Expert: James Bell - 8/24/2010

Question
Hi There - I am trying this again, as the first time I posted it, the gentleman I asked was unavailable. Please help.
You recently posted a question to MARK A. HOWELL in category Careers:
Military--Army, Navy, Airforce, Marines, Coast Guard:

Hello there, thank you for taking my question.

Proud to say, both of my son's (21,19) are working on joining the USAF. My 21
year old was home schooled, and received his HS Diploma from American School,
located in Lansing, IL. My husband thinks this may be viewed as a GED?

Can you tell me if this is a concern or somehow considered less than a
traditional HS Diploma?

I appreciate you time, Blanca

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Answer
Blanca -

As my son was also home schooled, I can provide you with what I know.  We were subject to New Jersey state law while he was in 1st through 9th grade, then moved to Pennsylvania where he finished high school.  Although your state may have different requirements, the military looks at the end result generically.

Essentially, when the military looks at home schools, they put them into two categories: Accredited and non-accredited.  The first three years we home schooled, we utilized an accredited school.  He was enrolled in the school and his student materials were shipped to him.  He did the work and returned the workbooks to the school.  They were graded and a "report card" was issued by the school.  Had he continued to do this through high school, he would have received a high school diploma that would have been through an accredited institution, no different than your local public school.

But, we tired of the waiting for things to be graded before we could move to the next level, plus the course of study was selected and approved by the school (just like public school).  We could not tailor the courses to take advantage of our son's natural strengths, such as math, science and geology.  We removed him from the school and went with another program.  The second school had course of study by year group (3rd grade, 4th grade, etc.).  Within each grade year you had a variety of subjects within each group: Similar to taking Honors Algebra instead of Algebra I.  We just had to make sure we took all the requirements for each grade.  We could not have him take only math or science courses, he still had all the history, literature, foreign languages, etc., to accomplish.

But, this school was not accredited.  We had to choose between a school that told us what the curriculum was like and could not be tailored to our sons interests, but get a diploma that was as good as any from a public school -- or -- choose a school that could be tailored to challenge our son for the best education, yet would not provide him with any proof of graduation or attaining a certain level of accomplishment.

We decided to challenge our son and give him the best schooling we could.  After he "graduated", he scheduled his GED testing and passed with flying colors.  Another friend of his, who finished her home schooling in Oregon, received her GED with honors.  If our son had wanted to join the military he would need a certain number of college hours on top of the GED to be considered for enlistment.  I cannot remember the exact number, check with a recruiter to get the official answer.

I looked into the American School, Lansing, Illinois (http://www.americanschoolofcorr.com/).  The front page of their site says they are “Regionally and Nationally Accredited”.  This tells me your son received a first rate diploma from a school that should be viewed the same as if they sat in the classroom of their local public school.

If the military considers it less than a full degree (first of all -- fight it), and considers it similar to a GED, then they would need some college hours to offset the difference.

I hope this answers your question.  Don’t hesitate to write back if you have more.

Sincerely,
James Bell