Names of honor roll students in the newspaper-what do you think?

[FINFAN]

Ours does it too....I don't have a problem with it, but this quarter DD just missed HR by .25, so she stressing out how she will be the "dummy" of her friends not in the paper. She'll be fine, but it can be a source of embarrassment, especially since you don't get to have a column that says, I ALMOST made HR!


Pam

 

[Sandy V.]

I have mixed feelings about Valedictorians and Salutatorians. Many high schools do not take into consideration the level of classes a student takes when factoring in grade point averages and class ranking. Many times, I think a student must decide between truly challenging themselves with Honors classes and AP classes and not getting a high enough grade point average to make one of the top two slots, or deciding to take lower level courses that will easily assure them of a higher grade point average.

That is so true. My daughter, along with her boyfriend and 15 other kids, are seniors and currently all co-ranked #1 out of a class of 440 kids. There are NO weighted classes. My daughter will graduate having completed 6 AP courses. Some of the co-valedictorian candidates are taking their first (and only) AP course this year. You only have to take one AP course to be a valedictorian at our high school, so that's how they "played" it to stay at the top of the class academically.

I'm mildly irritated by the whole thing, but daughter has worked extremely hard, so our focus is on how proud we are of her. She's applying to some very competitive colleges, and her academic workload will only help her (fingers crossed!).

 

[scubamouse]

anytime we didn't make HR (and it was rare we didn't but i had one sister that struggled a bit) my parents told us how embarrassing it was for THEM that we weren't in the paper. johnny's parents were more lucky than my parents, their child ALWAYS made HR

plus to this day, I swear my mom could tell you who made HR and high HR in any quarter back to 1987

personal scaring aside i think it's fine and a nice recognition for kids.

 

[BuzznBelle'smom]

There are ALWAYS going to be people who "work the system". I went to a HS where they weighted the honors/AP classes with the same weight (a Catholic school). Our valedictorian was a girl who spent her freshman year at the public school and then transferred in. Why? Because that HS offered honors English to freshmen, but the Catholic school didn't. Hence, nobody could knock her out of the top spot. They wouldn't take extra credits toward your rank if you overloaded, either. In this case, it was less about the girl wanting the honor than her mother. It worked in this case, but her younger sister ended up committing suicide. Thanks, but I'll take kids who work hard and follow their own path!

 

[luvflorida]

That is so true. My daughter, along with her boyfriend and 15 other kids, are seniors and currently all co-ranked #1 out of a class of 440 kids. There are NO weighted classes. My daughter will graduate having completed 6 AP courses. Some of the co-valedictorian candidates are taking their first (and only) AP course this year. You only have to take one AP course to be a valedictorian at our high school, so that's how they "played" it to stay at the top of the class academically.

I'm mildly irritated by the whole thing, but daughter has worked extremely hard, so our focus is on how proud we are of her. She's applying to some very competitive colleges, and her academic workload will only help her (fingers crossed!).

I can tell you what happened to these kids after graduation. The girls that took the lower level courses and graduated second and third in the class got the recognition at HS graduation. One girl ended up dropping out of NYU after her first year, took a year off from school, then applied to a less rigorous college. Another girl has gone to a different college each year.

My daughter, who took the advanced courses but ended up ranking behind those girls, finished college in three years, graduated Summa Cum Laude, and is now in graduate school.

Tell your daughter that all her hard work will pay off in the end. Good luck to her!!

 

[Sandy V.]

I can tell you what happened to these kids after graduation. The girls that took the lower level courses and graduated second and third in the class got the recognition at HS graduation. One girl ended up dropping out of NYU after her first year, took a year off from school, then applied to a less rigorous college. Another girl has gone to a different college each year.

My daughter, who took the advanced courses but ended up ranking behind those girls, finished college in three years, graduated Summa Cum Laude, and is now in graduate school.

Tell your daughter that all her hard work will pay off in the end. Good luck to her!!

Thank you for the kind words. I'll pass them on to my daughter. I agree; the work ethic and time management skills required to complete all of these difficult courses will only serve to benefit her.

Now if only someone could convince me that I REALLY have a child this old?!?!

 

[ead79]

This is an interesting point. How do you know if your H.S. is considered a top-performing high school in relation to other high schools either across your state or in your area of the country?

I’m not entirely sure how you can find this information out. Essentially it differs from college to college since each university has different things they are looking for. I know that at my high school, students ranked in the top 10-15 attended schools like Harvard, Duke, etc. I know that Columbia University ranked my high school the best public high school in the country (but that was many years ago). You could possibly try calling your high school’s guidance office or even the admissions offices of universities your child is interested in attending.

 

[Idahomomof2boys]

This would be similar to an honor roll assembly; And, exactly how does an honor roll assembly motivate invitees and their disinvited classmates to learn more or work hard in the future? If we conduct an honor roll assembly with a motivational guest speaker for those honored students and their parents, shouldn't we also invite the disinvited students because they have the most to gain from listening to the speaker? Of greater concern is the flimsy nature of the single factor used to designate those worthy of honor roll status: grades. As most teachers know, grades are subjective, relative, and inferential at best. They are fragile things on which to base so much celebration and rejection. Of course everyone here who supports this has either been or has kids who are published for academics or athletics. What about kids with learning disabilities such as ADD or ADHD? How does this make them feel to see this in their hometown newspaper? I think their accomplishment does well to be celebrated at home.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

This would be similar to an honor roll assembly; And, exactly how does an honor roll assembly motivate invitees and their disinvited classmates to learn more or work hard in the future? If we conduct an honor roll assembly with a motivational guest speaker for those honored students and their parents, shouldn't we also invite the disinvited students because they have the most to gain from listening to the speaker? Of greater concern is the flimsy nature of the single factor used to designate those worthy of honor roll status: grades. As most teachers know, grades are subjective, relative, and inferential at best. They are fragile things on which to base so much celebration and rejection. Of course everyone here who supports this has either been or has kids who are published for academics or athletics. What about kids with learning disabilities such as ADD or ADHD? How does this make them feel to see this in their hometown newspaper? I think their accomplishment does well to be celebrated at home.

You realize you're responding to a question posed almost 12 years ago?

 

[Kitty 34]

This would be similar to an honor roll assembly; And, exactly how does an honor roll assembly motivate invitees and their disinvited classmates to learn more or work hard in the future? If we conduct an honor roll assembly with a motivational guest speaker for those honored students and their parents, shouldn't we also invite the disinvited students because they have the most to gain from listening to the speaker? Of greater concern is the flimsy nature of the single factor used to designate those worthy of honor roll status: grades. As most teachers know, grades are subjective, relative, and inferential at best. They are fragile things on which to base so much celebration and rejection. Of course everyone here who supports this has either been or has kids who are published for academics or athletics. What about kids with learning disabilities such as ADD or ADHD? How does this make them feel to see this in their hometown newspaper? I think their accomplishment does well to be celebrated at home.

.......and welcome to the DIS!!

 

[CPanther95]

You realize you're responding to a question posed almost 12 years ago?

Yep. Back when there was such a thing as newspapers.

 

[Vijoge]

I see nothing wrong with recognizing kids' accomplishments, in the classroom or on the sports fields. It seems silly to do away with honors like valedictorian and so forth, too. We've always encouraged our kids to do the best they can. In particular, our DD10 is a child who will always take the harder path. This is not a bad quality, but I'll bet you right now that it will cost her valedictorian because she'll choose the challenge courses rather than the easy A. Some child (and I already know who!) will just want to be "on top" more than my kid. I can live with that, and so can DD. That doesn't diminish my child's satisfaction in stretching herself.

And for those parents whose kids work their tushes off to make it on honor roll or some other award, that's not a horrible quality, either!

In our district those classes would be worth extra points. One of my DGD's friends has a 5.0 GPA on a 4.0 scale.

 

[Vijoge]

I am not crazy about having one valedictorian. So many kids get so close. They can be .01 apart in GPA. This may be the difference in how one teacher grades over another. Kids will take a class they don't want because it is weighted more and skip something they really would like to take just to get that extra point. I know some kids who take summer school to get extra grades. It is too stressful. I think that over a certain GPA should be recognized. (Btw, my senior DS is currently #1 in his high school.)

I respectfully disagree. Valedictorian is the ONE with the highest GPA. Not everybody who came close.

 

[FoxC63]

I very much support the idea of putting honor roll students’ names in the local paper. I don’t believe they do that here (too many students, it would take up half the paper, LOL), but I support the idea. As other posters mentioned, students who excel athletically are often mentioned, and I think that it only makes sense to recognize academic achievement as well.

As far as the class ranking discussion goes, my high school operated the same way as a few other posters mentioned. If you took a regular level class, you received 4.0 points for an A, 3.0 points for a B, and so forth. If you took an honors level class, you received 4.5 points for an A. If you took an AP level course, you received 5.0 points for an A. This made the notion of valedictorian much more fair, since a student with a 4.0 would not receive this honor (meaning that someone who took solely regular level classes would not receive valedictorian over a student who took the most challenging courses available). I believe our valedictorian graduated with around a 4.2 or 4.3 GPA since he took exclusively honors and AP courses whenever they were offered. I would have to estimate that a student with a 4.0 even would have been ranked around 75 out of 450 in the class rankings.

Aside from the class ranking aspect, colleges would much rather see a student who took challenging courses and made a B than a student who took all regular classes (assuming they were capable of more) and made A’s. Competitive colleges also know which high schools are more challenging than others. For example, a competitive college might let 5 students in from a top performing high school, but only let the top 2 in from a less competitive high school.

Yep I totally agree. Also let's point to yet another advantage to listing the bright star of our futures - Colleges and Employers will do a search on students. The more they've been identified the better they are in standing with that institution. BTW they also check out social media as well.

 

[Julie's Haircut]

My school district used to publish the names of honor roll students in the local weekly paper 40 years ago. I don't know if they still do.

I didn't read 4 pages of 11 year old posts, so I don't know if this was mentioned. About 5 years ago, somewhere in Florida, there was a HS with something like 22 valedictorians. Everyone who had a GPA over 4.0 due to honors or AP classes was considered valedictorian. They didn't want to hurt anybody's feelings by naming someone as second best.

I also remember somewhere in New Jersey a student's family sued the school district because their daughter was only named salutatorian. Apparently two students tied in GPA, and their daughter lost whatever the tie-breaker was. They didn't accept the school's compromise of co-valedictorians. They wanted ONLY their daughter was #1. It wasn't resolved before graduation, so their daughter skipped the ceremony rather than share the spotlight with inferior people.

 

[Colleen27]

Yep. Back when there was such a thing as newspapers.

Our paper still does this... and they love it because so many people buy extra copies for the scrapbook! Gotta stay afloat however they can, I suppose. And I'll admit to being one of those people - my mom and MIL always want copies if one of the kids is in the paper, even if it is just on that long list of honor roll names. There were only a handful of kids in DD14's grade who didn't make the list so I'm not sure how much of an honor it really is, but the grandparents are certainly impressed.

 

[Vijoge]

There were only a handful of kids in DD14's grade who didn't make the list so I'm not sure how much of an honor it really is, but the grandparents are certainly impressed.

It's always an honor to make the honor roll. It doesn't matter how many other people are on it. I think it would be wonderful to see every student achieve at that level.

 

[Shanti]

Our town lists the names of all kids in grades 6-12 who make the honor roll in the local newspaper. The list indicates who has made honors, high honors and highest honors. Does your town do this and do you agree or disagree with it?

Disagree.

 

[tcufrog]

I grew up in one of the largest metro areas in the country. GPAs and valedictorians weren't published in the paper unless there was something unusual about him or her. Then they got a feature article. My graduating class had 600 people in it. Our ceremony was at a local university's basketball arena sandwiched in between some other high school graduations. AP classes got an extra 5 points and honors classes got an extra 3 points. Because the suburb I lived in had a high tech sector near the school we had some students from other countries there. The valedictorian and salutatorian was usually someone with poor social skills who had a Tiger Mom. They didn't do anything social except for maybe something like the debate team if their parents thought it would help them get into college. They did lots of STEM AP classes but they didn't often appear in the Humanities or Arts AP classes. I don't think I ever saw them in the AP history and government classes and there were only one of each of these classes offered every year.

 

[Colleen27]

It's always an honor to make the honor roll. It doesn't matter how many other people are on it. I think it would be wonderful to see every student achieve at that level.

I have mixed feelings about that... On one hand, it would be great if every student was genuinely doing A/B work. On the other hand, we all know that many students aren't willing or able to work at that level, so when I see an honor roll that reads like a class roster I wonder if maybe the classes aren't as challenging as they could be. And honestly, I'm really not sure where I think DD's school falls between those two points - it is a dedicated college-prep school so it attracts kids of above-average ability and motivation to begin with, but even among that group I can't help raise an eyebrow at a class that makes such good grades overall that a single B+ puts a student in the middle of the pack in terms of class rank (which is a report card field, so the kids do know where they stand).