<p>Soon the entire NHS will be declared valedictorians. Rather than “choosing” 20 or more valedictorians, the title should be put to rest in favor of granting diplomas with academic honors. Or something like that. </p>
<p>[At</a> Some High Schools, Multiple Valedictorians - NYTimes.com](<a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/27/education/27valedictorians.html?hp]At”>http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/27/education/27valedictorians.html?hp)</p>
<p>Well, at some high schools, there are multiple valedictorians, and at other high schools, there is only one, just like it used to be. Ah well.</p>
<p>The school I go to has 15+ valedictorians. This can be explained by the following:</p>
<p>1) Many students here are children of college-educated parents who came to this area in order to get a “good education” for them; in other words, our students are motivated.
2) Our school only calculates unweighted GPA, and in a way that doesn’t differentiate between an A and an A-, B+ and B, etc. That is, A+/A/A- = 4, B+/B/B- = 3, etc. (Despite this, our school continues to put + and - on the transcript, according to the grade the teacher enters.)
3) Many of our classes do not make it too difficult to get an A-, as long as you do the work and score somewhere in the A or B range on tests; this includes quite a few of the honors classes (and possibly AP; I haven’t taken any AP classes here yet).
4) Many of our classes also only grade homework on whether it is done or not; this makes it easy (or at least does not require much thinking) to have a high grade in the homework category.</p>
<p>As a result of these factors, many people are able to attain a 4.0 UW GPA in their four years here, making them valedictorians, since there is no higher attainable GPA.</p>
<p>(On a more negative note, cheating is rampant; on the day of a test, for example, there is usually a table or two in the library filled with people discussing questions and answers before everyone has taken the test. Many people copy answers to assignments from their friends’ papers; in fact, this is the norm here. This culture of cheating may also contribute to the high number of valedictorians.)</p>
<p>At my son’s school, everyone who has a 4.0 or over is a valedictorian. However, the student with the highest cumulative GPA is designated the Scholar of Scholars and there is only one of those.</p>
<p>My school has the most ridiculous way of choosing a valedictorian. We have ONE valedictorian each year, and s/he is ELECTED BY SENIOR STUDENTS (therefore it inevitably turns into a popularity vote. Some valedictorians have terrible marks.)</p>
<p>Our school does highest UNweighted gpa. Usually have about 10-15 kids. Meanwhile my daughter (rising junior) is currently ranked on (Weighted gpa 4.17) 5/406 but will NOT be one because she has gotten a few Bs.</p>
<p>my school is more vicious. it becomes a race to see who can take all AP’s and then take the electives online. Then for the people who really want their 30 seconds of fame, it becomes a race to see who takes the most dual enrollment classes because those carry an AP weight.
So for example, the valedictorian this year graduated with a 4.0 UW and a 5.67 W GPA</p>
<p>Its ridiculous.</p>
<p>Our school also has only 1 val. I was the val this year but I pretty much always took a “harder” courseload than everyone else all 4 years so there really wasn’t competition for #1. Lots of kids were taking dual enrollment/online courses to get Salutatorian or spots #3 to #10 though.</p>
<p>At my school I believe the only reason we have multiple vals are because of ties. Last year (I don’t have this year’s results), we had two vals and four sals. This isn’t particularly unreasonable since each graduating class is around 600+ students.</p>
<p>One potential issue is that weighted GPA is used for determining the val and sal, and honors and AP classes are given the same weight. I don’t think it’s a problem right now since most students, particularly those in the running for the top honors, don’t take easier honors classes to protect their GPA. There are also some honors classes that are as rigorous as AP classes. In the end, protecting your GPA by taking easier classes won’t help you in the college admissions process since our school doesn’t release rank info.</p>
<p>We don’t have valedictorians…or rankings for that matter. The admins figured that if we did have rankings, people would just kill each other to get to the top (the student population is extremely competitive). :)</p>
<p>At my school we don’t have valedictorians or sal! Our school doesn’t rank! I think theres only 1 person since the school began to get a 4.0 all 3 years so its rediculious! and we don’t have unweighted GPA everything is the same weight!</p>
<p>My school went by highest GPA, but because we didn’t distinguish between A or A-, several people would have the same GPA. [It was a competitive school, though, so usually only 2-3 people have a 4.0 at the most.] If there was a tie for grades, then the valedictorian would be the person who had been at the school the longest. I lost out on valedictorian because I had only been in that school district for one year while someone with the same grades as me had been there for seven years.</p>
<p>Our school, so far as I know, has always had multiple valedictorians. The most ever was seven, in 2005.
Everyone with a 6.0 weighted, is a valedictorian. There are no pluses and minuses. So, every valedictorian has had straight A’s in all Honors, AA, and AP classes (excepting the requirements, like phys ed and public speaking, which have no advanced option).</p>
<p>Our school uses our weighted GPA, but the kids who go to the governor’s school for half the day have the advantage because they are offered more AP classes. That being said I think the most valedictorians we’ve ever had was 3, but most of the time there’s only 1.</p>
<p>My school ranks based off of the cumulative weighted GPA that often includes high school classes taken in middle school; there is only one valedictorian, one salutatorian, etc. Since our grades are given out of 100 and not on an A, B, C, D scale, the highest weighted GPA is usually around 101.5. Honors courses get a 5% weighting while AP courses get a 10% weighting.</p>
<p>My graduating class this year had like 28 valedictorians and 13 salutatorians which I think is such a joke.</p>
<p>For my school, you have to take 13 or more AP/Honors classes and has all A’s. Assuming all of the students eligible continue with tough course schedules and get all A’s, my school might have a dozen valedictorians, which is ********. There should be one valedictorian and one salutatorian. </p>
<p>Personally, I see no reward in being the valedictorian than bragging rights and speaking at the graduation ceremony. I think this and the class rank system should go away.</p>
<p>I wish it’d be all NHS kids, I’m in NHS…</p>
<p>My uncle was talking to me about this today. He said the problem would be solved if they went back to the old way they did it when he went to school. Instead of getting letter grades in your report card, you would get the percentage you got in the course (so an 89 wouldn’t be getting "damn it, almost an A!! >:[ " and a 90 wouldn’t be
“thankfully, barely an A!” and then the GPA would be out of 100 … not 4.0, which would easily reach one valedictorian</p>
<p>A joke. My school traditionally has 15-30 vals each year. I think this is why.
[ul]
[<em>] The classes are laughably easy. Even the weighted ones.
[</em>] Only four courses per year may count as weighted ones, so if you take 4 APs it comes out the same as someone with 7, provided grades are the same.
[<em>] People cheat. Almost inevitably. Not…on homework, but there’s little rings of people on exam days who take advantage of lax teachers.
[</em>] People here like to eye each others’ courses, so it’s basically impossible to get into more classes without someone finding out and…well, also taking that class.
[/ul]</p>
<p>So it doesn’t actually mean anything.</p>