Valedictorian/Salutatorian?

[golfgal]

That is why grades MUST be weighted.

It kills me that many schools still don't weight grades

Our school does weight grades-well they weight your class rank, not so much your GPA. You can't graduate in the top of the class if you haven't taken any AP/CIS classes and for the most part you can't graduate in the top 50% if you haven't taken any either. It just doesn't seem to matter for NHS

 

[herdtoDisney]

My oldest ds was Salutatorian when he graduated last year so his school has them. It was figured by gpa order-he and the girl who was validictorian were a fraction of a point apart. The school didn't offer AP so that was not a factor. As far as NHS, ds didn't even want to apply and didn't. He got into every college he applied for and now is in the one he wanted with a good scholarship-first in our family!

I don't know much about this stuff-in fact, when his guidance called me and said he was going to be salutatorian, I wasn't familiar with the word, so I said, um, ok-she said, no, it's a GOOD thing He did wear some special neck cords at graduation and spoke. The school is not a cut-throat academic type, and I'm not the only person who was at the ceremony who wasn't familiar with 'salutatorian'

 

[pigletgirl]

Rediculous. The valdictorian of our school was a known partier, and yet he was super brilliant. Welll, he went to college, got 2 girls pregnant (within a month of each other) was arrested for 3 DUI's, lost his scholarship and is now working at sonic for minimum wage.

I wish they would do it based on hard workers, vs just the grade. Kids who do their best (and I emphasize their) deserve the highest honors, and not those who took an AP class. I'm glad our high school got rid of that the year after I graduated.

 

[PirateSnowmen]

My school had valedictorian and salutatorian, but I really wish it didn't. The salutatorian cheated her way through school. I had gone to school with her from 7-12th grade and she had been accused of cheating many, many times, but the teachers never believed it. I remember she sat next to me in chemistry in high school. During a test, she had the chemistry book open next to her and was flipping through the pages to find the answers. The person who sat in front of me noticed it, and went to tell our teacher. He walked over to the girl, asked her why the chemistry book was open, and she responded, "Oh, it was like that when I sat down." The teacher then walked away totally accepting her response . She ended up making a 100 on the test and the teacher refused to accept the fact that she cheated.

That very same year she was also in my AP English class and got caught cheating on a test. I think it was a vocabulary test (or something like that; can't quite remember) and she had put the list of words on the empty desk in front of her. The teacher walked around the classroom and saw the list. She questioned the girl if she had put the list there, and the girl said no. When the teacher turned around to go back to her desk, the girl turned to a friend, gave her a high-five, and said, "Whew. Glad I didn't get caught." After class let out, my friend went to tell the teacher that the list was, in fact, the girl's, but the teacher didn't believe her.

The teachers never believed she was the one actually cheating because she "looked so innocent and was too smart to cheat." Uh, yeah, ok

As for the valedictorian, she never cheated, but her speech at graduation was the most boring thing ever. She literally talked about her grandmother for 15 minutes. Sounds sweet, but it got really old after 5 minutes. She literally started off her speech by finding her grandma in the audience, turning to her, and saying, "Oh grandma. I love you so much. You're such an inspiration to me. Remember that one time on vacation when we...." She only spoke to her grandma for the whole speech and didn't even address the graduating class at all. It was sweet, but was a bit strange, and quite boring.

Similar situation in our school. I don't know the criteria for NHS in our school, but the #3 student was not in it. It kind of boggled my mind. Geesh. I know, I know, maybe she did not participate in any other ativities, but I don't think some of the other kids, who did make it, were very involved either. This girl was not a trouble maker or anything like that. She won several scholarships on honors night, but she was not inducted into the honor society.

And, I'm still bitter about my own experience with the NHS 40 years ago. I was in the top ten, participated in several clubs and organizations, and was a commended PSAT student. I wasn't in the National Honor Society. Why? Apparently the advisor mostly nominated her own students.

NHS was similar in our school. A girl who graduated #5 in our class (of 490) was never invited to join NHS. She was in 5 different clubs at school (and was very involved in them), obviously had a high GPA, but was never invited to join.

All I remember about qualifying for NHS at my school was that you had to have above a 90% average. I was invited to join NHS, but didn't turn in my paperwork because I knew how much of a joke it was at my school.

 

[Doofenshmirtz513]

I wish they would do it based on hard workers, vs just the grade. Kids who do their best (and I emphasize their) deserve the highest honors, and not those who took an AP class.

That's a pretty hard thing to judge, isn't it, whether someone did his or her best? If my moderate effort received an A in every advanced class my school had to offer (save one semester of freshman English), should I not be honored over someone whose grades were mediocre in easier classes but who "did their best"? Do I lose out for not having to study as much to get better results? Sorry, that doesn't work for me.

Cheating is an interesting theme through this thread. I can honestly say I wasn't aware of any cheating among the top students at my HS. A few years later when I did some substitute teaching at another school in the same county, however, the scene was entirely different. Attempted cheating was rampant on nearly every assignment and quiz. I'd squash it when I saw it, but couldn't believe how brazen the kids were about it. They must have been able to get away with it most of the time.

 

[Longsx3]

Our school district has Valedictorian/Salutatorian but is considering doing away with them as well, just having Magna, Suma and Cum Laude. Our School district weights AP and honors, but only 6 credits a yr count towards class rank even if you take extra courses.

My DD(14) has wanted to be Valedictorian since 6th grade, we were at a graduation and DD exclaimed during the Val. Speech "that will be me in 6 yrs", I did not know she had any idea what a Val. was, we had just returned from living in Japan.
DD just finished her freshman yr of HS and Val is hers to lose, that being said DD now wants to graduate a yr early which will eliminate her chance at Val. DD has thought long and hard about it and says she would be devastated if she stayed in HS just to be Val and the school district eliminates it all together.

 

[LukenDC]

Rediculous. The valdictorian of our school was a known partier, and yet he was super brilliant. Welll, he went to college, got 2 girls pregnant (within a month of each other) was arrested for 3 DUI's, lost his scholarship and is now working at sonic for minimum wage.

I wish they would do it based on hard workers, vs just the grade. Kids who do their best (and I emphasize their) deserve the highest honors, and not those who took an AP class. I'm glad our high school got rid of that the year after I graduated.

Aren't highest grades in the most difficult classes indicative of hard work?? Regardless of how the young man behaved afterward, if he had the grades to earn the valedictorian honor, then he deserved it.

 

[MrsPete]

I always thought v and s were simply the two people with the highest grade point.

That IS the definition of val/sal; however, it appears that many school systems are getting away from that traditional definition.

They don't do the student of the month or any of those either. They have a policy that they "honor all of their students." While I think that is very sweet, it is just not how the real world operates.

Yeah, 'cause "honor all their students" really comes down to "honor no one's real accomplishments". It comes back to the desire our society has been developing for the last couple decades -- the desire to make everyone feel special, even if we have to celebrate their ability to tie their shoes. It's the give-every-kid-a-trophy thing.

That is why grades MUST be weighted.

It kills me that many schools still don't weight grades

Our kids' transcripts list BOTH GPAs: Weighted and unweighted. And they include the school report, but that's law -- everyone's school does that.

Rediculous. The valdictorian of our school was a known partier, and yet he was super brilliant. Welll, he went to college, got 2 girls pregnant (within a month of each other) was arrested for 3 DUI's, lost his scholarship and is now working at sonic for minimum wage.

I wish they would do it based on hard workers, vs just the grade. Kids who do their best (and I emphasize their) deserve the highest honors, and not those who took an AP class. I'm glad our high school got rid of that the year after I graduated.

Yeah, I could relate multiple stories about vals (or other top-top students) whose stars fizzled once they were out of high school. I dated a guy in high school who had incredible grades, extracurriculars . . . and in college, he fell apart. Why? Because in high school his mommy had sat him down at the kitchen table every single day to supervise his homework, and he never developed an ounce of self-discipline. Lost a full scholarship, etc. I know LOTS of similar stories; some include drugs or alcohol, some include academic dishonesty, some include lack of maturity . . . but they all have similar sad endings.

I disagree though that val/sal should be based on who works hardest. Val/sal -- if your school uses those terms -- means one thing and one thing only: The student with the highest grades. Come to your school's Awards Day. Students are rewarded for MANY things: Excellence in math, prowess in vocational classes, athletic ability, attendance, improvement over the years, speaking ability, community service. Val/sal isn't the ONLY reward all year long.

 

[Princess_Meghan <3]

We had them at my school last year, but they wouldn't tell us who was who. We just knew who the kids with the top two GPAs were. My school didn't believe in having class rankings, either.