Should high schools have only one Valedictorian?

3puppies
Mon, 03 Dec 2018 16:31:59 +0000

The problem is usually in what the schools offer and/or will accept, and not in what the kids decide to pick. Don’t blame the kids who all play by the same rules.

The kids who are in the running for valedictorian do understand the choices that they are making. These are typically all college bound kids, and they all understand that the schools they aim for require a foreign language, so it isn’t necessarily a problem with Latin (or any language). Kids aiming for the top will load up on AP and honors classes according to what the schools offer.

A few years back, some kids in our local HS district felt it was unfair that the formula for weighting GPA also included the grades that kids got in their mandatory classes (which included a choice of music, auto/shop class, art, etc., as well as PE) and electives like additional choral/band. Kids who are elite musicians were basically told after 8th grade, if they wanted any chance at val/sal they’d have to give up their instrument because of the course weighting. So a student representative to the local BOE proposed that they refine the weighting formula to allow these kids to take up to three level one courses as pass/fail, and not counting toward their weighted GPA. And a couple years later a “band kid” became salutatorian and went on to Princeton. The next year both the valedictorian and salutatorian took the same auto/shop class as one of their pass/fail options.

The top kids will generally still figure it all out. They notice that cramming in an extra weighted A or three in an AP level is still better than an A in a level 1 class. These kids work with the guidance dept and get approval for independent study, summer coursework, community college dual-enrollment, and online honors-level classes that will bump their weighted GPA, when the regular department offerings are not at their level.

@VickiSoCal - the val and sal are determined by highest 2 weighted GPAs as of the mid-term grade of Spring of senior year - because after 3.75 years they know who the top kids are. It has occasionally happened where senioritis kicks in, and the final class rank numbers vary. But as long as all the kids involved understand what the process is, and they don’t change the formula once choices have been made, everything is as “fair” as possible.