Personal Enrichment vs. Advancement

It is important to remember that when a student enrolls in any community college course, the student is building an academic transcript that will follow them for the rest of their academic life. If a student has the unfortunate situation where they fail or withdraw from a class, that failing grade will need to be reported when they apply to college as a senior and/or to any post-secondary institution. These are college courses as a result the instructors do expect a certain level of maturity and student responsibility. Community College Faculty operate under different guidelines and are not required to discuss a student’s progress with a parent.

While some students may decide to take a community college course for personal enrichment, other students may want to take a course so that they can advance in a particular subject area (i.e. in order to take an Advanced Placement course), while SMUHSD offers open enrollment, the school also has to prioritize access to students; seniors are generally given priority to classes as that will be the last academic year that they will have an opportunity to take a course. Please keep in mind that while SMUHSD will attempt to accommodate each student, there are finite resources available.

College of San Mateo - Skyline College - Canada College - Concurrent Enrollment

AHS -- How to Sign up for Concurrent Enrollment Slideshow -- https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1dbDCmhOe4PgXtHj5ozBQFDZQthltn-S6UnTgQyA0v40/edit?usp=sharing

Please keep the following process in mind:

• For enrollment for the Fall Semester, start application in April of each year.
• For enrollment for the Spring Semester, start application in November/December of each year.
  • Begin the Application Process Caňada College, College of San Mateo, Skyline College
  • Meet with your High School Counselor to discuss how it may impact your school schedule and workload
  • Complete the SMUHSD Pre-Approval Form to enroll in courses and obtain the necessary electronic signatures for concurrent enrollment
• Upload your signed Concurrent Enrollment forms to the College of San Mateo, Skyline College, or Caňada College (it may take up to 5 days to process)
• April - June: Begin Registration of Summer Classes
• May - August: Begin Registration of Fall Classes
• November - January: Begin Registration of Spring Classes

Check out this link for How-to videos for Student Services 

Plan ahead

SMUHSD staff is committed to helping students continue to take challenging courses and access courses that will expand their knowledge. It is critical that students and families plan ahead and consult with their school counselors to determine if a community college course is an appropriate action or if they should explore other alternatives. It is not recommended that students take more than one community college per semester. Again, please consult and develop a plan with your school counselor.  Please be aware that some courses require prerequisites or corequisites which can delay or prevent the enrollment of certain classes. We recommend that you consider the following before enrolling in a community college course:

• Speak to your school counselor and develop an educational plan that outlines how the community college courses will complement your educational goals
• Make sure you understand the limitations that could possibly exist - i.e. Is this an appropriate course? Does the course require the student to have a certain knowledge of the material? Is the course being taught in a learning modality that is beneficial to the student?

  Concurrent Enrollment Definitions 

SMUHSD Policy on High School Credits

1. Students may earn up to 40 elective credits and placed on the SMUHSD transcript for one of the following reasons: 
1. As an enrichment course at a postsecondary institution 
2. As a world language not offered at the high school (for example, American Sign Language). 
2. Once the course is completed, the student must request an official transcript from the online program or institution to be sent to the Student Data Analyst, Thalia Luna, at Aragon.

Students and families are responsible for the following:

• Ensuring outside programs are offered through WASC Accredited institutions and are UC A-G approved. 
• Covering the cost of tuition fees and related expenses/requirements.
• Students with 504 or IEPs are responsible for sharing their plan with the institution to discuss whether the program is able to implement the plan. The district is NOT responsible for providing accommodations or support for courses outside of our district.
• Submitting an official transcript to the school site’s Student Data Analyst upon completion of the course. 

SMUHSD will not transfer credit from an accredited institution to the high school transcript under the following conditions:

1. The course is offered at Aragon and can be taken at Aragon,
2. The course is needed for graduation,
3. The course exceeds the 40 credit limit (Board Policy: AR-E-6141.11). [3 C.C. units = 5 H.S. credits / 5 C.C. units = 10 H.S. credits],
4. The course is not from an accredited institution and/or is not A-G approved. 

SMUHSD is not responsible for monitoring student progress, providing academic support, or remediating/ supplementing skills/content offered by these outside courses. 

This policy is not retroactive. Any course work completed before August 17, 2020 will not be added to a student’s high school transcript unless it was approved in advance of taking the course.

Interested in taking a course OUTSIDE of SMUHSD?

For ANY course that is being taken outside of the SMUHSD, it must be pre-approved with

Aragon's SMUHSD Outside Course Pre-Approval Form here for:  FALL 2023, SPRING 2024, SUMMER 2024 COURSES  

Aragon's SMUHSD Outside Course Pre-Approval Form here for: FALL 2024, SPRING 2025, SUMMER 2025 COURSES

Thank you!  This is the only way we can approve whether or not your course is able to be placed on our transcript, so don't delay!