I’m really really glad none of the schools I attended did this. Admittedly they were small schools, so different animals, but I think no matter how you play it, it’s bound to be a circus.
Our school does do it, and it has all the goofiness described, but the one we attended was pleasant enough. Honor roll, high honor roll, various departmental awards, various local scholarships. It seemed like a nice opportunity for kids to get some recognition, often some of the kids who don’t normally have a moment in the sunshine, and I don’t think anyone lost any sleep over the kids who’d ranked in some other capacity (prestigious outside scholarship or whatever) that didn’t get a mention in the school-centric night. I’m sure they were getting plenty of moments in the sunshine in other ways.
However the school plays it, if you, as a parent, see room for meaningful improvement that’s not just about making sure your particular kid gets more glory (always a risk, even if not so in this case), go for it. Personally, I would suggest that my school line up the presenters for the mini-scholarships in advance so we don’t have to wait for them each, individually, to extricate themselves from their seats and find their way up to the podium. Kids on stage worked well, though.
Our HS awards night was only for awards from school and district, except for a few like Harvard Book award. But it did recognize (for instance) student government, Honor Society, district awards for perfect SAT/ACT. Beyond that, the program listed all the seniors and all the scholarships they won - assuming they turned information in. This was for every college/secondary institution where they were accepted. So that is where you saw who got what and where they were accepted. I thought that was a good way to do it.
Ours was so long it was crazy. The awards given out are local awards (minority, female, and need based or only for students attending an in-state school - not one my son could apply for). The sponsors of the awards all gave long speeches. Then they recognized all the kids going into the military. Then the departmental award. My son was nominated for 3 but they didn’t mention who was nominated only who won, which was very political. One girl won almost every award given!
After all that they called each student up and put a big picture up with all the scholarships they had received from the colleges they applied to and any others they listed on a form we turned in; the college they are attending; if they were National Merit Scholars or finalists; If they got an engineering award; and magna, summa or cum laude. They were handed an envelope with their cords for graduation in it.
They did not put up if a student had anything special, like being accepted to the Honors College or in my son’s case being accepted to the Early Admission to Vet School program. I wish they had done this.
It really was a slow evening, 3 hours long for my son being up there for less than a minute. Sigh.
The HS my kids attend(ed) has about 2700 students in 4 grades. The awards ceremony is by invitation to those receiving awards and their families. It is all grades, though dominated by seniors. The recognize the top 10 in each grade and any scholarships the student earned (and notified the school). The ‘named’ scholarships and other big ones are often presented by a faculty member or dignitary associated with the school. (i.e.:Naval officer for ROTC or Academy appointments). The also have an award for the top student in each course (for most courses anyway). This is an opportunity for a great artist to get recognized even if they don’t have great grades outside of art. They run through the group fairly quickly, but each student gets their moment in the sun. They also recognize AP awards, National Merit, and any other academic accomplishments that may or may not include a monetary award. Seniors receiving awards are often mentioned as follows as they process across the stage for handshakes and such…“Timmy Smith, Top 10 graduate, 103.625 GPA, National Merit, Top student in Physics, received the ABC scholarship and others totaling $500K. Timmy will be attending the University of Yourhomestatehere…Susie Jones, AP honors with distinction…” Each student hands the announcer a card with their honors and walks across the stage similar to graduation, but with fewer speeches and no robes.
The awards ceremony hasn’t happened yet, but some teachers are pre-announcing to their classes who the recipients will be. D was quite upset to learn that the foreign language award for her language just went to a very nice and smart young man, BUT someone who didn’t take the language at the AP level. He opted for the level below instead, and did well. So it’s not that he’s not a good student, but it seems unfair he should get the award over the students who did take AP.
our HS has Academic awards a couple nights before Graduation. includes top ten for each class, AP awards at each level and local scholarships. They also do any service awards for Academies, Prep schools or military institutes. They then move to awards for each class type (english, english AP, Math, Math AP etc.) Finally they run through all seniors with any awards,reported College attending and any scholarships that person reported. out of 700+ there were probably 250-300 seniors present and most of the top 10 from other classes. My Freshman DD skipped it for her straight A’s award. My Junior DD attended as she is top 10 and they all walk across and line up as a class. they get a card with any additional awards to hand to the announcer as they walk so they know in advance what awards they have earned but they do not know until they arrive that night.
This year the Gym was packed with attendees, last year it was about 2/3rds just depends. a little long but worthwhile if your student is being honored. My DD did the Top 10 deal then left before they got to AP awards for seniors and we were done in about 20 minutes.
it is always interesting to hear the top10 for the seniors as they announce the actual grade average for each (our HS does not use 4.0 system just a 100 point scale with 10 points bonus for pre-AP and AP level classes). This year the top 10 ranged from 105.3+ to 108.2+. almost 3 points higher than last years class. Not sure how they managed that as there are required classes that are non weighted and I thought the highest possible was about a 107.5.
During graduation they mentioned that this year’s valedictorian had the highest GPA in the history of the school. This class also smashed several other records. My kid had been saying I was full of baloney for asserting that the class of 2017 was remarkable, but now she believes it.