Course designations provide information on the level and type of the curriculum your high school student completed.

Note: 8th graders are able to earn high school credit for K- or H-designated courses in Math, Science and Foreign Language.

 

Kolbe Academy’s transcripts utilize course designations for Homeschool, Digital Homeschool, and Online courses taken with our curriculum. Non-Kolbe courses do not earn a designation, unless they are taken at another institution which grants a designation and are transferred into Kolbe with an official transcript.

Note: For example, if you take Honors Algebra I at a local school, you can transfer it on an official transcript to maintain the Honors designation. Otherwise, if you report it as a non-Kolbe homeschool course, you will not receive a designation for the course.

 

Kolbe's Course Designations

• No designation/Standard designation: This indicates that you completed the Kolbe course plan but may have modified it somewhat.
• C: Kolbe Foundation. 
• K: Kolbe Core. This designation indicates that you completed the Kolbe course plan (Homeschool, Digital Homeschool) faithfully and with minimal modifications. Please refer to your course plans to view specific work and reporting requirements, and see the Grade Reporting Guide: 9-11 and the Grade Reporting Guide: 12 to find more information on how to report courses to earn this designation.
• OK: Kolbe Online Core. All academic Online courses at the high school level at Kolbe earn the OK designation, except Honors and AP® courses (see below).
• H: Kolbe Honors. This designation indicates that you completed the honors version of the Kolbe course plan (Homeschool or Digital Homeschool) faithfully and with minimal modifications. Please refer to your course plans to view specific work and reporting requirements, and see the Grade Reporting Guide: 9-11 and the Grade Reporting Guide: 12 to find more information on how to report courses to earn this designation.  
• OH: Kolbe Online Honors. All Online Honors courses at Kolbe earn the OH designation.
• AP: Kolbe Online Advanced Placement. As use of the AP designation requires authorization by the College Board, only authorized Kolbe online courses can appear with the AP designation under Kolbe Academy on a student’s transcript. If you take an AP® course with another authorized provider, please provide a signed official transcript to transfer AP® courses into Kolbe Academy. You can view a list of all authorized courses on the College Board’s AP Ledger.  

Note: If you underwent the AP Course Audit as a homeschooler, please provide a copy of your authorization letter along with a signed official transcript. The course title and school name on the authorization letter from the College Board must match those used on your official homeschool transcript. Transcripts may be sent to [email protected].

 

You can find more information about AP® Testing here.

• S: Summer. This designation is be used for courses completed over the summer. Unlike other designations that are recorded before the course title, the “S” Summer designation will appear in parenthesis after the course title. Examples: K British Literature (S), Astronomy (S), or H Geometry (S). 

 

Always refer to the syllabus at the beginning of Kolbe course plans to verify the specific designations available for each course as well as the requirements for those designations. Please see the Parent and Student Handbook (pp. 12-14) for more details on Kolbe Academy course designations. 

 

Please refer to the Grade Reporting Guide: 9-11 and the Grade Reporting Guide: 12 to find more information on how to report courses to earn the K and H designations.

 

Why do course designations matter?

Course designations not only serve to indicate the rigor of the course you completed, but also enable you to earn various awards at Kolbe and qualify for the National Honor Society (NHS).

 

The St. Maximilian Kolbe Award requires the completion of a rigorous selection of courses, including our core classical sequence in Theology, Literature and History, as well as 4 years of Math, Science, and Foreign Language. Only courses with the K or H designation count towards this award.

 

The St. Ignatius Award requires completing the entirety of Kolbe Academy’s recommended track using only courses with the K, H or Kolbe AP designations.

 

The St. Thomas Aquinas Award requires completion of our core humanities courses in Theology, Literature and History. All courses must have the K, H or AP designation, and at least half of which must be done at the Honors or AP level.

 

The St. Albertus Magnus Award requires completion of 4 years each of math and science, up through at least Calculus in math, and including Biology, Chemistry and Physics, all with labs, as well as an additional upper-level science elective. All courses must have the K, H or AP designation, and at least half of which must be done at the Honors or AP level.

 

The St. John Paul II Award is awarded for excellence in the study of foreign languages, requiring a completion of 4 levels of one language and 2 levels of a second language. Nor more than 2 non-Kolbe courses may be accepted, all other courses must have the K, H or AP designation with Kolbe.

 

The Kolbe Chapter of the National Honor Society (NHS) requires students to be enrolled in at least four Kolbe classes per academic high school year with the K, H, or AP designation and to continue to be enrolled in at least four Kolbe courses in subsequent years to maintain eligibility.

 

Note: These awards have other requirements, including a minimum GPA. To view more details, please refer to our Awards Overview and Awards Help Article, where you will be able to download fillable PDFs to track your progress towards these awards.