<p>Kids’ HS has just put up plaques listing the names/grad. year/award of all the AP and National Merit honorees since the school opened. This is a step in the right direction because there are sports trophies displayed all over the place, and little has been done to recognize academic honors. I was just at the school for D’s play, and noticed the new plaque. Naturally, I checked for my sons’ (recent graduates) names. Unfortunately, the AP Scholars do not have their highest “rank” listed, but the one they achieved after junior year. (They don’t receive their final awards until senior test scores are in after graduation.) So my sons (and, I suspect just about every kid listed) have “ranks” on the plaque that are a step (or more) lower then what they actually earned. I bet some were completely left out, because they achieved “Scholar” after their senior tests. Also, the NM kids are listed only as Commended or Semifinalist, ignoring the fact that nearly all of the Semifinalists were Finalists or Scholars by the end of the process. To me, this is like giving the 1st place kid a trophy that has “2nd” or “3rd place” engraved on it. It’s inaccurate, and it downgrades all of the kids’ achievements.<br>
So, my question is, should I just be annoyed in the privacy of my own home and forget about it, or should I politely email the principal or counselor and point out the errors/explain the AP/NM programs to them? I don’t really expect them to correct/re-do all the plaques (be nice if they could. . .) But I want them to know how to do it right in the future. I still have younger kids to go through this school, so I will be in the building to get annoyed/re-annoyed by these mistakes for years to come. . .
Should I speak up, or shut up? </p>
<p>Why not just ask them why they don’t wait until after the kids have left the school to make the plaques (so that it relects post-gradution awards). My guess is they thought it would be nicer to have them hanging during the awardee’s senior year while they were in the school. Doesn’t sound like the plaques are “wrong” for that time and place they were made. </p>
<p>The plaques were just made now–like in the last couple weeks-- and only include graduates from 1993-2014 for NM and up to 2013 for AP. The plaques were never hanging while any students listed on them were present in the school. Names were only included after the kids graduated, so the school would have known about the highest level of awards all of these kids received during their senior years before their names were added. (Current Semifinalists and Commended NM students for the class of 2015 are not included.)</p>
<p>fwiw, these are a few extra large plaques with the names/date/award listed on very small individual metal plates–not separate plaques for each student. </p>
<p>Are you saying that someone who graduated in 2008 is listed as having been an AP Scholar in 2007, with no subsequent listing for 2008 if they went on to be an AP Scholar with Distinction, or even higher? That’s puzzling. Is it that every student listed from 1993 onwards is honored for the awards they had earned as of junior year? I agree that doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense.</p>
<p>I wonder why the plaque doesn’t recognize senior year awards. Maybe there should be a plaque that recognizes junior year designations (which your school seems to have created) with the proper heading of “Junior Year Awardees,” and another that recognizes senior year achievements? </p>
<p>Students are listed once only with their graduation year, but their junior year AP rank. You’re right that it is “puzzling” and doesn’t make sense. I think the most likely explanation is that the principal/administrators are not at all the kind of people who were AP/NM Scholars when they were in school, so they honestly know very little about these programs. For example, even at senior academic awards ceremony, at the end of senior year, NM finalists were all listed as “Semifinalists” last year. I’m guessing that the AP ranks were copied out of the program for that awards ceremony, which didn’t include senior test results. However, the school should have been notified about these results in the summer. It just irks me that when this school (which has so much focus on sports) finally, after 20 years, decides to put up something to permanently, publicly recognize its graduates’ academic achievements, they screw it up.</p>
<p>First I’d call a few other parents to see if they agreed. It will be nice in the future for the awardees and others to see the right detail. I know it’s not the end of the world. It’s just that if they are going to make the decision to highlight these kids, then they should get it right. Imo. </p>
<p>Sloppiness/inaccuracy on the part of education administrators exasperates me. </p>
<p>IMO the listings for the plaques should have been run by the top guidance counselor (who should know about how these programs work) to make sure they were accurate. </p>
<p>On the other hand, in the big picture it really does not matter much.
But the error should be pointed out as, at the very least, a learning opportunity for the admins.</p>
<p>At our HS they have plaques with the names of recipients of senior year awards that aren’t given until graduation. If they can manage to do that, your school ought to be able to do the same with AP scholars. </p>
<p>I would let them know, using the praise sandwich technique: it’s great that you are recognizing these kids/but here’s the problem/and yes it really is great that you are doing this! And then prepare to just be irritated in your own home. :)</p>
<p>@atomom, you might also make the point that the school itself looks good when it fields a number of AP Scholars and NMSFs, but even better when those same kids become AP Scholars with Distinction and NMFs or NM Scholars.</p>
<p>I sympathize about inaccurate recognitions. One of my kids was elected to a big name honorary society in college, but her name was left off of the graduation program listing the members. It’s a nice accomplishment that looks good on a resume, and I presume it’s on hers. But if someone were to look at the program, they wouldn’t see her name and might think she was fibbing about her selection (though she has the documents proving it). I don’t think she ever mentioned it to TPTB - they weren’t going to reprint the entire commencement program and send it out to all concerned after the fact because of one omitted name. But it’s still irksome, even though not hugely important.</p>
<p>I went to a high school which had the names of all the past salutatorians and valedictorians on the walls of the school. (nicely engraved in gold by year going back a good 50 years). My mother remembers distinctly me saying the first time I saw this that I would get my name on the wall one day. Well, I was salutatorian at my graduation (it was a very odd year and the top four/five students were all girls.) They gave out an award at graduation for the top girl and top boy in the class. Then they mistakenly put those two names on the wall after graduation instead of mine. We complained and they added my name, but I always felt short-changed.</p>
<p>deleted.</p>
<p>“Praise Sandwich”–I like it. I am happy they are trying, but, as frazzled said, it looks better for the school to have more students with higher honors.</p>
<p>(fwiw, my oldest son is a high school teacher, and his principal also didn’t know much about NM program–she called all the parents of their “high scorers” and told them their kids were “NM Scholars.” The parents then got their hopes up for scholarship $. It was clear to S that none of the scores were in semifinalist range for their state, and the students would all be commended. When the principal happily announced the news about “all the Scholars” to S, he had to correct her, and she wouldn’t believe him/argued with him! (He had been NMF, so knew more about it.) Took about a week to straighten her out, and convince the students/parents that they wouldn’t actually get those scholarships–“but the principal said. . .”)</p>
<p>When my youngest D was in 5th grade they had a plaque made for her school which listed the kids who scored highest on some math thingy or other. My D was one of those kids but they left her name off by accident. That kind of thing was ALWAYS happening to her. So, yes, I gently pointed out the error to her teacher. They remedied it. I did feel a little awkward about it but it was the right thing to do. </p>
<p>I would point the error out to the school administrators.</p>
<p>If I was the school, I would wait till they graduated and list graduates with the honors they recieved at graduation so as to have the latest and final info.</p>
<p>I wish that schools would notify parents/students before anything is engraved because families are usually the ones who see the glaring errors…misspelled name or inaccurate info. </p>
<p>A simple email asking parents to check info for accuracy before engraving would solve a lot of these headaches. And if no one responds, then the school proceeds with what they think is correct.</p>
<p>My kids’ high school announces the top 5 students at graduation…and they’re brought up to the stage for applause and pics. When my older son graduated, there was a student named that everyone glanced around and thought, “hmmm…she’s not top 5…and where the heck is Susie,” (who would have been #2 behind my son…they had the same all-A grades but my son had 2 more AP classes so that bumped his wGPA). Well, the GC had made a BIG mistake. Susie’s family was noticeably upset, they had family that had flown in for the graduation and having their D “left out” was horrible. (BTW…this is a small private school; that is why we all knew who the top 5 should be…and certainly the dingbat GC should have known…and the principal should have known who his Top 5 were without any input from the GC!!)</p>
<p>These things can’t be fixed in a proper way. It’s not like the school can redo graduation. They can’t later say, “oops, Mary shouldn’t have been named.” They did send a letter out a week later saying that a mistake had been made and that Susie should have been in the top 5…they graciously didn’t mention that Mary wasn’t top 5.</p>
<p>Now, if the school had traditionally notified the families a few days before graduation that their child was in the top 5, then Susie’s parents would have immediately known that their lack of notification was indication of an error…and it could have been corrected. </p>
<p>I used to check diplomas for accuracy in one of my work study jobs in college. It was a heck of a lot of fun cross-checking names vs. what the diplomas actually said. Hilarious, actually. </p>
<p>If it bugs you, point it out to the school administration. We had an administrative issue with my son’s HS, and my son and I decided together not to report it. If it isn’t reported, it will definitely not be fixed. If they refuse to fix it, at least you tried.</p>
<p>I’d mention it. I was on the recruiting committee of an elite law firm for years and from time to time someone would say “x candidate is claiming ABC award on their resume when the alumni mag says it was won by someone else.” This was terribly damaging to x’s reputation, but guess what – the alumni mag sometimes got things wrong.</p>
<p>The plaques are less important but I could see someone, somewhere saying: “x is claiming go be a national merit finalist but I remember from the plaque at school that there’s been no finalist for 10 years.”</p>
<p>Plus it is just inaccurate and confusing. Why wouldn’t you speak up?</p>
<p>
This absolutely happens. In the small world of law school recruiting, someone always knows someone who knows anything a candidate could put forward. I’m sure there are other fields/schools/circumstances equally as small.</p>
<p>This kind of thing annoys me. If they are going to go out of their way to NAME people as winners of some honor or another, then there is an obligation to do it correctly. All to often, those who complain about inaccuracies are basically told to grow up and get over it. If that’s the proper attitude, then why go through the exercise of recognition at all? If it is so meaningless? Hmph! </p>