25 Valedictorians at one FL HS?

[MaryAnnDVC]

Motivating? Or is the honor watered down? A quick google search shows they have almost 1600 students in 9 - 12, so that's about 400 per grade, about 6% are "valedictorians." (Could be way off, but that's the only info I found.)

One high school, 25 valedictorians

by Carl Azuz, CNN
(CNN) The iconic Highlander line, “There can be only one” might apply at most other high schools. But at Vanguard High School in Ocala, Florida, as many as 25 students could be classified as “valedictorian.”

What this means is that there are expected to be 25 straight-A students. Since they have taken college-level courses, which carry weighted credit, the result is a 5.0 GPA for dozens of seniors. And that’s not exactly unusual at Vanguard; last year, the school had 11 valedictorians.

So why is it graduating so many people at the top of the class? The school’s ranking policy dates back to 2004, when there simply weren’t as many college-level courses available. So with more of those to take and more students taking them, multiple 5.0 (perfect) GPAs are possible. And the school uses GPAs – not numeric class scores – to rank its students.

Sharing a top-of-the-class honor doesn’t bother students like Preston Culbert. “We weren’t trying to get a leg up on each other,” he said, “but you get towards the end and suddenly look at all these people who have succeeded just as well as you have. I think it’s really great we can be rewarded in this way.”

The windfall of achievement does create a bit of a conundrum for school officials. With as many as 25 valedictorians, who gives the graduation commencement speech? And will there even be a salutatorian? A school official from Marion County said having one of those would be “silly…especially in this case.”

The solution: All of the valedictorian candidates are submitting the speech they’d give. A committee will select one winner to actually do the talking, and regardless of who that turns out to be, every valedictorian will get a silver plate on graduation day.

Critics say having so many valedictorians could dilute the honor at Vanguard. Others believe it's a motivating factor: Since more than one student can be valedictorian, more students will try harder for the shared title.

You won’t find many principals who’d object to this, though. Principal Cynthia Saunders of Ocala’s Lake Weir High called having multiple valedictorians “tremendous,” saying she’d be happy to have the problem of choosing one graduation speaker from a group of top achievers.

As for the Vanguard valedictorians, no matter who is chosen to speak, their accomplishment speaks for itself.

 

[NY Disney fan]

They should have recognized the Top 25 and then voted (out of those 25) who would be the valedictorian based on a faculty vote or somehting like that.

 

[Rylee]

Hmm.. never heard of such a thing. I'll have to think about it for awhile.

 

[Handbag Lady]

I don't think it is an issue as long as they are all equal in their accomplishment. They might wish to look at what the criteria is, though, in the future.

Although, I wonder what it means for colleges if the students are accepted to college based on being valedictorian or if they get three students who claim to be valedictorian from the same school, if they believe it?

 

[Janepod]

How wonderful there are so many high achievers. Sounds like a great school.

 

[RitaE]

I have no problem with it as long as there isn't grade inflation going on - and having over 5% of the class with perfect GPA's does make me wonder.

To extrapolate that what if you take it down to over a 3.5 or whatever - does over 1/2 their student body have an A/A+ GPA? Area colleges will catch on to that real quick in Admissions.

 

[Southernmiss]

I have no problem with it as long as there isn't grade inflation going on - and having over 5% of the class with perfect GPA's does make me wonder.

To extrapolate that what if you take it down to over a 3.5 or whatever - does over 1/2 their student body have an A/A+ GPA? Area colleges will catch on to that real quick in Admissions.

How wonderful there are so many high achievers. Sounds like a great school.

I don't think it is an issue as long as they are all equal in their accomplishment. They might wish to look at what the criteria is, though, in the future.

Although, I wonder what it means for colleges if the students are accepted to college based on being valedictorian or if they get three students who claim to be valedictorian from the same school, if they believe it?

I don't know that valedictorian bears a lot of weight in college or beyond.

DS had to make his college decision by April and the announcement for Val and Sal didn't come out until last week at the Senior awards.

I don't really see any accolades come in from college or anywhere else other than proud parents and grandparents and other friends and family of the Val and Sal for the designation of valedictorian.

DSs college scholarship was mostly based on his ACT score and activities and involvements before senior year.

 

[DeaverTex]

There are a number of universities -- and also the service academies -- that require your academic ranking (as in a number) as part of your application. Also, in Texas, the top 10% of every graduating class is guaranteed acceptance at any state supported university. (Which causes nightmares, but that's another issue.) How does this school assign numeric ranking in the class, from number one to number last? I know for the service academies at least, it is NOT optional.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

If 25 people end up with perfect GPAs, then 25 valedictorians are fine.

Now one thing I'd ask is how truly hard are those so-called college level classes? 25 kids taking nothing but and ending up perfect is suspect.
But that is a question about the classes themselves, not about having 25 valedictorians.

I don't know that valedictorian bears a lot of weight in college or beyond.

None. Colleges look at the whole transcript along with test scores and other things and the decision is made before valedictorians are even selected. Many also look at exactly how the high school grades and convert it to their own method.

 

[gert]

I think you'd need to see the average GPA for the entire class to be able to extrapolate anything from this other than 25 students worked hard and got a higher GPA than the other 375.

 

[Danibelle]

Hmm.. never heard of such a thing. I'll have to think about it for awhile.

My DD graduated from a high school with 4 valedictorians and 12 salutatorians (she was one of these) in 1990. Before this, I was unaware that this could occur. In my high school, there were 2 selected graduation speakers selected by a faculty committee. I don't remember even knowing for sure who had the highest grade point.

 

[Kimberly]

I'm sorry, but Valedictorian means you are quite simply the highest ranked student in the class. Awarding this honor to the top 5 percent of the class or so is an insult to the actual no. 1 ranked student in the class, as well as the no. 2 (Salutatorian). Only if these 25 people were tied, should this title be granted to all of them.

Either way, graduating in the top 5 percent of your class is still very honorable, and many colleges do take that into high consideration. Maybe we should give everyone with a B average or higher "honors" status.... oh wait...

 

[KristaTX]

I graduated from high school in 1989, and that was right before "weighting" became common. 4.0 was as high as the GPA scale went in my school.

There were maybe 220 people in my graduating class, and 10 students had a 4.0 GPA. So the percentages of this 2012 class in the article, while higher, isn't that much higher. Sounds like a bright class.

I thought "weighting" was supposed to fix that issue nowadays, but apparently they need an even different system now.

We didn't have a valedictorian or salutatorian. The highest honor in the graduating class was a special award established in the 1940s, and given to one student in the school. The faculty nominated five seniors for the award (based on grades, achievements, leadership, activities, attitude, etc.). Then the student body voted on those five to determine the winner. I just looked it up, and the district still has this award.

As a student, I didn't really like the popularity component to it with students voting, but it was a pretty good way to honor one student within the class - especially if several students were tops in grades.

 

[sookie]

I'm not sure why this made the news. At our high school, one class had like 12 and we only had 200 or so graduate? It was kind of dumb (I thought)... made it less "special".

 

[shortbun]

How wonderful there are so many high achievers. Sounds like a great school.

I agree! Fabulous!

 

[MaryAnnDVC]

I agree with this.

I'm sorry, but Valedictorian means you are quite simply the highest ranked student in the class. Awarding this honor to the top 5 percent of the class or so is an insult to the actual no. 1 ranked student in the class, as well as the no. 2 (Salutatorian). Only if these 25 people were tied, should this title be granted to all of them.

Either way, graduating in the top 5 percent of your class is still very honorable, and many colleges do take that into high consideration. Maybe we should give everyone with a B average or higher "honors" status.... oh wait...

Those 25 students having straight A's doesn't mean that they are all equal. One got the highest grades, or MAYBE tied with someone by having a very close score. If an A means a 93 - 100 (for example) there's a difference between having all 93's and having all 100's. Also, if one person has all 100's, except for a 92, then it appears he/she would not be honored as a "valedictorian" who got all 93's.

The whole thing just feels like a "stickers for everyone!" situation to me.

At my kids' HS, they honored, at Awards Night, the top 10 students, which is really nice. But at graduation, they have the valedictorian and salutatorian. My son graduated 11th by a painfully thin margin from 10th. It was an "aaarrrggghhh!" situation but it was what it was. I think to have labeled him and the 10 people who ranked higher and the 14 people who ranked lower as "valedictorian" really waters down the whole honor of the designation.

I also wouldn't say that the school in the article is full of high achievers. I'm definitely NOT saying that it is NOT. I'm just saying there's more it than the number of kids getting As than the fact that they got As, such as how difficult the program is.

JMHO

 

[Gumbo4x4]

None. Colleges look at the whole transcript along with test scores and other things and the decision is made before valedictorians are even selected. Many also look at exactly how the high school grades and convert it to their own method.

We have a thing called the Missouri Curators scholarship. To meet the criteria, you have to rank in the top 3% of your class, score 90th percentile on the ACT, and then only 1% of your class can take the award. We graduated 287, so the top 9 were considered eligible, but only 3 could be awarded the scholarship because of our class size. I know neither of the valedictorians (we had 2) scored high enough on the ACT, but #'s 5, 8, & 9 all did. I know #'s 8 & 9 took advantage of the scholarship (can't remember if #5 did) - 100% tuition paid at any University of Missouri campus

But point is, yeah the class rank was just one piece of the puzzle.

 

[lizabu]

I think the 25 should be recognized in some way but only 1 should be valedictorian. If everyone is special and everyone is the best is anyone special anymore?

 

[iheartdisney]

Nothing to add about the article, but Whoo-Hoo for the Highlander reference!

My inner geek is happy!

 

[Southernmiss]

I looked up this school a little further. They follow the International Baccalaurete program about which I know nothing. I did see that the students receive scores of 1-5, not the traditional 0 to 100 points scale.

From the article, it appears that many students received 5s on their course work. I would think somehow there has to be a way to say this guy's 5 was based on work that was better than that guys 5 and come up with a top couple of students in the class. But what do I know...