Won't be valevictorian

[Abstract]

I agree with their decision: the valedictorian should be from the graduating class.

Well I think it depends how you define things. It's very American to have this "Senior, Junior, Sophomore, Freshman" thing. I think they're arguing that if you're graduating, then you're in the graduating class. She has all the credits necessary to be in that class, and to attend graduation. Graduation is all about earning credits. In fact, you'd think that by having a heavier workload, the younger person in this case is probably smarter. I don't know why you have the mentality that one person is "entitled" to be valedictorian, which should be about being the smartest person graduating that year. Using just sense (and with no understanding of what is proper in the US), the smartest person should get the honour of being named Valedictorian, not the smartest graduate who has been there for exactly 4 years. That last requirement seems rather unimportant when compared to the first requirement.

 

[EricNau]

Well I think it depends how you define things. It's very American to have this "Senior, Junior, Sophomore, Freshman" thing. I think they're arguing that if you're graduating, then you're in the graduating class. She has all the credits necessary to be in that class, and to attend graduation. Graduation is all about earning credits. In fact, you'd think that by having a heavier workload, the younger person in this case is probably smarter. I don't know why you have the mentality that one person is "entitled" to be valedictorian, which should be about being the smartest person graduating that year. Using just sense (and with no understanding of what is proper in the US), the smartest person should get the honour of being named Valedictorian, not the smartest graduate who has been there for exactly 4 years. That last requirement seems rather unimportant when compared to the first requirement.

It goes deeper than that, however. In high school, your class is like a separate community within the school; it's the group of kids you've been with for the past four years, or even longer. You're essentially one large family. On graduation day, you want to see the smartest person in your "family" walk up and give that speech - you're proud of their accomplishment and you're proud that they're representing your class.

Also, what about seniors who chose to graduate mid-term? They are not honored as a valedictorian at the end-of-the-year ceremonies, even though they may be the smartest person on campus.

 

[Abstract]

You're essentially one large family.

I think that sounds great on paper, but lets be realistic for a second -- you probably just romanticised the high school experience just a bit.

I'd be happy with anybody who got the award, as long as they were deserving. I graduated with 500 other students. Do I honestly know who's in my classes, and what "year" they're in? No. However, if I've taken classes with someone, then that's that. I don't know or care if they're "supposed" to be a junior, while I'm a senior. It all becomes a wash when they end up doing the same classes, and the whole "Junior" and "Senior" tags become a matter of semantics more than anything else.

Or maybe you Americans really do feel like a family. I just get the impression that, like the rest of the world, you really don't feel that much warmth. "This ain't the Cosbys."

 

[CalBoy]

hmm think race might have anything to do with it?
naming a non-white kid as valedictorian versus the white sounding "Tyler Scott Franklin" who is getting it?

I really think that's making a stretch of it, although I'll acknowledge that the chance does exist that that is what motivated the decision makers in this case. However, given Dallas' relatively moderate to liberal climate, I don't think that race was a factor.

Then again, Texas has a way of surprising me (in a bad way).

As for the whole story itself, in hesitation, I agree with the district's policy.

While she did have the highest GPA, the very fact that she is competing against someone who had a different start from her is problematic in determining what is "fair."

For example, suppose that the "Senior Valedictorian" didn't have the same chance to take AP classes as a freshmen compared to this girl? If the classes weren't offered during his freshmen year, it really was out of his control and his rightful award is being taken away by circumstances beyond his control. That's not fair either.

I suspect that that's why the valedictorian is always chosen by the year of entry, not the year of graduation; it helps to ensure consistency when weighting the GPAs and avoids confounding factors that can unfairly tilt an advantage to one person or the other.

Like others, I too am puzzled by a GPA of 5.8. We had 4.0 for As and 5.0 for As in AP/Honors classes. There was no 6.0, and I can't fathom what would qualify for it.

Perhaps grade inflation really has gone too far now.

Either way, this girl should be looking at a full ride from all the Ivies and lots of other good schools, so I don't think her situation has become overly dire as a result of this development.

 

[maestro55]

Simple, enroll in 1 year of study hall, and graduate in a year.

Yeah, I wonder if they would let her just take another year of school. I know that isn't what she wants to do, and the school policy isn't fair and should be fought. If she still can't win the fight though she might look at alternatives that could still get her in the spot that she wants.

And yes, with her good GPA as someone mentioned she will get a full ride somewhere. In fact if she decided to go to a state school she would still get free tuition for being in the top 10% of her class. But it isn't just the scholarship but the title.

 

[Gelfin]

And yes, with her good GPA as someone mentioned she will get a full ride somewhere. In fact if she decided to go to a state school she would still get free tuition for being in the top 10% of her class. But it isn't just the scholarship but the title.

Once you've given the speech, gotten the scholarships and gone on your way, being valedictorian comes up remarkably infrequently in conversation.

 

[nizz]

pretty much off topic but this reminds me of how i lost the last rank spot in my high school

i was 550/551 or something ridiculous. the last kid suddenly decided to stop caring and failed every single class his senior year.

i can actually look back now and laugh at my rank because i just finished up my mathematics and statistics degrees from penn state main

 

[Lyle]

Similar concept, but the valevictorian must wish the class farewell while dressed as a character of his or her choice from Dickens. The speech traditionally ends with the valevictorian pleading for another serving of secondary education and being chased off the podium by the cane-wielding headmaster.

Thank you. I really needed that with the kind of day this has been.

 

[UWSpindoctor]

It wouldn't deal with who gets the scholarship but it seems like the logical thing to do in this case would be to recognize both of them at graduation. The fact that it's logical of course means that there's no way it will happen.

 

[ham_man]

Yes, I understand that. At my high school an "A" in an Honors or AP class was weighted as a 5.0. ...But based on the graduation requirements, even a 5.0 average was impossible because there were a few non-Honors class requirements. How could you possibly get a 5.8?

AP/advanced classes are 6.0 and regular classes are 5.0. If you take your regular classes (i.e. health, art, etc.) elsewhere on a pass/fail basis, you can conceivably get your GPA up to 5.9. It is hard as hell, but it is possible. The valedictorian at our school has a 5.63 GPA, and most people thought that was absurd. But a 5.898...

 

[TimJim]

AP/advanced classes are 6.0 and regular classes are 5.0. If you take your regular classes (i.e. health, art, etc.) elsewhere on a pass/fail basis, you can conceivably get your GPA up to 5.9. It is hard as hell, but it is possible. The valedictorian at our school has a 5.63 GPA, and most people thought that was absurd. But a 5.898...

An A in regular classes is 5.0? Awesome, it's different at my school.

My school, 4.0 is an A in regular. 4.5 is an A in Honors. 5.0 is an A in AP. As well, health/arts have a letter grade. Valedictorian at my school is like 4.8 or something.

 

[CalBoy]

AP/advanced classes are 6.0 and regular classes are 5.0.

What a crystal clear case of grade inflation.

What happened to the good old days when an A was just a 4.0?

 

[Chrispy88]

Maybe they count AP classes are weighted 6.0. I don't know. It sounds like the only logical way.

This is what they did at my high school - it was completely ludicrous, though, because all colleges converted it back to a 4.0 scale.

Anyway, honors classes were weighted on a 5.0 scale and AP classes were weighted on a 6.0 scale.

 

[bstreiff]

Meanwhile, how do you get above a 5.0 GPA?

Depends on the system that the school uses. Some schools use a 4-point scale, some use a 5-point scale, others use a 100-point scale.

It also depends on how honors/AP classes are weighted; when I was in high school, we used a 100-point scale, and grades from honors/AP courses got multiplied by 1.1.

 

[EricNau]

I think that sounds great on paper, but lets be realistic for a second -- you probably just romanticised the high school experience just a bit.

Probably true, although is graduation day not equally romanticized?

 

[mcarnes]

And what the heck is a valevictorian? I thought it was "valedictorian". The Oxford Dictionary (in Leopard) doesn't even have the word 'valevictorian'.

Yeah, OPs gotta put a dick in that vick.

 

[dukebound85]

there should be NO weighted grades

A=4.0
B=3.0
C=2.0
D=1.0
F=0

i graduated valedictorian in hs with a 4.0 gpa with tons of ap classes and classes from college while in hs

college does not have weighted grades so people need to get used to it
btw, i graduated summa cum laude with a 3.96gpa in mechanical engineering

gpa in itself doesnt mean ****, all it does is reflect your determination to do well in school


when i see gpa's over 4, i think its stupid. i mean having a 4.0 base means straight a's to have a 4.0. haveing a greater than 4.0 means that you could still get a b and have over a 4.0.....completly defeating the concept i believe

 

[themadchemist]

hmm think race might have anything to do with it?
naming a non-white kid as valedictorian versus the white sounding "Tyler Scott Franklin" who is getting it?

Occam's Razor. Why blame something insidious like racism when you can blame something far more common, like stupidity? Now, I don't know about the person who "reported" this to the school (that could have been racism, or more likely, sour grapes), but the school's behavior was in accordance with far too many school administrators around the country: An understanding and embrace of paper-pushing far beyond any appreciation of education.

 

[Abstract]

Depends on the system that the school uses. Some schools use a 4-point scale, some use a 5-point scale, others use a 100-point scale.

I think having different scales is stupid. I like how we do it in Canada. We just used our percentage grade (out of 100) from each class, and we averaged them. It's like magic, because it always worked, and it was always easy to understand.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

personally I like the 100 point scale system being used in high school. Namely because if you only use the 4.0 system it states making class rank much more difficult to do because there will be quite a few 4.0 students.
Plus it is not hard for people to understand a 100 point scale.

Either way I do think grad inflation is getting out of hand.

 

[zap2]

Should have taken the relaxed approach!


But I'm guessing she'll still be a good scholarship somewhere....so this is really a matter of pride, which isn't all that important.

 

[ham_man]

What a crystal clear case of grade inflation.

What happened to the good old days when an A was just a 4.0?

Differing ways of calculating GPA is completely exclusive from grade inflation. So all you old timers don't need to get your panties in a wad over a perceived slight at your heritage, because it isn't happening.

And for the others saying that scales should not be weighted, it would be ridiculous to put someone who got a 100 in AP Physics C on the same level as someone who got a 100 in a regular physics class. You have to reward ambition and desire, or the system gets all ****ed up. Especially in this day and age where admissions are sometimes based exclusively on where you rank in your class, you need to create a system that best reflects this. But most major private schools don't even look at GPA. They look at your grades individually and your rank, because they know that there are so many methods of calculation.

 

[CalBoy]

Differing ways of calculating GPA is completely exclusive from grade inflation.

Well, not really. This isn't so much a different way to calculate a GPA as it is a way to hand out extra grade points.

There's nothing wrong with giving AP students a 5.0 for their As; that makes perfect sense and is the method most schools use.

A 6.0 for an A seems to be the "everyone gets a trophy" logic that's so pervasive these days. Just remember that colleges don't ask for GPAs, they ask for transcripts.

 

[ham_man]

A 6.0 for an A seems to be the "everyone gets a trophy" logic that's so pervasive these days. Just remember that colleges don't ask for GPAs, they ask for transcripts.

So I guess that is why Americans measure our mountains in feet instead of meters...because we want all our mountains to be "special"? No offense, but your argument makes no sense.

GPAs are a method to measure intraclass achievements and nothing more.

 

[CalBoy]

So I guess that is why Americans measure our mountains in feet instead of meters...because we want all our mountains to be "special"? No offense, but your argument makes no sense.

No offense, but that's a terrible analogy, and as a student, you ought to know better.

What a 6.0 does for honors classes is give more consideration to the summit (for example) than to the foot or vice versa.

A 5.0 for AP classes still reflects additional effort and intelligence without skewing the GPA. The more grade units you give to an AP class, the more you overshadow the other classes non-AP classes a student takes, which makes the average more and more an inaccurate representation of a student's "average" capabilities (which is what a GPA is meant to do).

GPAs are a method to measure intraclass achievements and nothing more.

Yes, and by giving more weight to AP classes, you distort that measure. A 5.0 for AP classes gives a modest boost to one's GPA and only minimally distorts the true accuracy of a GPA. A 6.0 can more profoundly create a false impression of how a student performs across all of his/her classes.