Add the semester reporting option to your student’s annual enrollment to participate in developing high school transcripts and earn a diploma from St. Thomas Aquinas Academy:

  • This option is recommended for students in Grades 7–12.
  • The annual fee for this option is $95.00 per student.

Ready to add this option? If you are already familiar with the Transcript Option and would like to add it to your student’s enrollment, skip to the payment form at the bottom of this page.

 

Why Add the Transcript Option?

The Transcript Option allows your family to build an official, academy-issued transcript for your high school student—semester by semester—with the guidance and review of an STAA advisor. These transcripts serve as formal documentation of your student’s coursework, grades, and credits that can be sent to colleges and universities as part of the admissions process. Whether your student plans to pursue the STAA diploma or simply wants a professional transcript on file, the Transcript Option is the path that makes it possible.

Please note: The Transcript Option is an add-on to a student’s current enrollment in St. Thomas Aquinas Academy and is not available as a separate service. Current enrollment is required.

★  Every high school student needs a transcript, but not every student needs to build it with us. Colleges, trade schools, and employers will one day ask for a record of the high school years, so every family should have a plan for keeping one. The Transcript Option is St. Thomas Aquinas Academy’s semester-by-semester way of building that record with you, and we think it is a fine one. Still, it is an option, not an obligation: families with another plan for the transcript are just as welcome here.

About the Transcript Option

The Semester Reporting for Transcripts Option is available to add to the enrollment of any of your students who are in Grades 7 through 12. To develop a transcript with St. Thomas Aquinas Academy, the student and teaching-parent will be asked to submit a reporting packet to the academy at the end of each semester (two per year; due February 28 and June 30).

Essentially, students upload one or two quarterly work samples for each course through the STAA Student Zone after their teaching-parents grade the assignments. The work samples are reviewed by the STAA staff and retained as part of the student’s semester reporting packet. Teaching-parents then submit a final report of grades and progress on a Semester Report Form so an official transcript can be issued by St. Thomas Aquinas Academy.

A Note on Gradebooks

You do not need to submit gradebooks for STAA Study Guide courses that are reported through the designated spaces on the course’s dedicated page on the Student Zone. Courses without STAA Study Guides and course pages require some form of simple grades/lesson tracker along with a work sample for each quarter.  Ask your advisor how to report outside, home-generated, and community-based courses.

Handwritten Prewriting

The STAA Academic Integrity Policy asks students to include handwritten prewriting with their final, polished work sample papers. This prewriting shows the steps of brainstorming, organizing, outlining, and drafting that our writing and reasoning courses guide students through—a cornerstone of what has consistently produced such remarkable thinkers and writers in our program. For more details, see the FAQ article “Semester Reporting Work Samples: Handwritten Prewriting Requirements.”

Three Graduation Paths

Students taking high school courses through St. Thomas Aquinas Academy may choose a graduation path that best meets their needs:

  1. STAA Transcript and STAA Diploma: Studying STAA courses with the intention of earning a St. Thomas Aquinas Academy diploma.
    Students electing this option need to add the Transcript Option program to their enrollment each year of high school as well as arrange to transfer any high school credits from other institutions to St. Thomas Aquinas Academy.

  2. STAA Transcript Only: Studying STAA courses to develop a transcript with the academy but drawing a diploma from another source, such as their own homeschool (teaching-parent issued or homeschool co-op issued).
    Students electing this option must add the Transcript Option to their enrollment each year they wish to develop a transcript with St. Thomas Aquinas Academy.

  3. No STAA Transcript and No STAA Diploma: Studying STAA courses and maintaining their own transcript within their homeschool or with another institution and NOT drawing a diploma from STAA.
    The Transcript Option program is not necessary for students on this path.

Not sure which path fits your student? These three paths correspond to our four high school tracks. Students on the three diploma tracks (Catholic Liberal Arts, College Preparatory, and General Education) add the Transcript Option each year, since semester reporting is how their transcripts and diplomas are built. Foundations Track students draw the diploma from another source and may add the Transcript Option for their STAA-catalog courses whenever an academy-issued record would serve them. See “The Four STAA High School Tracks: Which One Fits Your Student?” and “The Foundations Track: Build Your Student’s Core with an STAA Advisor” for help choosing.

Support and Resources

The entire semester reporting process is explained in detail in the STAA Handbook, Part 3: Semester Reporting, which is available to all member families on the STAA Student Zone. The semester reporting process is completed entirely through the Student Zone, which includes step-by-step instructions to guide parents and students through each step.

You are never on your own when it comes to semester reporting. STAA offers Semester Reporting Seminars at the start of each school year as a courtesy to member families, and our Q&A Forums on the Student Zone are available throughout the year for quick questions. Your advisor is also happy to walk through reporting questions during a scheduled appointment.

For a detailed overview of all ten conditions for earning an STAA diploma, visit the STAA Diploma Program page on our website. To see the courses a transcript is built from, and which ones we consider too good to miss, read “The Four R’s: How Our Courses Fit Together, and Which Are Too Good to Miss.” Our online knowledge base also answers many questions about transcripts, semester reporting, and diplomas.

 

Member Families: Add This Option to Your Student’s Enrollment

The Transcript Option ($95.00 per student) may be added to your student’s enrollment at the link below or submitted along with the Course Registration form after the annual planning meeting with your academic advisor. The Course Registration form and the Transcript Option are due within 30 days of the planning meeting or by September 30, whichever is later. You will need to submit the form once for each student.

Add the Transcript Option — Payment Form

Have questions about the Transcript Option or enrolling for high school? Schedule a consultation with an advisor. Already enrolled and have questions about semester reporting? Schedule an appointment with your advisor or send us a message.

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