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Friday, June 16, 2017

No more valedictorians? More and more schools view rankings as obsolete

LANCASTER, N.Y. >> At many American high schools, the graduation-day tradition of crowning a valedictorian is becoming a thing of the past.

The ranking of students from No. 1 on down, based on grade-point averages, has been fading steadily for about the past decade. In its place are honors that recognize everyone who scores at a certain threshold — using Latin honors, for example. This year, one school in Tennessee had 48 valedictorians.

About half of schools no longer report class rank, according to the National Association of Secondary School Principals. Administrators worry about the college prospects of students separated by large differences in class rank despite small differences in their GPAs, and view rankings as obsolete in an era of high expectations for every student, association spokesman Bob Farrace said. There are also concerns about intense, potentially unhealthy competition and students letting worries about rank drive their course selections.

Among those weighing a change is Lancaster High School in suburban Buffalo, where students are leading an exploration of replacing valedictorian-salutatorian recognitions with the college-style Latin honors of summa cum laude, magna cum laude and cum laude.

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9 comments:

Anonymous said...

ok, let's just go ahead and declare no one has to go to school, no one has to study, no one has to work and we can ALL get trophies and awards, clap our hands, and pat ourselves on the bag. Then we will be ready to go out into the world and be productive citizens making the world better for all. What a crock of Sh - - !!!!

Anonymous said...

sad...snowflake, sissy's now reign. don't want to let ANYONE shine.

Anonymous said...

When there are no losers, there are also no winners.

Or

Everybody is a loser

Anonymous said...

Dumbing it down for the miscreants who DON'T want to be in school, DON'T want to learn, have zero respect for authority, and just plain DON'T give a sh##. Gang banging rules with no vision to the future because they ain't going to make it out of the hood anyway.

Anonymous said...

Just give everyone a participation ribbon!

Anonymous said...

The schools are trying to hide their complete failure.

Anonymous said...

Do the same for those who play sports. No more play off games. No more trophies for being No.1. No more World Series, Super Bowl or NBA winners and so on.
If those who excel in academics are not recognized because it hurts the feelings of those who didn't accomplish as much, then the same should apply to those who play sports.

Anonymous said...

They do. It's called a high school diploma.

Anonymous said...

Anyone remember/talk to their Valey? Did their Valey contribute any importance to the local/state/national/world?

If you answered no to any of the questions - that's ok, most do and there is nothing wrong with that!