Whether you’re a freshman or a senior, you’re likely going to be worried about getting all of the credits and hours you need to graduate. It definitely is a daunting goal, but there are ways to help yourself get through the stress.
Keep in mind that throughout the year, you WILL want to check in on these tabs in Powerschool to make sure you’re on the right track.
Class Credit Requirements
A quick check in the ‘Progress Towards Diploma’ tab in PowerSchool will say that you need a total of 26 credits in order to graduate. However, for some of the credit categories, it’s not necessarily clear what classes fill out what credits.
Most credits are self explanatory when you look at them. But, there are a few that are a little tricky to understand. To help, counselor Alayna Comer offered a little more insight to what classes apply to what credits.
What classes fill out credits the quickest?
“There aren’t too many, but electives that count towards regular credits—like Journalism 1 towards Comm Arts Upper—and taking summer classes, like P.E., health, and personal finance junior year will help.”
What credit category do Pathway-specific classes fall under?
“For DIT, the tech cores are either fine or practical art. All of the Health and Wellness tech cores are science credits, and the BLE and PACS tech cores are practical arts.”
What classes do you suggest students take ASAP?
“Health and PE for sure, alongside personal finance if the student is a junior. It would also be a good idea to fill out the fine arts credits quickly, by taking classes like Art 1 or photography.”
For a few class examples, physics and environmental science are science electives, comp&lit and comp&reading, and even Journalism 1 are comm arts electives, and regular electives can be classes like woodworking, modern languages, and lifetime activities if you’d already filled your PE credits.
Getting your hours in
Another important requirement is to have community service hours.
You can usually obtain these hours by participating in after school events, such as Key Club, volunteering for community service hours, at places like KC Parks, or tutoring at our feeder schools—for example, you can help out with Adventure Club—or within the school, like being a teacher’s assistant.
There are different programs that our school offers to get these hours, which are A+ and Gold Medallion. A+ coordinator Missi Gegen represents the A+ program, and gifted specialist Alicia Kleoppel represents Gold Medallion, alongside AP Capstone.
How to enter and get A+ hours
What are the requirements for A+?
Gegen: “There are four requirements—you have to have a GPA of 2.5 or higher, you must be proficient or higher on the algebra EOC, you have to accumulate 50 tutoring hours within the program, and have a cumulative attendance of 95%.”
Does A+ cover community service hours?
“Yes. Both A+ and community service involve helping the public, but A+ doubles as community service hours, so students don’t have to worry about doing both.”
What month should students expect to see opportunities for hours?
“Around late September to early October is when most of them start coming in. But students can also find opportunities on their own by contacting the feeder schools to see if they need any help, or they can get hours through youth programs, and sports programs that they’re a part of.”
How much do you recommend students joining?
“I think there’s no reason for students not to join, but it’s okay if they don’t. A+ is a good backup option when it comes to saving money for getting into colleges, and especially if students only plan on attending a two-year college to get their Associate’s Degree. These hours are very valuable.”
How to enter and get Gold Medallion/AP Capstone hours
What are the requirements?
Kleoppel, for Gold Medallion: “You have to have a 3.2 or higher GPA, score within the 85th percentile on the ACT or SAT, have taken 8 honors/advanced classes, and have 100 hours of community service.”
Kleoppel, for AP Capstone: “You have to take AP Seminar your junior year, and AP Research your senior year. You’ll also want to have gotten at least a 3 on an AP exam.”
Are there specific classes students must take?
Gold Medallion: “They have to have taken AP Seminar, four history classes, and at least 2 classes of the same foreign language.”
AP Capstone: “Just AP Seminar and AP Research.”
How do students earn their hours?
Gold Medallion: “Students can earn their hours by being in AVID, peer mentoring, through the school clubs like OP Empathy and Key Club, and helping out at sports camps.”
AP Capstone: “The same way you can for Gold Medallion: community service, tutoring, or peer mentoring.”
How much do you recommend students joining?
Gold Medallion: “I highly recommend it, especially since it’s beneficial if you plan on going to a 4-year college: Gold Medallion will help you be more prepared for that. It can also make you more likely to be a high candidate for scholarships.”
AP Capstone: “Students should definitely join if they like challenges. And, you can do Gold Medallion and AP Capstone at the same time.”
Looking for the tab to see your hours in PowerSchool? Find the “Tutoring/Service Hours” tab.
Other Grad Requirements
Besides credit and hour requirements, there are still others to focus on. If you’re a freshman, you’ll be waiting until your junior year in AP/Coll Government to take your Constitution Test, and sophomore year for the Missouri Constitution Test. (Yes, each state has their own individual constitution.) Ideally, you’ll want to pass with a 74% or above on these tests.
One requirement that is the most applicable to the world outside of school is the CPR certification, which you should be able to earn this through your health class.
Like mentioned in the previous heading, A+ hours can double as community service hours. But, if you don’t want to work towards those 50 hours, and would rather stick with 20, you can reach out to places like KC Pet Project in the local area to volunteer.
One topic that isn’t listed in the above photo is that you have to take all four EOCs—you take the biology and algebra EOCs your freshman year, the English EOC your sophomore year, and the American government EOC your junior year. It is required to have all four of these completed by your senior year. If not, contact assistant principal Mike Dial at the email address below.
While it’s not listed in the Grad Requirements photo, the amount of times the school has talked about attendance being a requirement for most events may have some students thinking that you have to have an excellent attendance rate to graduate too. However, Comer clears up that worry.
Does attendance play a role in graduation?
“Not necessarily, no. Attendance is only applicable to events, like homecoming, off-campus programs, or like A+. You could have low attendance and still be able to graduate, as long as you meet the requirements.”
Wanting to see your attendance percentage? Go to the ‘A+ Information’ tab on PowerSchool.
For more information, there was a slideshow sent out if you didn’t attend the senior meeting at Back to School Night, or if you’re a curious underclassmen. You can get to it here.
You can also learn more about each Pathway at the provided link: https://sites.google.com/view/oakparkfamily/home
If you’re interested in volunteering at places around Kansas City, check out this site. For Liberty, read through this site, and for Gladstone, click here. For Clay County in general, click here.
Need other help? Email your designated pathway counselor:
- DIT: [email protected]
- H&W: [email protected]
- BLE: [email protected]
- PACS: [email protected]
Have other questions?
- Gold Medallion/AP Capstone/Gifted: [email protected]
- A+: [email protected] / [email protected]
