BellaOnline Forums Education Gifted Education Student with Highest GPA not Valedictorian

A student that managed to complete 4 yrs worth of high school in only 3 yrs AND maintain the highest GPA the school has ever had (5.898) will not be named Valedictorian - because she only completed 4 physical years of high school - ridiculous!

Her Dad's quote sums it up: "I have not heard of any educational institution penalizing a student for excellence"

Here's the story:

Grapevine Student with Top Grades Won't be Valedictorian

Thanks for posting that, Michelle. I think you mean to say that she only completed three years of physically being in high school, right?

I read that piece and I agree that the girl should not be punished for being ahead of the game. IMHO, the Valedictorian thing is a complete mess these days, as there are so many different types of classes that all carry different weights. Gifted students may take honors, duel enrollment at a college, AP courses, etc. The GPA fixation also may encourage kids to play it safe rather than challenge themselves.

- Yes I meant to say 3 years. She's being penalized for completing her 4 year classes in just 3 years.

But you know, I've noticed that even though gifted kids do have the harder classes - they still tend to come out on top.

At least every year I was in HS (too long ago to mention) the Valedictorian was always in the gifted program, and never a big surprise, becuse he or she was one of us geeks.

The only year there was any question was my Sr year, because there were 5 over us all within .08 points of each other. It honestly came down to our finals as to who would be valedictorian (I came in 5th) Oh, well...

Yeah, it is pretty silly stuff. When I graduated (in the cave days, mind) the girl who was Valedictorian took easy classes, while the co-saluditorians were both better students, took the higher level courses offered, that sort of thing. At the time, they didn't weight AP courses, so there was less incentive for students like her to challenge themselves. (Though, of course, the AP and college-level courses do help out in the college years!)

It's a shame, though, that that girl is being penalized for doing so well, in so short a time!

I remember in high school that there was an interesting class I wanted to take, but as it wasn't an honors class (I was in pretty much all honors classes) it would damage my GPA to take it. I took it anyway, but I wonder how many kids do that - take courses they aren't interested in, just for GPA reasons ...

It's their own growth and education they are harming ...

That's exactly right. I actually went the other route -- did NOT take a class on jewelry making that sounded interesting, but was graded, because, it was an art class, I wasn't likely to get a high grade, so even though I thought it was interesting and would like to have taken it, I didn't.

Years later, through a twisty path, I ended up learning to make jewelry, and am told I make nice stuff. But who knows what I might have learned that I still don't know?

20/20 hindsight. And maturity.

I want a do-over!

Michelle and all,

Our high school does not formally recognize a Valedictorian any longer for the very reasons that you've all addressed. Students do know their class rank based on a non-weighted GPA, and that is only because college admissions require this fact as one bit of the application.

Wendy

It's truly an impossible task to accurately compare kids from different high schools anyway, as there is such diversity in curriculum, teaching staff, etc. You know, colleges get bashed for taking kids from elite "feeder" high schools in disproportionate numbers, but really, why mess with a sure thing? Admissions counselors can pretty much guarantee that a kid who excels at Andover or Exeter prep will be able to handle the college workload.

I'm no fan of the old boy network, but I can see why it takes a copious amount of societal pressure for a change to take affect. In my perfect universe, however, every kid would have an individualized education and high school would be more focused on learning how to learn and on creativity and less on college application prep. It seems everything is all about how things will look to those admissions officers...

I think getting rid of the Valedictorian is a positive trend, and I'd love to see more schools jump on board!

BTW, Nice to see you here, Wendy!

This is one way I think MIT might have it right: no Latin honors (so when you see "Ironman" and it says the lead character graduated from MIT at age 17 summa cum laude, realize that's impossible on two counts - the youngest anyone's gotten an bachelor's at MIT is 18, far as admissions knew a few years ago - and they have never had Latin honors there, I don't think) and no valedictorians (it's the class presidents for undergraduates and graduates who give the student speeches during graduation). Let students learn for the sake of learning and not to be named "number one in the class" or such, I say.

And how does one get a GPA over 5.0? I thought the highest any GPA ranking system went was 5.0.

Great points, RM. I like the MIT system.

honors classes, APs, and college courses taken in high school are often weighted. But I guess a system that allows a gpa over 5.0 must have an odd weighting system.