<p>Sometimes I dislike standardized testing, but then
I read articles like this and realize just how useful it is. Couldn’t they just use SAT scores to narrow it down to one Val and one Sal. Also the issue of grade inflation wouldn’t be a problem if people used AP exam grades. If made an “A” but got a 3 on the AP exam, then you’re A should be knocked down a letter grade.</p>
<p>Our HS’s requirement is you have to have all As. It doesn’t matter what courses you take. But, class rank weights the courses. You could be a val and ranked 30th if all your courses are, in theory, vocational.</p>
<p>For a sizable graduating class (300+), why not have all the teachers, who had the pleasure of teaching the kids being considered for valedictorian, arrive at some sort of consensus on the 1-4 kids who deserve the honor – based on intelligence, work ethic, and leadership/citizenship?</p>
<p>I hear lots of stories about high school kids switching classes so that they can get the “easy” teacher (doesn’t assign much homework at all) in a weighted class with rampant grade inflation.</p>
<p>The kids who take all of the honors/AP classes know who the most deserving student(s) is/are.</p>
<p>FWIW, I don’t agree that valedictorian selection should be based on standardized test scores. Students can prep for such tests…and not all students may be able to afford the “best” tutors/test prep programs.</p>
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<p>Good grades may come from those things, but ultimately who gets the valedictorian title should be based on grades (obtained without cheating). Indications of intelligence, work ethic, and leadership will show up in other parts of the person’s college applications. I don’t think the valedictorian need always be the best representative of the school or the best person to give a speech. </p>
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<p>The problem is that not everyone takes these tests, and that some people can afford to take them more than once (I think there are fee waivers, but still). I don’t think the fact that they can be prepared for is the issue here, because you can find free prep books at the library and I think prep classes are mostly superfluous. I mean, we shouldn’t eliminate class rank just because high school tests can be studied for.
(It would probably be okay if an individual class agreed that it was a fair method in their particular school, though.)</p>
<p>Class rankings are bogus. Why should some people get the short end of the stick just because they had the harder teacher? Also, any school that ranks by UW GPA is crazy.</p>
<p>My school ranks on unweighted. It works because people who don’t take honors classes usually don’t give a damn about school at all. The honors classes aren’t actually more difficult…the people in them are just less annoying.</p>
<p>Years ago, my high school had several salutatorians; they all had the exact same GPA. Well, they did, until the school went out five decimal places. The school decided that such a distinction was really arbitrary and gave the honor to all of them.</p>
<p>My kids’ former high school did away with class rank altogether to deal with this. I don’t know if this is the answer, because the competition was just as stiff for everything else. but it made graduation less boring, I’m told. The speeches were voted upon by faculty, so it was more a writing contest than a GPA contest.</p>
<p>At the small private school where my daughter just graduated, there was one val and one sal, and D was #2. Both speeches, if I say so myself, were excellent…</p>
<p>What baffles me is how colleges could possibly know one’s class rank. You apply in the fall before this stuff is tabulated. My daughter didn’t know she was salutatorian until a few weeks ago, long after she’d applied and been accepted.</p>
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Brilliant.</p>
<p>In an age of grade inflation, and weighted GPAs, class ranking is an antiquated idea. There are always people willing to manipulate their way to a higher rank. If you rank by u/w GPA, while the majority of students in the lower weighted classes might not care, there will be the few students who care enough about rank to take them for the easier A. If they’re not planning to attend HYPS or another highly selective college, their 4.0 u/w will serve them well - in our state valedictorians are eligible for significant scholarships at our flagship, better than what #2 with a weighted 4.3 would get.</p>
<p>In a school that uses weighted GPA, you end up in a situation where the student who took the same academic classes, but one less elective ends up rank #1, because those electives drag the GPA down. Imagine having a perfect 4.0 u/w but being #2 because you chose to be in the band or chorus… I’ve seen it happen. farther down the rankings, I would argue the involvement in band, chorus, or another elective might be more valuable than a slightly higher spot in the ranking, but not when it comes to #1 vs #2 - and not in places where a certain rank gains you acceptance or scholarships.</p>
<p>Our school only had one and one, but I have to comment on the idea that what was average is now below average (C was “average” and is no below average). At our school College Prep is the lowest level offered, and most kids take all honors. People always talk about the “most rigorous” course load involving mostly honors, but at our school mostly honors is average. And our school is NOT very good; it’s that way in all of our schools. I think everything keeps drifting up. An undergraduate degree used to mean something; now it’s just a basic step people take for almost any job. Even PHDs are way more common now.</p>
<p>For us in Quebec (at least as far as high school is concerned) 30% of a year’s grade at most can be alloted to a single test. The scores on ministerial exams in Grades 10 and 11, themselves worth 30% of the year’s grade when taken, are used in computing a R-score, which is a weighted of sectional ranks, adjusted for class strength (as measured by the aforementionned ministerial exams, themselves curved to a 74%) in CEGEP. As I said, typical Quebec valedictorians and salutatorians end up with an average in the 90-93% range.</p>
<p>And, because of the province-wide curving of ministerial tests, the average R-score is 25. I don’t know who is the valedictorian for my program while in CEGEP, but what I do know is that vals and sals are awarded once a semester for each program, since so many graduate from CEGEPs in December. Plus I was neither valedictorian nor salutatorian (vals or sals in pure science or in “pre-med” usually go for the accelerated healthcare professions where I live). Becase there can only be one val and one sal, R-scores are rounded to the nearest thousandth of a point.</p>
<p>This year my school introduced a new grading system that turned out to be a mess. 50% GPA (AP classes graded on a 4.5 scale and everything else 4.0) and 50% ACT score. 18 of us have GPAs of a 4.0 or above , but there were two girls in the top ten with 3.9s. The ACT thing made 4 years of hard work completely invalid and arranged us based on a controversial test.
I ended up valedictorian (I had both the highest ACT and GPA), but our salutatorian took the ACT six, yes six, times just for the sake of beating mine and becoming valedictorian. Had this happened, I would have gotten straight A’s all through high school while taking the hardest courses only to lose the valedictorian title to someone who cannot even turn in his coursework on time.
The worst part of the whole situation is that we should have had two valedictorians. I was tied with another girl GPA-wise, but she dropped out of the top 10 with ACT factored in. How awful is that? Perfect grades with a strenuous course load rewarded by being bumped by people with blow off classes and high ACT scores.</p>
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Your school has made a mockery of education by rewarding people who game the system over people who care about excellence, and by failing to recognize the leaders of tomorrow.</p>
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<p>I don’t quite understand what you’re saying. If the system is based 50% on GPA and 50% on ACT scores, why would an ACT score completely invalidate your GPA? Your GPA is still half of your grade. </p>
<p>If your rival salutatorian had blown off classes and can’t even turn in coursework on time, that implies that he has a pretty low GPA. With a 50/50 split, not even a perfect ACT score could make up for that.</p>
<p>My kids’ high school calculates GPA by awarding bonus points to the average for honors and AP classes. This prevents the problem noted above where a student is penalized for an additional elective. So, for every honors class, the total GPA is bumped up 0.05 and AP class 0.1. An issue arises in that the maximum bonus is 0.8, so by senior year the most ambitious students are not rewarded for their full courseload of APs. But hey, by then their college applications are done. Anyway, this makes for a lot of 4.8 GPAs. They usually have 15-20 valedictorians out of 750 or so seniors. I think it’s ridiculous. IMO, the first tie breaker should be the most APs, then the most honors classes, then the most credits.</p>
<p>My son’a graduating class of about 700 has 26 valedictorians. The requirement was a 4.7 GPA and a minimum average of 4.5 AP score on a minimum of 4 tests. The majority of these kids have 7-10 AP classes. I guess I don’t care enough to argue one way or the other if it is right or wrong. I know my son worked his rear end off to end with a 4.5 and he took 9 AP’s. he is the “dumb” one in his group. (He is very well adjusted and we laugh about this). His high school has one of the few full IB programs in our area and tends to attract a very high achieving group. I guess I don’t have a problem honoring this group of high achievers who are so close in their stats that it is hard to narrow it down.</p>
<p>I think most of this controversy is just a bit of vocabulary confusion. </p>
<p>Valedictorian is a title typically conferred to the highest ranking student academically. There should be only 1 unless there is a tie. </p>
<p>Magna Cum Laude is a title more associated with reaching a predefined minimum achievement. </p>
<p>There are some good reasons why doing away with Valedictorian. For example, it encourages students to avoid rigorous classes. IMO the revised title should be Manga Cum Laude not Valedictorian.</p>
<p>^ I agree. And graduating Summa Cum Laude sounds cooler.</p>
<p>What is a Summa/Magna Cum Laude? I mean, I know it’s a great achievement and all, but I just don’t know what it is.</p>