University-Model School Transcripts: One Record for a Split Week¶
Picture a tenth grader at a university-model school. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday she's on campus, in a real classroom, with a teacher who assigns the reading and grades the essay. Tuesday and Thursday she's home, working through the same course at her own kitchen table, with a parent checking that the reading got done and the practice problems got worked.
By May, none of that matters to the person reading her file. A college admissions office wants one line for English 10: a course title, a credit value, a grade. Not a campus grade and a home grade. Not a note explaining which days were which. The work of a university-model school's front office, whether that's a registrar or a founder doing the registrar's job, is turning a week that ran on two different tracks into a transcript that reads like it ran on one.
How the week splits¶
The structure varies more by grade level than people expect. According to NAUMS, the national association for the model, elementary students typically spend two days on campus and three days in their "satellite classroom" at home. Middle schoolers flip that: three days on campus, two at home. Upper school usually moves away from a fixed campus/home split entirely and toward a schedule closer to college itself, with some classes meeting Monday/Wednesday/Friday for shorter sessions and others meeting Tuesday/Thursday for longer ones.
That structural detail matters for a transcript because it changes what "attendance" even means at each level. A tenth grader's schedule isn't really campus days versus home days anymore. It's individual classes, each with its own meeting pattern, each producing its own grade.
It also means a school shouldn't try to write one attendance and grading policy that covers every grade band. A policy built around a fixed two-days-on, three-days-off week fits a third grader and misfits a junior taking five separately scheduled classes. Writing that difference down early, rather than improvising it the first time a transcript question comes up, saves a founder from reconstructing the logic under deadline in the spring.
Who assigns the grade¶
This is the question that trips people up, and NAUMS doesn't answer it directly, because its page describes a schedule, not a grading policy. What it does say is that "the teachers are in charge of all direct instruction in the central classroom," and that on home days parents "serve as paraprofessionals by providing extension, enrichment, tutoring, and study skills instruction." Neither role is described as issuing a grade.
Most schools resolve that by giving the grade to the campus teacher: one person who has seen the whole course, not half of it, and who's already grading the essays and quizzes that show whether the home-day work landed. The parent isn't running a parallel class and issuing a parallel grade.
That's good news for the person building the transcript, because it means there's one grade to record per course, not two. The home-day work isn't invisible. It's the reason the student is ready for Wednesday's discussion or Friday's quiz. But it flows into the same grade the campus teacher already owns. You don't need a system that tracks a "campus grade" and a "home grade" and averages them. You need a system that tracks one course, one grade, one set of credits, the same as any other school would.
Turning the split into a transcript line¶
Once a course has a single grade, building the transcript is the same work any school does. In NavEd, that lives under Reports > Transcript: credits per course, credits earned, a weighted or unweighted GPA toggle, and a PDF you can download and hand to a family or send to a college. It's part of the free plan, along with the rest of student records, attendance, and the gradebook the campus teachers are already using to grade the work in the first place.
The course title on the transcript doesn't need to say "university-model" or explain the weekly schedule at all. English 10 is English 10, whether every session happened on campus or three of the five happened at a kitchen table. What the family and the school should agree on ahead of time is the credit value for each course and, if the school weights grades, which courses count as honors or advanced for GPA purposes.
Settle that as a school policy before the first semester's grades post, not course by course as each one comes up. A ninth grader's transcript and a senior's transcript should read the same way: same credit scale, same GPA weighting rule, same level of detail. If the school issues a one-page profile describing the university-model structure, that's the place to explain the weekly schedule. It doesn't need repeating on every course line, and none of it requires proving which days happened where. The transcript's job is to report what the student learned, not to audit the calendar that got them there.
The free tool, if that's all a family needs¶
Not every university-model school runs every family's records the same way. Some hybrid programs leave high school transcript-building to the parent, especially for electives or supplemental courses taken outside the campus schedule. For that, there's a free transcript builder at nav.education/transcript/ that needs no signup: credits, a weighted GPA calculation, room for up to eight standardized test scores, and a PDF at the end. It's the same shape as the in-app version, built for a parent or a small program that just needs the document, not the rest of a school platform.
FAQ¶
Does a university-model school need to record a separate grade for home days?
No, and NAUMS doesn't require it either. Most schools give the grade to the campus teacher, so it reflects the whole course, campus and home combined. Home-day work supports that grade; it doesn't produce a separate one.
Who signs the transcript at a university-model school?
That's a school policy question. Most schools have whoever holds the registrar or head-of-school role sign off, the same as any small private school would.
Does the transcript need to explain the campus/home schedule to colleges?
Not on the course lines. If the school issues a one-page school profile alongside the transcript, that's a reasonable place to describe the program in general terms. The course lines themselves read the same as any other school's transcript.
Does the campus/home split change from elementary to high school?
Yes. Elementary is typically two campus days and three at home; middle school usually flips to three campus days and two at home; upper school often moves to a per-class schedule closer to a college timetable rather than a fixed weekly split. NAUMS describes the general pattern, though individual schools vary.
Can a parent who taught the home-day work also be the one who enters the grade?
Grading is a staff function, not a parent one. If a parent is also serving as staff at the school, a teacher, tutor, or co-teacher, that access should be set up under a staff account rather than a parent account, so the grade stays tied to whoever is running the campus session for that course.
Does this work for a school that's only one or two years old and still building its transcript process?
Yes. A school doesn't need a business office to have a transcript that holds up. What matters is settling the credit and grading policy early and keeping the same system in place from the first semester, rather than reconstructing it later.
If your school is turning a split week into a transcript families and colleges can both read clearly, related reading on hybrid attendance covers the same question one step earlier, at the attendance record. For families building their own record from the ground up, our high school transcript checklist walks through it year by year.
NavEd's free plan includes the gradebook, report cards, and transcript builder your campus teachers are already using to grade the work. The first five students are free, on every plan, and that does not expire.