduation requirements among colleges around the United States. Today, his system is used by the vast majority of school districts around the country – including in each of the states that TeenPact holds a class. Because of this, many school administrators and homeschool parents utilize a Four Day class to fulfill the civics or government credit requirements in their state.

With this in mind, we wanted to share a few pointers for how to earn and keep track of the credit that you can get from a Four Day State Class:

• Do the homework – On-site class time, while important, makes up only a portion of TeenPact’s curriculum. The minutes spent in completing the pre-class homework is also an important factor in earning the credit. Even if you run out of time before the class, you can still finish the homework after the program and turn it into a teacher or parent to evaluate. Last year, we wrote this post about our homework component, as well as this one specifically focusing on the Alumni track. Both will be helpful if you would like some tips and background about each of the specific assignments.
• Come to class – This may seem obvious, but to earn the Carnegie unit, students must be present for all on-site instruction. In addition, each class day culminates in a quiz about information learned. These quizzes satisfy the in-class work requirements.
• Hold on to your graduation certificate and grading sheet – Especially if you are homeschooled, many states still require a portfolio of completed work to prove that you have sufficiently earned your high school credits. Though TeenPact does not assign a letter grade for the class (we leave that up to teachers or parents) we do return all graded homework with a quantitative score sheet that is based upon completion of the assignments. Both of these documents can prove that a student successfully completed the State Class.
• Credit is for middle-schoolers too – Many students attend TeenPact when they are still in 7th or 8th grade. Though they are not yet in high school, they are still eligible to receive high school credit upon completion of the program. Just mark it down on your transcript early.

All in all, the Four Day State Class is a valuable complement to any high school curriculum. Whether you are a student, homeschool parent, or teacher, please feel free to contact us if you have any questions. Our National Office can be reached at 888.343.1776 or you can email us at [email protected]. We are here to serve you!