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Not giving an opinion one way or the other, but the part the story leaves out is that it would be dropping Valedictorian/Salutatorians in favor of the college system of *** Laude.
Class rankings are one method of measuring academic performance. The Wake County Board of
Education also recognizes other means of evaluating student achievement, including grade point
average, courses completed, rigorousness of curriculum, results of tests and assessments, and
recommendation letters.
High school principals shall provide for the compilation of class rankings to be listed on student
transcripts and may make class rank information available periodically to students and their
parents or guardians, and to other institutions at the request of the student or the student’s parent
or guardian. While the board encourages broad means of recognizing student achievement, high
school principals shall not use class rank to designate a valedictorian or salutatorian beyond the
graduating class of 2018. Beginning in 2018-19, high school principals shall designate the
following senior honors:
1. Students with a 3.75 - 3.99 weighted grade point average shall receive the distinction of *** laude
2. Students with a 4.0 - 4.249 weighted grade point average shall receive the distinction of magna *** laude
3. Students with a 4.25 or higher weighted grade point average shall receive the distinction of summa *** laude
There were no valedictorians in the public school system where I attended K-12, and no one cared. At high school graduations the principals simply read the names of students who had straight A's 9-12. That was sufficient. You couldn't make a single B in the four years, if you wanted your name read aloud. There were only 2 in my graduating class of 705, but that was back before grade inflation.
I bet this happened because they get parent backlash when a dozen or so are tied for first, but only one is chosen.
Came here to say the same thing.
East Chapel Hill High School had something like 18 valedictorians last year.
The college system of getting recognized based on levels of GPA makes sense.
I find it ironic that the people who are throwing a hissy fit about this decision by WCPSS are largely the same folks who don't seem to care about the overall dis-investment of public education in NC by current state leaders.
Our society is overly obsessed with winners and losers and hanging these titles on teenagers sometimes has its unintended consequences.
I am nauseated every time I see one of those "my kid's the best...." bumper stickers on a car in front of me. While this may do wonders for some kids, it places enormous pressure on others. Changing the system to the reflect levels of honor in groups is perfectly reasonable to me and it will possibly encourage kids to push themselves out of the comfort zone once in while and take a challenge (and possibly learn something) instead of just protecting a ranking.
Had a friend in high school who was named valedictorian of his high school back in the 80's but knew a friend of his had beat him out on gpa by a tenth of a point. After some investigation it was discovered the principal had changed some grades so that the clean cut guy was valedictorian instead of the funny looking lesbian girl. So it's not just kids who make bad decisions to chase this ceramic dalmatian.
I for one am all in favor of the change. I've always liked the latin system better.
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