We're all Number 1! Is 21 Valedictorians too many?

[IUHoosiergirl88]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000..._CJEducation_7

Maybe those 21 vals should hear this speech in 4 years

[Old_Row]

I honestly think that if you have that many valedictorians then maybe your classes aren't hard enough? At least they should weigh in the AP courses and maybe extracurriculars too. It would be much easier to get a 4.0 if you took just the regular classes and didn't do anything with the rest of your time but study while other people are involved and such.

[kaeb]

My high school graduating class was 160 people and about 40 of us were valedictorians, as the title was conferred upon anyone with a 4.0 or higher, and AP/IB classes were weighted with an extra point (so an A was a 5.0, B 4.0, etc). So I graduated with like a 4.2 weighted, 3.7 unweighted.

Out of the 40 or so of us, we had to like apply to be valedictorian speakers, I think, and two were selected to speak at graduation. I don't remember if they were chosen by the graduating class, by teachers, or some combination, though.

[ASTalumna06]

Originally Posted by kaeb

My high school graduating class was 160 people and about 40 of us were valedictorians, as the title was conferred upon anyone with a 4.0 or higher, and AP/IB classes were weighted with an extra point (so an A was a 5.0, B 4.0, etc). So I graduated with like a 4.2 weighted, 3.7 unweighted.

And this is why the valedictorian accomplishment is going to become meaningless.


ETA: You beat me to it.

Originally Posted by kaeb

For me, at least, it had the opposite effect—when 1/4 of the class is a valedictorian, it really doesn't mean anything to be a valedictorian, and I think most of us knew/realized that.

[Sciencewoman]

Our local high school uses the term Senior Scholars for the top 25 students -- using a weighted combination of 50% GPA, 25% ACT score, and 25% advanced/AP classes. This replaced the old Valedictorian/Salutatorian system about 15 years ago. I think it's fair and it works well. My daughter worked hard to earn this honor. She graduated 5th in her class, and they make a nice fuss over all 25 kids. I think this is much better than showcasing just a couple hard-working kids.

On the other hand...I went to the neighboring school. Shortly before I graduated, they got rid of the V/S system and started designating Distinguished Academic Leaders...those with a 3.9 or above. My graduating class of almost 500 (last of the Baby Boomers...largest class up to that time, or since) had 10 classmates who earned this honor. Last year's graduating class, with 100 less students, had almost 60 DALs. That's grade inflation for you.

[AGDee]

In my class (1983) of 713, we had summa, magna and cum laude. The top 10 ranked kids represented 3 GPAs. We didn't have AP classes, but we had an accelerated math program that began in 8th grade. If you didn't start it in 8th grade, you couldn't get into it later. We had to test into it and have a math teacher recommendation. Those 3 high school courses (High school was 10-12th grade only) were graded on a 5 point scale. 4 kids shared the #1 rank with As in every course, 5 kids shared the #5 rank with all As and an A- in an accelerated math class (alll in Calculus), the rest of us were at #10 with all As and a B+ in ... Calculus.

My kids school still does Val/Sal. There are usually around 250 graduates. Six AP classes are offered which are scored on a 5.0 scale. The Val is always someone who takes all 6 and gets straight As. Last year, there were 3, but there is usually 1 or 2. This year there was only one and next year it looks like there will be only one. Right now, Halostar (son of AGDee) is ranked 2nd so if he can keep with all As, he'll be Sal.

[DaffyKD]

The school district from which my kids graduated named everyone in the class at each HS who had over a 4.0 average a Valedictorian. The student who had the absolute highest GPA graduated #1 and was named the Scholar of Scholar. That student would graduate first in the class. The Valedictorians would all graduated in alphabetical order followed by the rest of the student body. All Valedictorians wore white gowns while the rest of the student bodies wore the main color for their HS (in my kids' case-- blue).

DaffyKD

[ASTalumna06]

Originally Posted by DaffyKD

The school district from which my kids graduated named everyone in the class at each HS who had over a 4.0 average a Valedictorian. The student who had the absolute highest GPA graduated #1 and was named the Scholar of Scholar. That student would graduate first in the class. The Valedictorians would all graduated in alphabetical order followed by the rest of the student body. All Valedictorians wore white gowns while the rest of the student bodies wore the main color for their HS (in my kids' case-- blue).

DaffyKD

So why not just recognize the students who earned a 4.0, and honor that one top student as valedictorian?

Again, this is why being named valedictorian will lose all meaning.

[AGDee]

According to the free dictionary:

val·e·dic·to·ri·an (vl-dk-tôr-n, -tr-)
n.
The student with the highest academic rank in a class who delivers the valedictory at graduation.


The schools calling everybody with over a 4.0 a valedictorian need a vocabulary lesson.

I do think a few students who actually did have the same GPA with the same rigor of classes could share the title. Once you get too many though, the school is better off going with the summa cum laude, magna cum laude, & cum laude system. I didn't mention that when I graduated, the class president gave the speech. Our class president was a joke of a student who was just super hot and popular. His speech reflected his attitude toward academics.

[ASTalumna06]

Originally Posted by AGDee

According to the free dictionary:

val·e·dic·to·ri·an (vl-dk-tôr-n, -tr-)
n.
The student with the highest academic rank in a class who delivers the valedictory at graduation.

Haha.. I definitely looked up the definition, as well. "THE student" is what stood out in all sources that I found.

[sigmadiva]

One thing I realized very quickly right after I graduated hs was that hs class rankings are meaningless at that point.

[knight_shadow]

Originally Posted by sigmadiva

One thing I realized very quickly right after I graduated hs was that hs class rankings are meaningless at that point.

Hell, I didn't care while I was in high school lol

Most of the people at the top of my class were more concerned about being in the top 10% -- didn't matter where you fell, as long as you were included in that group (due to the Texas automatic admission thing).

[southbymidwest]

Grew up in a college town surrounded by farmland. I graduated from hs in the mid/late 70's, our parents were most definitely NOT part of the "everyone gets a trophy" generation. That being said, there were a few different tracks. Some kids took cosmetology, some vo/ag, some took the most rigorous courses they could, as they intended to not only get a BS, but to get a PhD. Every year there was a kerfuffle regarding valedictorian, etc. basically because there was the divide over "whoever gets the highest GPA should get valedictorian" versus "but why should a cosmetology student get valedictorian while a kid with a much more difficult coursework doesn't get it?" Nowadays, with AP courses and the like, a kid can be knocked out of contention by one tenth of a point. With 500 in a typical class in our local hs, my vote would be for recognition for anyone with a GPA over 4.0. I don't care what you call them.

And I don't know about y'all, but in some ways my kids worked harder in high school than I ever did-5 AP courses each (we didn't have those), reading books in 8th grade that I read in 11th grade, and taking algebra in 8th grade. Now I will say that the area that I was ahead of my kids was the ability to write research papers. But then again, we had very little creative writing (thank goodness, how I hated that, but that's me), while my kids had quite a bit of it, while the kind of writing they would need in the real world and college was not emphasized as much.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by southbymidwest

Grew up in a college town surrounded by farmland. I graduated from hs in the mid/late 70's, our parents were most definitely NOT part of the "everyone gets a trophy" generation. That being said, there were a few different tracks. Some kids took cosmetology, some vo/ag, some took the most rigorous courses they could, as they intended to not only get a BS, but to get a PhD. Every year there was a kerfuffle regarding valedictorian, etc. basically because there was the divide over "whoever gets the highest GPA should get valedictorian" versus "but why should a cosmetology student get valedictorian while a kid with a much more difficult coursework doesn't get it?" Nowadays, with AP courses and the like, a kid can be knocked out of contention by one tenth of a point. With 500 in a typical class in our local hs, my vote would be for recognition for anyone with a GPA over 4.0. I don't care what you call them.

Totally this at my HS - there was lots of anger that Vo-Tech kids could get into National Honor Society. Those kids should be able to say "I was 16th in a class of 100" and also "among students in the college preparatory course of study, I was 2nd out of 50."

If that many kids are getting 4.0s, then just let the class president give the speech and be done with it. I've heard some really effing boring valedictorian speeches.

[Munchkin03]

Originally Posted by southbymidwest

Nowadays, with AP courses and the like, a kid can be knocked out of contention by one tenth of a point.

Try thousandths of a point. I graduated 15 years ago from a hypercompetitive school and our designations were pretty tight.