high school girl doesn't get to be valedictorian
 

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcont...?npc&nTar=OPUR

Grapevine High School senior Anjali Datta holds the highest grade-point average of the 471 students graduating from Grapevine High School this year.

Video


Grapevine High School senior Anjali Datta denied valedictorian title
05-29-08

In fact, Grapevine-Colleyville ISD officials believe her GPA of 5.898 may be the highest in the high school's history.

It's still not enough to make her the valedictorian, which brings a one-year college scholarship from the state.

Her closest competitor's GPA is 5.64. No one disputes that she's the top student in her class numerically. The problem rests with another number entirely.

Anjali rocketed through high school in only three years.

But a school district policy states: "The valedictorian shall be the eligible student with the highest weighted grade-point average for four years of high school."

I really feel bad for this girl. It is truly messed up what the district is doing, even worse is that the parents of the kid who gets to be valedictorian (even though he technically didn't earn the title) think that it is okay. How can it be okay screwing a kid out of a scholarship and the title?:mad::rolleyes:

oh that is awful! but i believe texas also offers scholarships for kids that graduate in less than 4 years, so at least she has that? consolation prize, but still good.

I graduated 5 years ago, but this was how it went:

If you were valedictorian, you pretty much got a full ride (at least in TX)
If you graduated in less than 4 years, you got $1000.

$1000 isn't anything anymore, maybe enough for 3 textbooks?

$1000 is nice, but it still wasn't anything 5 years ago either.

I know most parts of the country are moving toward middle schools now instead of junior highs, but aren't there some places in Texas that still have junior high schools and therefore only 3-year high schools? Doesn't that law rule out any valedictorian from a 3-year high school?

Eventhough there are some jr.highs I still believe in cases like 'how many years in HS' they would still count the 9th grade as HS, eventhough the student spent that year in a school that went from 6th-9th.

That's true. Although, I know that when I first started college $1000 could pretty much pay your first semester tuition.

I've never heard of that, do they do that in other parts of TX? I know here, for the longest time there was really no middle school. It was K-6th and then something like 8th-12th. IDK, i get confused when my mom tries to explain it to me. That how it was for my brother when graduated from HS in 1990. I know that many schools here still do K-5th as elementary, 6-8th, and then HS is 9th-12th.

epchick....I went to a private school my freshman year....lol

My friends and I refer to middle school as purgatory.....but that is a whole 'nother story. LMAO

Traditionally elementary was K-6, junior high was 7-9, and high school was 10-12. But now the country is moving toward middle schools, which are grades 6-8 usually, meaning high schools now tend to be 9-12. But by doing a quick google search, it looks like middle schools in Texas tend to be 7-8 only, then 9-12 high school.

Purgatory? lol...shooot my middle years were down right HELL. I want to go to your middle school! lol, I wish i had purgatory!

^ I meant for the teachers. LOL

Well glad I didn't graduate in Texas, I didn't have near those kind of marks and turned up better scholarships than that.

interesting, ive always known JHS to be solely 7th and 8th grade. if anything, ELEMENTARY schools are moving to K-5 and making middle schools 6-8. or worse, im my mind, on a developmental level, K-4 and middle school as 5-8.

and back to the OT... we had a similar issue in our school. Our valdedictorian clearly had the highest GPA all 4 years, but then we had a guy transfer in junior year. He had a 4.0 at his old HS and maintained it at our school. He got shot down so hard because well, hed only been there 2 years.

IMO, he totally deserved it over her - the valedictorian's average was barely higher than mine, and i was #4. plus, he didnt ask to be transferred in. they gave him some BS about "oh well he came out of state so we cant even compare it to NYC standards."

trust me, weve all seen NYC standards, it aint that deep.

In Washington state, our elementaries are K-5, middle school 6-8, and high school 9-12. But it used to be elementary K-6, junior high 7-9, high school 10-12.

ETA: here's what Wikipedia has to say:

Conceptual distinctions

Junior high schools were created for the purpose of "bridging the gap between the elementary and the high school," a concept credited to Charles W. Eliot, president of Harvard University.[8] The faculty is organized into academic departments that operate more or less independently of one another. The middle school movement in the United States saw this model as inadequately addressing the intended purpose of transition by maintaining an emphasis on the high school model, as reflected in the "junior high" designation.

The middle school concept often involves a group of two to eight teachers from different disciplines working as a team with the same group of students of the same grade level, with each teacher teaching a different subject. This format facilitates interdisciplinary units, where part or all of the entire team teaches on the same general topic from the perspective of different disciplines. The middle school philosophy also advocates assigning students in each team to a homeroom. By having homeroom daily for various discussions and activities, middle schools try to foster a sense of belonging in students to ease social and emotional difficulties during adolescence.[citation needed]

Configurations

Middle school (sometimes abbreviated MS[9][10][11])is often used instead of junior high school when demographic factors increase the number of younger students.[12] Middle schools are usually grades 6, 7, and 8 (i.e. around ages 11-14), varying from area to area and also according to population vs. building capacity. Other common models include grades 5-8, 7-8, or 7-9.
The middle school format has now replaced the junior high format by a ratio of about ten to one in the U.S. In Canada, the junior high concept is primarily seen in Western Canada, while middle schools to US-standards are generally only seen in Ontario and parts of Atlantic Canada, where they are sometimes called senior elementary schools. Many people also call middle school "junior high school." Middle school does not exist at all in Quebec, where primary school comprises grades 1 to 6, secondary school comprises grades 7 to 11, and those latter are named "secondary 1" through "secondary 5".

It wasn't a Texas law that applied here. Instead it is a district policy of the school district that she attends (Grapevine-Colleyville).

The district policy was enacted to prevent students from transferring into their schools late in the high school career to attempt to become valedictorian. That seems reasonable enough, but applying it in the broad sense to prevent this girl from the honor is ridiculous. She has attended Grapevine-Colleyville schools throughout, and took the same classees as all of the students that she will be graduating with. She just "lapped" them by completing the coursework in 3 years.

As for the Jr High/Middle School thing... in Texas it is up to each district to set the breakdown. I don't personally know of any Jr. Highs left, but there may be a few. Some larger districts have attempted creative ways to break it up... including making 9th grade its own campus.

I support the policy. She'll get over it.

This is sad. Where was her guidance counselor? And why didn't he/she point this out to her parents? If it were my child, she would be taking a very light load of classes her senior year and would take some college level classes at the same time, if it meant she would get a free ride to college-though with her GPA, she probably is getting a scholarship and this is just because it's not fair. They should change the terminology to number of credits/classes taken, versus years for in the future.

And how exactly do you get a 5.898? What's the scale?

She probably took a full load of AP courses and perhaps the school grades on some modified 5 point scale overall? Our HS scores AP coursework on a 5 point scale and non-AP on the regular 4 point scale, so GPAs rise accordingly.

Our district has elementary K-4, intermediate 5-6, middle 7-8 and high school 9-12. They even go so far in the intermediate school to keep the 5th and 6th grades in separate wings of the building, and they only interact during all-school assemblies. A neighboring district has 6th grade only buildings.

As I understand it, some places are getting rid of middle schools all together (I think Chicago is one of them), opting for K-8 for elementary and then high school (9-12).

Not sure if it's a great idea, unless the elementary schools have good facilities, especially for science classes...just a sink in the classroom won't do, IMHO, anyway. However, not all elementary schools are equipped.

I would think with her GPA and possibly her socio-economic background (I don't know what it is) she will end up getting a free ride either way.

Why would you say this?

FWIW, the district that she lives in is considered upper middle class, and portions of that area would qualify as upper class.

So "ethnic name" = "minority-based scholarships?"

i disagree with Sen. I think she should totally fight it. There are thousands of kids who are finishing HS in less than 4 years, by taking an extra class here and there, and some schools let AP classes replace certain requirements. A valedictorian being able to earn that title on the basis of 4 years. It's almost like the school board is implying that if the student HAD taken all of her courses over 4 years, she wouldnt have such a high GPA.

I think this is reflective of the academic culture before all of this. I dont think she should just "get over it." There must be something personal going on. And is this common, valedictorians getting a full ride just because they were #1? Or is this Texas-specific?

My old school district was like this. I personally think it is a bad idea. First off, 7-8 need a whole different set of rules than primary students do. Second, none of the schools in my former district are remotely able to accomodate for 7-8 students (meaning they don't have proper science labs, they don't have gyms for sports, etc...). I hate the "traditional" school approach.

It probably doesn't help my feelings when my former school the 7-8 graders got away with murder, they would cuss out teachers and be sent back to class, they wouldn't listen and follow directions to any teachers on the campus and the primary students saw this. It was very hard as a 1st than a 3rd grade teacher trying to tell my students what are proper ways to behave and then they saw these students that they looked up too, both figuratively and literally, behaving wretchedly. My former AP didn't really believe in discipline. Kids could have 10 referrals in a week and they would get a slap on the wrist. My principal had a much more strict sense of discipline but he actually told me, when I complained about the issues, that he didn't want to step on the AP's toes. :confused:

Those examples are why I don't like the K-8 schools, because most that I've seen are run exactly like this, no discipline, slaps on the wrists.

When I was in school I went to a k-6, 7-8 and then a 9-12. In AZ, depending on the district, there are still middle schools/junior highs around (which I'm glad). When I have kids, unless things change in the K-8 realm, I don't want them going to a K-8 setting.

and furthermore...

This is TOTAL crap. I'd be pulling all SORTS of race cards. I dont give a damn. This girl is getting all sorts of supplementary awards to make her feel better about--gasp--actually doing better than this guy who completed his work in the regular timeframe.

And the article says Again, CRAP. Convienent that no one has solutions for this young woman and everyone--the state, the local district, the principal and the guidance counselor--is just like "oh well. here's a cookie." and even more convienent that this school has "never had a situation like this." Whatever man. i SO call bs.

Absolutely not. Why does it always have to jump to race? I was trying to say I do not know her cultural, religious, economic... background. All I know is her GPA (I didn't even really pay attention to her name - would have guessed she was of middle eastern discent). But we all know that there are scholarships made available to people for things other than grades, or in conjunction with them. It could be a scholarship through her church, cultural heritage, an organization she or her parents belong to, her parents income... This is why I said I didn't know what it was, nor do I really care.

From her grades she seems to be an extremely smart girl. It sucks that she will not get to be valedictorian (I do think they should try to fight it), but I think she will be all right either way as far as funding college.

It's a shame that this girl was advised by her guidance counselor to complete early; that's a big goof on the counselor's part. Surely she (the counselor) would've looked into all the repurcussions before making such a suggestion. In fact, I find her bad advice to be more of a concern than the odd "four-year" policy.

I feel bad for Anjali, but the combination of a three year HS completion with a stellar GPA and a perfect ACT score leads me to believe she won't need the valedictorian title to secure a scholarship.

And while I feel badly for this student, I agree with Senusret. Policies are put in place for a reason, and in today's climate of helicopter parenting, I applaud the school for backing its policy instead of bending to appease disgruntled parents. Perhaps this will be a springboard for changing the policy (since this type of situation is not the reason the policy was put in place) if that's what the school board thinks is best.

OK fair enough. History convinces me that when it comes to debates of education, here's bound to be a race element. In this story no one is even going to think about mentioning it, but in my mind, its there.

I just find it hard to believe that the school never thought about this scenario. And while this student may get a boatload of other scholarships for her accolades, the sheer fact that being named the best is being denied to her--that alone to me has potential to have racial undertone, or even sexist. It could totally not, of course.

It's a stupid techincality in the way the district's policy is written. All they need to do is fix it (fix it, fix it - sorry too much Danity Kane last night LOL) to say the highest GPA is the valedictorian, period, and it'll be OK going forward.

Like B said in her original post, if the guy who was given the honor and didn't deserve it would man up and say she's the one who should get it, there wouldn't be an issue. But I guess that's a rather quaint concept nowadays.

She should have transferred into the school, taken one class, aced it, and then said she was valedictorian. You guys are retarded.

Nah. I imagine that the current salutatorian would then become the valdictorian.

I think it's silly to call this racist or anything else. It's a validly-adopted policy that had a reasonable basis. If that policy doesn't contravene state law, then the state doesn't have any legal authority to get involved. If people there think it's a bad policy, they can urge the school board to amend or repeal it.

It is the parents' and child's responsibility to read the handbook that explains policy and procedures. It is not up to the counselor to handhold every family and explain every policy in the book. However, if the family HAD read the policies and asked for an explanation the coundelor would have had to elaborate or get the parents some POCs of higher-ups in the school system.

We had to learn this the hard way regarding our oldest. Our child went to the same hs for 9th, 10th, 12th and the first 1/2 of 11th. The second 1/2 of 11th, she was serving on the Hill and went to the US House of Reps Page School in the LoC. She had 3 APs at her base hs during her 1st semester of 11th grade and continued the courses at the highest level that the Page school offered. The highest level was called Honors and not AP. She also took the corresponding AP exams in May and scored 5s on all 3. Our school system would not grant her AP weighted averages for these 3 classes despite the fact that she had scored a perfect score on the exams AND the fact that she had started the coursework in our school system. So she only got 4.0s for those 3 classes instead of 4.5s . Our school system doesn't grade-weight Honors classes, only AP/IB.


If she has maxed out the AP offerings at her high school where apparently an A gets you 6 points, an A in a regular class is just going to lower her GPA.

I'm not familiar with TX public unis so I don't know if they give merit-based schols to instaters. I have heard that only the top 10% of TX high schoolers are admitted to UT Austin. So if you are in the 11th percentile at Great High School and you have stellar SATs and ECs, you still may be denied admission to give a spot to the 5th percentile kids from Bad High School with lousy SATs and ECs. Perhaps Srmom can elaborate

I live in VA and neither UVA nor W&M have merit-based scholarships for instaters. There are Monroe Scholars but unfortunately there is no money attached to the honor. Jefferson Scholars is a UVa program to attract OOSers to Charlottesville. W&M has corresponding programs.

Ironically, my dad had sent me a copy of this article a couple of days ago. Many decades ago my father graduated from a competitive Boston-suburb public high school in 3 years and headed off to MIT at the ripe old age of 16. He also didn't speak English until he came to the USA when he was 8 so he had some catchup to do. He was not allowed to be valedictorian despite his GPA being the best of the class ahead of him. The lack of val status didn't phase him in the long run and certainly didn't affect his career in any way. However, the fact that he actually sent me the link indicates to me that some twinge may have resurfaced.

Close.

If you are in the top 10% you are guaranteed admission to a UT-system school of your choice. Currently, UT Austin is the choice of so many that a very, very high percentage of admissions must go to these individuals. (I don't believe they envisioned this when the rule was created). However, there are some spots left for stellar students that may happen to be from very competitive high schools.

The concept remains controversial for the reason that you mention. The counter argument is that it gives opportunity for the kids from inner city or rural schools who may not otherwise have the chance to get into UT.

Why not lower the percentage? The UC system guarnatees admission to the top 4% of CA high school graduates.

I think it is more school-specific, not necessarily Texas-specific. But I do know that when I graduated HS, our Valedictorian received a full-ride scholarship, but she didn't take it. Many schools that accepted her gave her a scholarship for being valedictorian.

Again, I graduated 5 years ago, so it might be different for HSers now, but the only merit-based scholarship I remember being talked about was the Longhorn Scholarship that was offered by UT. If i remember correctly, a few people applied for it, but no one received it from my HS (and we all had stellar grades)

Plus a lot of school "handbooks" don't really have anything written about graduating in 3 years. Our handbook mainly had dress code and code of conduct policies.

Our counselors encouraged people who had stellar grades to graduate in 3 years. I guess its mainly because we come from a lower income city, so if you graduate in 3 years you were guaranteed a $1000 scholarship.

From what I understood they were trying to get rid of the guaranteed admission all together.

I see no race card in this situation. Why would you even bring that up?

Maybe he does but his parents would kill him? It's possible.

This is why a girl from my town (city whatever) fought to get rid of Affirmative Action at UofM.


How does one even graduate in 3 years from high school anyways? I'm confused on how one of my sisters graduated from college in 3. 5 is pretty much the norm now.

I teach in a Dallas-area district (Grapevine-Colleyville is in Dallas-Fort Worth metro area). It is actually quite easy. We have students who take 8 classes during the normal school year, will take an evening class, and then take 1-2 classes in summer school.

Freshman year - 8 credits regular school, 1 credit evening school, 2 credits summer school = 11 credits.

Sophomore year - same 11 +11 = 22 credits.

Junior year - 8 credits. 22 + 8 = 30. And they only need 26 to graduate. We have students who do it.

It actually it is not that difficult to graduate HS in 3 years. In my HS you only needed 24 credits to graduate. During middle school you can get HS credit for speech, keyboarding, Algebra 1, Spanish/French. Then in HS you can "test out" of Spanish/French, and I believe other classes (although i dont remember which ones), then there are classes that you could take in the summer.

One of my sorority sisters is graduating college in 3 years.

Oh, I think you're absolutely right. I think if it was just the kid's decision he'd say "this is kind of lame" and go for it. Especially since her grades are much higher than his - we're not talking tenths and hundredths of points here.

It would've been hard for me to graduate high school in three years, but I believe it's still the case at most private colleges for students to graduate in four. In fact, with so many high achievers now coming to college with tons of AP credits, some are graduating college in three.

We could get high school credit for one year of a foreign language when we took it in 8th grade, but we had to save the rest for high school, where most of us took an additional two or three years. Is that not common anymore? I would think that as college admissions have become more challenging, students would be taking more than one or two years of a foreign language. At my university, all students have to take a foreign language through a third year level; if you've taken three or four years of a language in high school, you can probably test out of a year or two in college, but if you haven't, there's no way you're passing out of that requirement.

This is very true regarding graduating in 3 years. My oldest had hs credits in Algebra I and French I that she took in ms. My youngest took Algebra I, Geometry and French I in ms, all of which will count as hs credits when he starts hs. Now if only I had convinced them to drop their respective band and orchestra classes and instead taken Latin I in addition to French I in 8th....

The boy featured in this article http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...091901779.html graduated from UVa in 1 year. He did roll in near 72 credits from AP scores but of course still had to complete 60 credits at UVa to earn an undergraduate degree from UVa.