Poof! Gone is our Middle School Honor Roll

[PRmamiDEdos]

So we showed up yesterday for our Middle School "Academic Achievement Breakfast" EVERY child in the school was handed a certificate for Academic Achievement. And every certificate was the same -- so as one parent put it "we came to do roll call for our kid's class"

In the past we had three Honor Rolls (and an Honor Roll Breakfast) -- Principal List (4.), High Honor Roll (3.5 - 3.99) and Honor Roll (3.0 - 3.49). And the majority of the kids made one of the honor rolls. About 10% did not. Our Honor Roll was based on semester grades (40% per quarter and 20% for Semester Exams).

The school said the changes were made for the benefit of the kids. Honor Rolls don't reflect the amount of work a child has done, sometimes the non Honor Roll kids work harder than the honor roll kid and that's not fair. The kids aren't "mature" enough to really understand the honor roll. Kids were doing whatever they could to get to the honor roll (cheating). We (society) are too concerned about grades and test scores and should concentrate on learning instead. This change was only made at the Middle School level.

Obviously, this new change has caused a lot of controversy. Many of the parents felt the ceremony was "dumbed down", an every child was given a trophy mentality. The Honor Roll was an incentive to work harder and try harder. Part of life is realizing you won't get an award for everything you do -- if you do well in football/basketball you get more playing time, if you write well you win the writing contest, you earn good grades then you are on the Honor Roll.

I do see both sides but feel they are throwing the baby out with the bath water. I know there are problems to be fixed, but boy did we swing totally the other way! (personally, I would scrap the breakfast. I don't believe in physically separating the kids during the day for awards. Non Honor roll kjids were not invited) And, yes, my girls were very disappointed. They are very good students and it was nice for them to be recognized for their work. We don't pay for grades or give gifts at report card time -- I liked that the school was the entity to "reward" my kids for their work with a certificate and a donut.

So what does your Middle School do? Also, has your school done away with the honor roll and what were the results. Does anyone have links to any articles about this subject. (I've been googling and not coming up with much)

Thanks for your thoughts.

It's not fair to the parents who feel that their child deserved an award of some kind. My children are in a private school because of a local scholarship fund. They would LOVE to be on honor roll, but unless they're getting 100's on EVERY test like the other kids they understand that it's not happening. Some parents don't like to explain to their "speshul snowflake" why they didn't get the award and then get upset with the school.

This give an award to everyone mentality upsets me. The soccer teams do it and now your school is doing away with honor roll. It's annoying.

 

[declansdad]

Our middle school only acknowledges "A" Honor Roll students.

This the problem with honour rolls. There are probably students that put more effort, work, study into the program, yet are not able to achieve the "A". Why not acknowledge these students?

 

[declansdad]

I think kids NEED to learn from the get go that life is not fair!!! plain and simple. if they don't it set them up for failure which is not good..they will get the entitlement mentality since they have always been acknowledged for just being there! personally I don't want someone that didn't earn the A in their college years and then on in med school working on me!!! NOPE! If all students are given good grades and made to feel good just for showing up what are they learning???? Kids NEED some kind of goal to strive for to get the accomplishment feeling and to know their hard work paid off. On top of that you will have the kids that do work very hard and than some else that didn't work nearly as hard get the same recognition as they do, so than they think what is the point...

I don't think it is about "giving grades" or acknowledging people for "showing up", but rather for the work that they do. There are many legitimate reasons for people not earning the "A". People with lower marks often are much better at the actual application of the skill.

 

[Muushka]

This the problem with honour rolls. There are probably students that put more effort, work, study into the program, yet are not able to achieve the "A". Why not acknowledge these students?

Because they did not get an "A".

 

[declansdad]

I agree that they've made the achievement pretty meaningless now. However if 90% of a class was "above average" to start with we are talking some SERIOUS grade inflation to start with.

Exactly!!

 

[Mermaid02]

I agree that they've made the achievement pretty meaningless now. However if 90% of a class was "above average" to start with we are talking some SERIOUS grade inflation to start with.

Unless you live in Lake Woebegone where all of the children are above average.

Or some pretty low standards.........

 

[declansdad]

Because they did not get an "A".

So your are saying we only acknowledge those who can get an "A" in school? You don't acknowledge the student who works their but off and manages to obtain a "B" or heaven forbid, a "C" because academically that is all they can achieve.

I'm not saying acknowledge everyone the same way, but we are all different and bring different things to the table. Some people may not achieve the "A" because they are terrible at taking tests. But ask them to tell you how to do it or show you how to do it, and they would be head and shoulders above the book smart people.

 

[minniebeth]

I wish I could offer more of how our middle school (a private K-8 school) handles Honor Rolls, but we don't have them and heck, we don't even have grades anymore....
We have a sytem that uses a + for "exceeding the standard", a check for "meeting the standard", an I for "improving toward meeting the standard" and an N for "does not meet the standard".

Ugh, don't get me started. So real world...not.

For the record, I do believe it's ok for schools to have the honor roll system.
Yes, there are legitimate reasons why some kids who work hard academically don't qualify, but it's up to their teachers and parents to reiforce their achievement. For a lot of kids, it's oh well, you didn't put in what's required achieve the marks. My freshman DS in high school is one of them

 

[mjkacmom]

So your are saying we only acknowledge those who can get an "A" in school? You don't acknowledge the student who works their but off and manages to obtain a "B" or heaven forbid, a "C" because academically that is all they can achieve.

I'm not saying acknowledge everyone the same way, but we are all different and bring different things to the table. Some people may not achieve the "A" because they are terrible at taking tests. But ask them to tell you how to do it or show you how to do it, and they would be head and shoulders above the book smart people.

But how would you award the kids who worked hard for a C from the kids who slacked and got a C? Dd13 is in all honors classes, which are harder than regular. She got a 91 in English last marking period, so didn't get High Honors (for the first time), but just regular. Now, if was in a regular English class, she probably would've gotten High Honors. She knows this, and is okay with it. Usually only about 30 kids out of 400 get this "honor."

 

[Muushka]

So your are saying we only acknowledge those who can get an "A" in school? You don't acknowledge the student who works their but off and manages to obtain a "B" or heaven forbid, a "C" because academically that is all they can achieve.

I'm not saying acknowledge everyone the same way, but we are all different and bring different things to the table. Some people may not achieve the "A" because they are terrible at taking tests. But ask them to tell you how to do it or show you how to do it, and they would be head and shoulders above the book smart people.

For example, lets take high school. Some will work hard, others not as hard, and say they get all A's. They will achieve some sort of status. valedictorian, salutatorian, what ever. As they should.

Then you have some that work even harder and receive C's. They receive a diploma from high school. They are not treated the same way, but those that got all A's, get the title and the diploma. Others just get the diploma.

Is that not acknowledging them all, but in a different way?

 

[cheermom1]

For example, lets take high school. Some will work hard, others not as hard, and say they get all A's. They will achieve some sort of status. valedictorian, salutatorian, what ever. As they should.

Then you have some that work even harder and receive C's. They receive a diploma from high school. They are not treated the same way, but those that got all A's, get the title and the diploma. Others just get the diploma.

Is that not acknowledging them all, but in a different way?

Exactly

I'm telling you that is where the entitlement mentality comes from...I had a college professor tells one time that if you do A work you will get A's if you do C work you will get C's...it ahs to do with how much you are learning, sure some have to work a lot harder to get the work worthy of an A but that kid is learning that he has to put in more effort than others so when he is at work he knows he has to put more effort then the others to maintain the work ability that his boss expects..because at work we are not acknowledged for just putting in the effort...

 

[PollyannaMom]

Our middle school posts lists in the paper, but I don't know of any ceremony actually at school. (Not positive there isn't - DS is only in 3rd grade. But I haven't heard of it from the older neighbor kids, either.)

One school I work at has a "student of the month" award given by each teacher (classroom and specialist). I think a good policy would be to keep a high-setpoint honor roll, but also include something like this so teachers do have a way to reward a student based on exceptional hard work.

 

[iwrbnd]

I think this idea is stupid! It's like giving trophys out to every soccer team. It means nothing to the kids! This "everyone wins" attitude is ridiculous. I'm a teacher and have 4 kids. Sometimes my kids make honor roll and sometimes they don't. When they see their friends getting awards they say "I'm doing that next semester!" They get motivated. Life isn't always fair and sometimes we win and sometimes we lose. The sooner we learn that the better!!!

 

[Muushka]

Exactly

I'm telling you that is where the entitlement mentality comes from...I had a college professor tells one time that if you do A work you will get A's if you do C work you will get C's...it ahs to do with how much you are learning, sure some have to work a lot harder to get the work worthy of an A but that kid is learning that he has to put in more effort than others so when he is at work he knows he has to put more effort then the others to maintain the work ability that his boss expects..because at work we are not acknowledged for just putting in the effort...

Depends on where you work, sadly. But your statement is true for most work places, gratefully.

 

[minniebeth]

This is not directed at any responses from this thread, but an attitude in general: What makes people think that the kid who got the straight As didn't work their hiney off and that's the result of their hard work, just as a kid who worked their hiney off for the Cs and that's the best they can do?

There are many kids who get the top grades that are not necessarily naturally born brilliant (there are those too...) but because they work their hardest. They shouldn't be recognized for this?

I have no stake in the game, my kids are smart but quite average when it comes to grades.

 

[Mom-to-2-Princesses]

I agree that they've made the achievement pretty meaningless now. However if 90% of a class was "above average" to start with we are talking some SERIOUS grade inflation to start with.

Unless you live in Lake Woebegone where all of the children are above average.

Or some pretty low standards.........

Oh, I should clarify this! And I will admit this came up between the parents after the meeting as well.

1st - we are a private Catholic school, so we do tend to get kids and parents that are involved. We are blessed that we don't have to deal with many of the problems our local schools do.

2nd - -I truly don't think we are super inflated. The lowest Honor Roll is 3.0 -- this is 83%. We have 7 classes which go into the grades. Two are gym and band -- and you should have no problem getting a 4.0 in these classes. The band grade is 100% based on practice reports and behavior during class. It is not based on 1st chair, etc. And gym is based on attending and good attitude. If you miss gym, you need to make it up. Actually, I think you would have to work pretty hard NOT to get an overall average of 83%. You could have 2 As, 3 Bs, and 2Cs and still have a 3.0 overall average. Now if we only had 10% not on the 4.0 list I would answer differently!

 

[Mermaid02]

Why does it matter if THE SCHOOL acknowledges good grades or not? Sounds like a lot of A grade Snowflakes! My child got A's and I want EVERYONE to know it........

Acknowledge your childrens hard work and grades at home.........

 

[jrmasm]

Honor Roll for an 83 average???

Surely I misunderstood.

 

[Mom-to-2-Princesses]

Honor Roll for an 83 average???

Surely I misunderstood.

Yup -
Principal's List - 4.0
High Honor Roll 3.5 - 3.9
Honor Roll 3.0 - 3.49

 

[minniebeth]

Why does it matter if THE SCHOOL acknowledges good grades or not? Sounds like a lot of A grade Snowflakes! My child got A's and I want EVERYONE to know it........

Acknowledge your childrens hard work and grades at home.........

So children who get A's are snowflakes? That's pretty judgemental.