Curriculum

Online High School Diploma Curriculum

Your online high school diploma program consists of 17 core courses and you choose 5 elective courses, ranging from academic electives like American literature and algebra to career pathway electives, like healthcare courses, childcare professional, or 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 High School below.

High School Diploma

Diploma

6 months

As low as $55/mo

Full Program Overview

1-800-275-4410 (9AM - 9PM ET)

Online High School Diploma Curriculum

17 core courses
5 elective courses

Estimated completion time:

Fast track = 6 months
Average time = 14 months

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, and the fast track estimate will apply to them. The average track will apply to most learners who can dedicate a few hours per week to completing their coursework. The estimated completion times are based on completion times for learners enrolled in this program from November 2019 - October 2020, excluding withdrawals.

Startup Courses

This course serves as an overview of physical, emotional, mental, and social health, and how to balance all these areas. The first lesson of your course discusses the differences between health and wellness and the eight dimensions of wellness. You’ll learn about the unique factors that can affect your wellness, such as heredity, environment, and culture. You’ll also learn about how your own decisions can affect your health and start creating a personal wellness plan to access your wellness in multiple areas.

In Physical Wellness, you’ll cover topics such as drug and alcohol awareness (including discussion about substance and alcohol abuse) and chronic diseases and illnesses, as well as preventive measures you can take to protect your health. In Emotional and Mental Wellness, you’ll explore the characteristics of good mental health, learn about mental health disorders, and discuss topics surrounding self-harm and suicide. You’ll also discuss activities or solutions to maintain and enhance your mental well-being. In Social Wellness, you’ll gain understanding about safe and healthy relationships with those around you, which starts with having a good relationship with yourself. You’ll review content about different forms of abuse and bullying. This lesson touches on topics of sex and gender as well as gender identity and sexual orientation. You’ll also learn about the importance of adapting to social situations, setting personal boundaries, and how to manage conflict. The last portion of your course will give you an overview of important skills to balance your relationships and responsibilities, like effective time management, organizational skills, and focus techniques.

By the end of this course, you'll be able to:
- Explain the concepts of health and wellness, factors that can influence your overall well-being, and strategies to enhance personal wellness
- Identify strategies for improving your physical wellness through nutrition, physical activity, drug and alcohol awareness, chronic disease prevention, and good personal hygiene practices
- Explain characteristics associated with good mental health and strategies for promoting mental well-being
- Summarize strategies for enhancing your social wellness through the development of healthy relationships
In this course, you’ll explore the amazing potential of your personality. The course begins by defining personality and showing its effects on your life. You’ll learn some famous theories about personality and the possible ways that personality is formed. After taking a personality test, you’ll reflect on your results to understand more about yourself and your traits. Finally, you’ll decide how your personality can help you to build better relationships, excel as a leader, benefit your community, and succeed in your High School program and beyond.

By the end of this course, you'll be able to:
- Define personality and its effects on your life
- Explain three theories that contribute to the development of your personality
- Describe your own personality type and individual strengths and preferences
- Examine personality characteristics that can be influential to learning, leadership, and career success

Humanities

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, you'll be able to:
- Recognize how to use digital technology ethically and effectively to obtain information
- Describe the importance of access to digital technology to communicate and perform tasks
- Explain how to protect digital data and safely use digital technology for commerce
- Use effective communication and research skills in education
- Interpret visual information and effective communication in a professional environment
- Carry out research related to personal, local, and global issues

English

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, you'll be able to:
- Identify close reading strategies that can be used to comprehend informational text passages
- Analyze different types of writing including historical, informational, fact, and opinion
- Apply basic grammar rules, punctuation rules, and proper writing practices to workplace writing
- Apply basic conventions of standard English grammar, usage, and mechanics in narrative writing
- Identify main points, key details, and literary devices in poems and a short story
- Summarize central themes and supporting evidence in plays
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, you'll be able to:
- Apply close reading strategies to make inferences in nonfiction texts
- Apply basic English language conventions in nonfiction texts
- Use evidence from informational texts to support a position on a topic
- Recognize the use of figurative, literal, and non-literal language in poetry and a short story
- Restate details and examples from the text when explaining how characters develop and interact in a novel
- Apply theories and styles of nonfiction writing to create effective personal and professional writing
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, you'll be able to:
- Use evidence to support analysis of history or social studies texts and paired graphics
- Cite evidence to support analysis of scientific or technology-related texts and paired graphics
- Analyze the use and impact of word choice, tone, and figurative language in a play
- Infer a clear central idea or theme in somewhat challenging literary narratives or their paragraphs
- Summarize key details, events, and characteristics in a somewhat challenging novel
- Write a structured argument with relevant evidence to support a claim
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, you'll be able to:
- Use multimedia to support academic presentations and writing
- Draw simple, logical conclusions about more challenging world literature passages
- Recognize how an author’s word choice and structure shape meaning, style, and tone in more challenging literature
- Examine one act of Shakespeare, using close reading strategies to explain character relationships and thematic structure
- Analyze primary and secondary history, science, and technology texts
- Apply content area literacy skills to craft a research paper

Math

This course will provide a solid foundation so you are able to successfully use mathematics in your course, life, and career.

By the end of this course, you'll be able to:
- Solve real-world problems involving whole numbers
- Solve real-world problems involving fractions
- Solve real-world problems involving decimals
- Compare the English and metric systems of measurement
- Explain ratios, proportions, and percents
This course will allow you to apply your math knowledge to areas of your everyday life.

By the end of this course, you'll be able to:
- Estimate results quickly
- Accurately figure the amount of money involved when discounts are stated in percents
- Make smart consumer decisions
- Calculate yearly interest rates
- Understand the importance of a budget and how to prepare one
- List the factors to consider before buying a new or used car
- Discuss the options available regarding your personal insurance
- Determine when you’ve saved enough money to start investing
- Explain the difference between common stock and preferred stock
- Explain why it’s important for you to plan for your retirement
This course will review the four mathematical operations so you are able to use them at an advanced level.

By the end of this course, you'll be able to:
- Use the rules of the order of operations to solve multistep problems
- Solve word problems using equations
- Use the four basic operations with positive and negative numbers
- Give examples of monomials and polynomials
- Simplify polynomials by combining like monomials
- Simplify and solve one-step and multistep equations
- Identify and name various components of geometry
- Identify different types of quadrilaterals and triangles
- Calculate the area of squares, rectangles, triangles, and circles using appropriate formulas
- Apply the Pythagorean theorem to find the length of a missing side in a right triangle
- Compute the volume of cubes, cylinders, and rectangular solids using the correct formulas
- Solve equations using the principles of geometry

Science

The course covers topics in geology, oceanography, meteorology, environmental science, and astronomy.

By the end of this course, you'll be able to:
- Explain the basic principles and methods of Earth Science
- Discuss the various surface processes on Earth
- Identify features of Earth's atmosphere and oceans
- Explain the causes of geologic activity
- Describe the impact of human activity on natural resources
- Explain the formation and properties of the solar system and universe
In this course you’ll gain insight into the origin of life, the relationships among all living organisms, and discover how your own body works.

By the end of this course, you'll be able to:
- Describe the characteristics, chemistry, and ecology of living things
- Analyze cells and their processes for obtaining energy and reproducing
- Explain how traits are passed on from one generation to the next
- Explain how different species of living things have evolved and are classified
- Identify the characteristics and behavior of plants and animals
- Summarize the anatomy and physiology of the major systems in the human body
This course covers a variety of topics in modern science that affect everyday life, from energy and heat to sound and electricity.

By the end of this course, you'll be able to:
- Explain how objects move when forces are applied
- Describe the role of energy transformation in daily life
- Explain how changes in matter can be measured and manipulated
- Analyze waves and radiation
- Apply the principles of chemistry
- Apply the principles of electricity and magnetism in various situations

Social Studies

This course focuses on US history from the earliest human settlers in North America thousands of years ago to the modern-day. You’ll learn the story of the native people who lived in this region long before Europeans came to create colonies. Follow the colonists as they faced the unknown and attempted to make new lives for themselves in North America. Finally, you’ll experience the birth and growth of the United States, a young nation that has managed to pack a wealth of world-changing events into its short history.

By the end of this course, you'll be able to:
- Describe settlement of the colonies in America and the events from the American Revolution to the ratification of the United States Constitution
- Explain expansion and industrialization in the United States from 1790 to the 1850s
- Identify the causes and lasting effects of the American Civil War
- Analyze how the events leading up to World War I shaped the United States
- Discuss the effects of the Great Depression and World War II on the United States
- Recognize changes in America from the 1960s through today
This course covers what the basic purposes of government are and how modern governments differ from one another.

By the end of this course, you'll be able to:
- Describe the different types of government and give examples of each
- Summarize the process used to ratify the Constitution
- Describe the three main parts of the Constitution and explain what each part includes
- Describe the process for amending the Constitution
- Describe the powers and responsibilities of the three branches of the federal government
- Outline the process by which laws are made
- Summarize some of the landmark cases handled by the Supreme Court
- Briefly describe the ways in which state and local governments operate
- Explain the rights and responsibilities of citizens in a democratic nation
- Summarize the process for electing a president of the United States
This course will provide 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. You’ll study 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, you’ll observe how key developments and events that took place over thousands of years have shaped the world today.

By the end of this course, you'll be able to:
- Recognize features and achievements of ancient civilizations
- Recognize features and achievements of the Byzantine Empire, Middle Ages, and Europe during the Renaissance and Age of Exploration
- Compare society and politics of world regions during the period of 1500-1800
- Explain causes of revolution, impacts of industrialization on society, and factors leading to development of global empires during the period of 1750-1914
- Describe how the Great War, Great Depression, and nationalism affected world regions
- Describe how World War II, the Cold War, and economic globalization affected world regions

Health & Physical Education

In this course you’ll learn the key components of nutrition, cardiorespiratory exercise, safety issues, and stress management techniques.

By the end of this course, you'll be able to:
- Describe techniques for managing stress and developing healthy habits
- Explain healthy nutrition and digestive processes
- Identify the principles of weight management
- Outline a comprehensive cardiorespiratory fitness routine
- Describe the elements and benefits of resistance training
- Develop personal fitness and nutritional goals

Electives: Vocational

Electives: Academic/College Preparation

American Literature is designed to help you navigate the works that helped to shape America, particularly some of history's most notable texts and writing. The speeches, poems, and prose that you'll read in these pages helped to shape not only American writing, but also the way we read and think today. As you read through your assignments, consider how these texts are still having an impact on us, from literature to pop culture.
Microsoft^® Office allows people to create documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and databases. This course will teach you how to use three popular tools from the Microsoft^® Office Suite — Word™, Excel^®, and PowerPoint^®. In this course, you'll learn how to use Word™ to create and edit text documents, insert figures and tables, and format pages for a variety of uses. You'll then learn how to use Excel^® to organize and format data, including charts, formulas, and more complex tables. Next, you'll learn how to use PowerPoint^® to create and deliver slide shows. Finally, you'll complete a graded project, which will test the skills acquired in Word™, Excel^®, and PowerPoint^®.
This course teaches the skills and techniques of effectively developing, drafting, and revising college-level essays toward a specific purpose and audience: active reading, prewriting strategies, sentence and paragraph structure, thesis statements, varied patterns of development (such as illustration, comparison and contrast, and classification), critical reading toward revision of structure and organization, editing for standard written conventions, and use and documentation of outside sources. Students submit two prewriting assignments and three essays (process analysis, comparison and contrast, and argumentation).

Electives: General

Note: Reproductions of paintings in the text and online supplements include nudes; these pictures may be offensive to some students. An introduction to various forms of art throughout history, from prehistoric to modern; also discusses elements of design, symbolism, and purposes of art to enable students to evaluate the meaning and quality of individual works. Learn about the most important artists of each era, as well as the cultural influences that shaped their approaches to painting, sculpture, or architecture.