American Sign Language for High School Credit

July 12, 2023
by Michelle Jay

Start ASL is partnered with many schools that accept our ASL 1, 2, 3, and 4 course levels in order to award American Sign Language for high school credit to their students. With the complete Start ASL Online Course, we offer a full online ASL course curriculum that is aligned with the California World Language Standards and the ACTFL. You can take our course from the comfort of your home or under your school’s supervision. Start ASL helps bridge the gap for many high schools and colleges that accept American Sign Language for foreign language credit but don’t offer ASL courses of their own.

However, it is up to your individual school’s discretion whether or not they will accept our courses for credit. Credit is awarded by your school, not by Start ASL. Our courses are not accredited, but we do offer printable Completion Certificates for each level of the Start ASL Online Course.

With the Gold level of the Online Course, we can provide you with printed, signed, and mailed certificates of completion if required by your school or employer. We can also provide digital grade reports that have been verified by our instructors. You must be a Gold level member for the duration of each course level in order to receive a verified completion certificate for that course level. Printed verified completion certificates can be mailed once per student to one address within the US as part of the program. Additional printed certificates, or certificates shipped internationally will incur additional fees.

Each level of the Start ASL Curriculum is roughly equivalent to 3 credit hours, one year of a foreign language in high school, and/or one semester of a foreign language in college. For example, if you complete ASL 1 and 2 of our curriculum, you will have completed 6 credit hours, 2 years of foreign language credit for high school, and/or 2 semesters of foreign language credit for college.

How long it takes to complete the courses depends on the student. The courses are completely self-paced. On average, if a student is very driven, they can complete one course level in one to three months. Most students taking the courses for credit are able to complete one course level in nine months.

At the completion of the course levels, students can be expected to be between conversant and proficient in the language, depending on how much the student is practicing in actual conversation.

If you wish to use Start ASL to earn foreign language credit, be sure to first contact your school (you can share our syllabuses below) and get approval from your school in writing. And make sure you know exactly what your school will need in order to award credit and contact us to make sure we are able to provide what your school requires. Important: CREDIT IS AWARDED BY YOUR SCHOOL, NOT START ASL.

Are you a Teacher, School, or Organization?

We offer more options on our Start ASL for Teachers, Homeschoolers, Schools, and Organizations page.

Start ASL Course Syllabuses

Download ASL 1 Syllabus

Download ASL 2 Syllabus

Download ASL 3 Syllabus

Download ASL 4 Syllabus

Michelle Jay

Michelle Jay is the founder of StartASL.com. She earned a Bachelor‘s Degree in Deaf Studies, with an emphasis in teaching, from one of the nation’s premier programs at California State University, Northridge. Michelle is a published author and has contributed thought-provoking articles to academic publishers such as Greenhaven Press. Her unique articles have done much to support Deaf Culture, and have been printed in resource publications such as American Chronicle and Perspectives on Diseases & Disorders: Deafness & Hearing Impairments.