FAQ
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1. What are the benefits of joining the National Homeschool Honor Society?
This is an organization to recognize the academic achievement of homeschooled students. Members may list their membership on high school transcripts, college applications, and scholarship applications. The Iota Kappa chapter is specifically for homeschooled students in the Truckee Meadows area.
2. What is involved with joining this chapter of the honor society?
Send in your student’s completed application with all of the required paperwork and membership fee and meet the required deadlines. If your student is accepted into the honor society, the student will receive an acceptance letter and membership card within 4-6 weeks of the deadline. After sending in their community service records, which must be postmarked by April 1st, members will receive an honor society certificate.
3. Why is an e-mail address required on the application?
E-mail is an inexpensive, quick form of communication, and it is a favored form of communication among today’s students. E-mail enables us to reach most honor society students and their parents quickly and efficiently. This is why e-mail addresses are required on applications.
4. How is the membership fee used?
Iota Kappa chapter requires one-time membership and dues payment. Your membership fee to Iota Kappa goes to pay for national dues, certificates, and postage. It also helps us cover fees for students from families in need for whom payment of dues is a financial hardship. No person receives payment for services from dues money.
5. At what age can I join the honor society?
Eta Sigma Alpha, at the national level, originally accepted only high school students. However, they have allowed us now to accept junior high students for membership in the Iota Kappa chapter. The same standards for membership apply.
Junior high students must send in test scores showing achievement in the 90th percentile or higher on the Iowa, Stanford, or California achievement tests, taken within 12 months of the time of application. Community service requirements are the same as well, with students required to turn in documented 20 hours of community service by April 1st of this school year. The only difference between the two chapters will be in the type of certificate issued to students. The junior high version will look different than the high school version.
6. Are there any deadlines?
The deadline to apply is October 31st. Students are accepted into membership for the current school year. The deadline for community service records is next spring, April 1st to give students time to complete service.
These are firm deadlines, determined by postmarked date on envelope. Applications and records with later postmarks will be returned to sender. Thus, late applicants will be denied membership for the current school year.
7. Why is there a testing requirement for the National Homeschool Honor Society when the public school National Honor Society does not require such?
Joanne Juren, founder of the Alpha Chapter of the National Homeschool Honor Society, says, “The test scores provide an accepted method of measuring the homeschooled student’s achievement against national and standardized norms.” The non-homeschool community, including colleges and scholarship boards, embraces this high standard as credible evidence of the academic abilities of homeschooled students.
8. What are the testing requirements?
An applicant must have taken one of the following nationally-recognized tests and scored at least:
7th-10th graders: 90th percentile on the composite battery of the Iowa, Stanford, or California achievement tests taken within twelve months of application, OR a minimum of the respective scores from one of the tests listed below, taken anytime during the high school years (9th-12th grades).
11th-12th graders: must be one of the following: SAT 1200 (verbal-math), ACT 26, PSAT 180 taken during high school years. Students taking the new SAT have the option of submitting a combined 1800 score on the three-part verbal-math-writing test.
Because the math computation portion of the nationally-normed standardized tests has been eliminated from the composite score, this portion of the test is not required—applies to Iowa, Stanford, and California tests. Therefore, parents should add the verbal and math scores to come up with a composite score of 90 or greater.
Because the testing requirement is part of our charter with the national group, please do not ask us to make exceptions for this requirement, even if your student scores only slightly below this standard. The test score is a requirement, not a suggestion. Please do not send in applications with test scores that are below this standard, as this causes unnecessary work for our staff to process these applications, and the added stress of turning students down for membership, which we hate to do!
9. Since the new SAT is now in effect, why do the honor society requirements not reflect the 2400 standard of the new SAT?
All colleges do not yet require the writing portion as part of the SAT score of incoming freshmen (it has not been normed yet), so we do not either. (Some colleges are requiring students to take the writing portion of the SAT, but are not actually including the score in the composite when considering SAT entrance scores.) When colleges begin using the 2400 standard for college entrance, we will also.
10. What if my student’s SAT, ACT, or PSAT scores will not be back before the October 31st deadline?
You will still need to send in:
Completed application form
Updated transcript (high school students) or report card (junior high students or rising 9th graders)
Membership fee (check or money order)
Service record, if complete.
Remember: Your application will not be considered without your membership fee.
You will need to include a note with your application stating when your student expects to take the test and that the copy of your student’s test scores will be sent when you receive it (approximately December). It is your responsibility to follow through and send your student’s test scores to our staff. We will hold your membership fee check until after your student’s test scores are received. If your student’s scores do not meet the minimum standards for admission into the Iota Kappa chapter of Eta Sigma Alpha, your check will be returned to you. If your student’s test scores have not been received by our staff by January 1st, your student will no longer be eligible for membership.
An actual copy of test scores needs to be sent with this application. Please do not send any originals of anything; please send copies only. Contents of your student’s admission packet will not be returned to you.
11. What about community service? Can volunteer work at church count?
Members must document on the sheet provided at least 20 hours of community service. Community service is defined as any service performed by the student for which he does not receive monetary/financial remuneration. For our state honor society’s purposes, members may begin counting service hours from April 2 of this year through April 1 of next year.
Suggestions for community service projects: working in a community soup kitchen; ringing bells for the Salvation Army; helping with a community project to provide toys for needy children at Christmas; helping build a house as part of Habitat for Humanity; delivering Meals on Wheels; volunteering in a hospital or nursing center; visiting with and reading to the elderly residents of an assisted living center; adopting an elderly or disabled neighbor and doing things for him or her throughout the year; offering babysitting services for moms in your support group. Because we hope that students will be active in their respective churches, we consider service in the church to be a valid service that meets the purposes of this community service requirement. Therefore, volunteer service in church nursery, children’s church, construction projects, or other church ministry can be counted toward this requirement.
If your student is part of a Key Club, Teen Council, or other service club as part of your homeschool group, your student can use his or her service hours from that club to fulfill the requirement for this honor society, but your student still must complete the honor society community service record sheet and turn it in by April 1st.
Your student has the option of turning in a completed service sheet with his or her application in the fall to avoid having to remember to mail it in later in the school year. You may make up your own documentation sheet. Please specify the type of project, short description of what was done, contact person for the project, and hours per project. Please total the hours at the bottom—they must equal or exceed twenty hours. E-mailed service records are acceptable, as long as they include all of the necessary information.
12. Are there any required meetings?
Fifty percent attendance is required to maintain membership in the honor society. Officers and those wishing to run for office must have a 75% or better attendance record.
13. Can honor society members wear special regalia at their high school graduations?
Yes. The National Home School Honor Society offers several items for its members to buy, and encourages members to wear these at their graduations or other applicable events: member pin; graduation stole; t-shirts; etc. Items may be purchased by visiting the National Home School Honor Society’s website at http://www.etasigmaalpha.com/. The Iota Kappa chapter does not offer these items, however, we do have t-shirts available.
14. What if I mailed in my student’s application and then didn’t hear from you?
You should receive e-mailed confirmation upon the receipt of your student’s application, but please do not expect to receive any written confirmation in the mail before mid-November. The deadline for application submission is October 31st, and all of the applications are processed at one time in mid-November. Your student should receive a written acceptance letter and membership card by postal service by the beginning of December. Those students who have submitted their community service records also will receive their certificates at this time. Those students who choose to wait until April 1st to submit their service records will receive their certificates after we receive their service records.
15. What if my student qualifies for membership in this honor society, but we cannot afford the membership fee?
Please send us your student’s completed application by the deadline, along with a note stating financial need. We delight in being able to waive the application fee for those families in need.
16. What if, for some reason, my student’s application for membership in Honor Society is declined?
As a general rule, students are only refused membership if they lack one or more of the stated requirements. Please do not submit applications if your student does not meet the stated requirements. If your student is refused membership for any reason, you will receive a written letter stating so, and the reason for the refusal, along with your application/membership fee. You should receive this by the beginning of December. Applications and other copies are not returned.