The online High School Diploma Program consists of 16 core credits and 5 elective credits, ranging from academic electives – such as American literature and algebra – to electives introducing in-demand vocations like auto repair technician, childcare professional, and vet assistant. The core curriculum is made up of English, math, social studies, science, arts and humanities, and health and physical education classes. Find more information about the high school classes you will take at Penn Foster below.
Diploma
Accredited
Average completion time: 12-18 mos
With Penn Foster, you can learn at whatever pace works best for you. Some learners will be more comfortable moving faster, and dedicating more time, while others may only be able to dedicate a few hours per week to completing their coursework.
In this course, your learners will explore the amazing potential of your personality. The course begins by defining personality and showing its effects on life. Your learners will study some famous theories about personality and the possible ways that personality is formed. After taking a personality test, they’ll reflect on their results to understand more about themselves and their traits. Finally, your learners will decide how their personality can help them to build better relationships, excel as a leader, benefit their community, and succeed in their High School program and beyond.
By the end of this course, your learners will be able to:
Diversity Through Visual Art offers an overview of important works that increase awareness, understanding, and acceptance of individual and group identities. Your learners will explore diverse artists and works of visual art that affect our societal and human interactions, such as gender identity, race, socioeconomic status, disability, sexual orientation, religion, culture, and national and ethnic origins. Through these different lenses, your learners will be able to gain a greater understanding of inclusivity by evaluating the experience of these groups as perceived through various art medias.
By the end of this course, your learners will be able to:
In this course, you'll learn how to build your digital literacy skills and become a strong digital citizen. You'll learn to use technology to find information in ways that are ethical and effective. You'll be able to recognize how to protect your digital privacy during online activities and describe why it's important for everyone to have access to technology. You'll also learn to think critically about sources of information and determine the best methods to research and communicate ideas. By the end of the course, you'll be able to identify appropriate methods for using technology in education, the workplace, and daily life.
By the end of this course, your learners will be able to:
A study of the fundamental operations with whole numbers, fractions, and decimals, preceding the more advanced topics of weights, measures, ratios, proportions, and percents.
By the end of this course, your learners will be able to:
Covers the rights, freedoms, and responsibilities of American citizens. Reviews the roots of American government and studies the modern U.S. government — its branches; the Constitution and Bill of Rights; the roles of federal, state, and local governments; political parties and elections.
By the end of this course, your learners will be able to:
In this course, you’ll learn different reading strategies that can be used to help with comprehension of information, including workplace writing. Organizational structures and reading strategies work together to reveal key details, and to effectively deliver informational texts. You’ll learn different organizational structures, and how these structures are used for writing. You’ll learn how point of view and purpose shape the content and structure of multiple text passages. You’ll analyze information to learn how to distinguish between fact and opinion. You’ll examine the basic conventions of English grammar, usage, and mechanics. This course also discusses how to identify the main themes, key details, and literacy devices in poetry and short stories. You’ll be introduced to drama and learn about different theaters throughout the history of drama, the different genres of plays, and reading strategies that will help you when reading a play.
By the end of this course, your learners will be able to:
A study of the scientific method, the formation of the solar system, the moon’s phases, the movement of the earth, plate tectonics, the formation of the oceans, and erosion. Also looks at chemical principles, rock and mineral analysis, soil formation, and weather patterns.
By the end of this course, your learners will be able to:
This course covers a wide variety of topics to help your learners understand the principles of physical fitness. Topics included are nutrition basics, developing healthy eating habits, the functioning of muscles, posture, the heart and lungs, strengthening body parts, flexibility training, preventing injury, and stress management.
By the end of this course, your learners will be able to:
Your learners will study simple ways to apply mathematics to the everyday areas of life, most of them involving money; employment, purchases, home, car, insurance, savings, and investments.
By the end of this course, your learners will be able to:
Your learners will go through a review of basic mathematical skills that provides the foundation for more advanced topics such as order of operations, factors, multiples, powers, roots, equations, and inequalities. This course introduces geometry by covering the study of points, lines, surfaces, and solids.
By the end of this course, your learners will be able to:
Your learners will study a discussion of people, events, and sociopolitical forces that have shaped America, from its discovery to the present. This course shows how American history affects today’s events and global conditions.
By the end of this course, your learners will be able to:
In this course, your learners will go through a study of matter and energy: their nature and the relationships between them. This course explains the role of atomic structure in chemical and nuclear reactions and emphasizes problem solving skills and discusses the relationship between science, technology, and the environment. Your learners will covers topics such as water, the chemistry of building materials, fuels, natural and synthetic rubbers and plastics, energy in relation to motion and force, machines, sound, light, electricity, and magnetism.
By the end of this course, your learners will be able to:
It can be said that the pursuit of knowledge drives humanity to become better. Every day, people subconsciously consume an abundance of information from the environment around them. However, not all of that information is meaningful. Most knowledge consumed daily may not mean anything in the long run. Today’s weather has a very small impact on making plans for tomorrow. How do you sort through all that information you take in around you into what’s meaningful or not? How can you gain new information, even though it may not have been in your environment or part of your experience? In this course, you’ll gain and apply close reading skills to help you sort through all of the information around you.
By the end of this course, your learners will be able to:
This course will provide your learners a broad survey of the history of the world, from the earliest humans who emerged from Africa to the modern peoples and nations that exist today. They’ll learn how people adapted to live in different environments, developed tools and technology, created political institutions to govern, and spread ideas as they interacted with one another. By following the stories of different peoples and cultures through time, your learners will observe how key developments and events that took place over thousands of years have shaped the world today.
By the end of this course, your learners will be able to:
This Biology course begins with a presentation on the topic of ecology. The cell and its processes are examined in detail. A discussion of genetics and evolution follows. The course provides a detailed description of the biology involved in the structure and function of both plants and animals. The course ends with a lesson on human body systems and disease.
By the end of this course, your learners will be able to:
In this course, you’ll analyze and cite evidence to support analysis of history, social studies, science, and technology-related texts as well as their graphics. Next, you’ll review the use and impact of word choice, tone, and figurative language in a play. You’ll then explore the theme in literary narratives. Finally, you’ll summarize key details, events, and characteristics in a novel and write a structured argument with relevant evidence to support a claim.
By the end of this course, your learners will be able to:
In this course, you’ll review foundational history texts and conceptual science and technology texts using US primary source documents and multimedia or quantitative formats. Next, you’ll draw simple, logical conclusions about more challenging world literature passages. From those literature passages, you’ll analyze how an author’s word choice and structure shape meaning, style, and tone. You’ll then explore a cultural experience in world literature, citing text to highlight key details and themes. After that, you’ll study one act of Shakespeare, using close-reading strategies to explain character relationships and thematic structure. Finally, you’ll write an informative assignment to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.
By the end of this course, your learners will be able to:
Electives: Vocational
In this course, your learners will study the automobile repair field, engine parts and operation, and engine types. This course includes a practical exercise.
By the end of this course, your learners will be able to:
In this course, experts explain everything step-by-step: the benefits of child day care, licensing requirements, managing staff, and details on child growth and development. This course features Ages and Stages Chart and Student Observation Guide.
By the end of this course, your learners will be able to:
Your learners get a look at what it’s like to work side by side with doctors in the rewarding health-care field. Topics include learning strategies, time and stress management, interpersonal communication, and law and medical ethics. This course includes supplements on speaking and communication skills.
By the end of this course, your learners will be able to:
This course provides your learners an introduction on how to prepare to start their own business and learn the basics of a business plan. This course discusses market research and business connections.
By the end of this course, your learners will be able to:
In this course, your learners start learning the skills they need to become a veterinary assistant. Topics include introduction to animal care; animal behavior, handling and restraint; and veterinary terminology. This course includes access to an audio CD, pronunciation guides, and flash cards.
By the end of this course, your learners will be able to:
Electives: Academic/College Preparation
This course provides a study of basic operations with signed numbers, monomials, and polynomials. Also includes formulas, equations,inequalities, graphing, exponents, roots, quadratic equations, and algebraic fractions.
By the end of this course, your learners will be able to:
This course is a study of algebraic functions, ratios, proportions, logarithms, variations, progressions, theorems, matrices, determinants, inequalities, permutations, and probability.
By the end of this course, your learners will be able to:
American Literature is designed to help your learners navigate the works that helped to shape America, particularly some of history’s most notable texts and writing. The speeches, poems, and prose that they’ll read in these pages helped to shape not only American writing, but also the way we read and think today. As your learners read through their assignments, they will consider how these texts are still having an impact on us, from literature to pop culture.
By the end of this course, your learners will be able to:
This course is an introduction to various forms of art throughout history, from prehistoric to modern. It also discusses elements of design, symbolism, and purposes of art to enable students to evaluate the meaning and quality of individual works. Your learners will study the most important artists of each era, as well as the cultural influences that shaped their approaches to painting, sculpture, or architecture.
By the end of this course, your learners will be able to:
In this course, your learners study the composition of matter from the subatomic level to the molecular level to the macroscopic level. They’ll see how the same building blocks can be rearranged to form countless substances. This course will help learners predict properties of different substances and the reactions that they undergo. They’ll learn about chemical bonds and phases of matter. They’ll see why water is critical to life on Earth and examine various types of chemical reactions that happen in solutions. Your learners will be introduced to branches of chemistry like thermochemistry, electrochemistry, organic chemistry, biochemistry, and nuclear chemistry. They’ll discover why chemistry is critical in biology, engineering, and everyday life.
By the end of this course, your learners will be able to:
This course offers a study of the properties of points, lines, planes, and angles; polygons and triangles; circles; solids.
By the end of this course, your learners will be able to:
This course covers appreciating music; roles of composer and listener; principles of music theory and instrumentation; historical periods; varying styles of music.
By the end of this course, your learners will be able to:
This course provides your learners an introduction to the roots and the development of modern psychology. This coure discusses states of consciousness, and theories of intelligence, development, and personality. It also looks at gender roles, stress, psychological disorders, and social factors that affect people in groups.
By the end of this course, your learners will be able to:
In this course, your learners will study topics that include articulate speaking, active reading, and comprehensive listening. This course covers the details of Spanish vocabulary and grammar, and improves fluency through listening to and creating stories. Your learners will be enabled to learn and use the language for business situations and other purposes.
By the end of this course, your learners will be able to:
Electives: General
This course is a review of basic math skills and principles along with a study of various business math topics such as income, maintaining a checking account, interest, installment buying, discounts, and markups.
By the end of this course, your learners will be able to:
This course compares and contrasts the economic systems that people use in various parts of the world. Your learners will study the function of money, the law of supply and demand, and the role of banks and government within capitalist economies.
By the end of this course, your learners will be able to:
This course explains how to avoid grammatical errors when writing sentences and paragraphs; how to make words work; and how to improve image by using the right word in the right place.
By the end of this course, your learners will be able to:
In this course, your learners will be introduced to several branches of science and engineering, including environmental science, agricultural science, oceanography, human anatomy and physiology, biotechnology, and engineering design.
By the end of this course, your learners will be able to:
In this course, your learners will study how to use Microsoft® Word™ to create, edit, and illustrate documents. They’ll learn about the most widely used spreadsheet program, Microsoft® Excel.™ Excel™ can perform numerical calculations and is also useful for nonnumerical applications such as creating charts, organizing lists, accessing data, and automating tasks.
By the end of this course, your learners will be able to:
Note: We reserve the right to change program content and materials when it becomes necessary.
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Fill out the form below to receive additional information from Penn Foster