pretty soon there will be generic transcripts too, all they will say is you graduated, but no GPA
Posted on 05/24/2016 9:55:25 AM PDT by HomerBohn
CARY, N.C. – The Wake County school board believes the decades long tradition of naming class valedictorians and salutatorians creates “unhealthy competition,” so they voted to end the practice.
Board members voted unanimously Tuesday to ban high school principals from recognizing the top students with the titles and move to the Latin system that uses designations including cum laude, magna cum laude and summa cum laude starting in 2018, The News Observer reports.
“We have heard from many, many schools that the competition has become very unhealthy,” board chairman Tom Benton told the news site. “Students were not collaborating with each other the way that we would like them to. Their choice of courses was being guided by their GPA and not their future education plans.”
The board vote on Tuesday was preliminary, and board members are expected to give the proposal final approval at their June 7 meeting. Under the new system, students with GPAs of 4.25 or higher would receive the summa cum laude designation, those between 4.0 and 4.249 would receive the magna cum laude title, and students between 3.75 and 3.99 would earn cum laude recognition.
“I love competition,” Benton said. “But there are competitions that you can measure very correctly and they do spur people on to bigger and better things.
“There are competitions that are much harder to have objective measurements and grading falls into that. You’ve got the subjectivity of grades being determinate.”
The Charlotte Observer noted that other area school districts like Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools don’t seem to agree with Wake County officials, and have no plans to abolish valedictorians.
Several area valedictorians for the class of 2016 expressed mixed views on the change.
“If you’re third or fourth in the class it must really be hard not to get any recognition, but there’s something to be said for the value of academic competition,” Leesville Road High School valedictorian Heather Crew told the News Observer.
“They should in general recognize honors students overall,” East Wake School of Integrated Technology valedictorian Taylor Barr said. “Students who work hard deserve recognition. But students who’ve worked really hard deserve a little more recognition.”
Melody Armistead, who shared the valedictorian title at Wake STEM Early College high school with Richard Marshall, said the “friendly competition” between the two was a key to her academic success.
“We were trying to see if we could top each other,” Armistead said. “If I’m going to be tied with anyone, I really wanted to be tied with Richard. He really gave me a run for my money.”
Knightdale High School valedictorian Jordan Nichols believes the news system could relieve some stress on high achievers.
“If you’re decimals way from being valedictorian or being up there with the valedictorian, that’s a lot of stress on you,” he said. “You’re going to feel like it’s your fault that you’re not number one.”
Fuquay-Varina High School valedictorian Anna Bennett said that eliminating the top-of-the-class recognitions could discourage some students from pushing themselves to be the best, but also noted that, in the bigger scheme of life, class rank is relatively unimportant.
“These are people killing themselves to get into Ivy League colleges,” she said. “School is stressful enough as it is.”
Competition is healthy if it stimulates self-improvement & greater marketability. It’s a fact of life — look at dating & marriage. Attractiveness depends on what you have to offer (as well as that society’s values). Someone else may be able to offer more. Should we should all stop getting married because it will make a single person feel bad?
Competition is unhealthy only when it’s coming from the ego — someone who needs to be No. 1 just for power or validation. Anyone who feels stressed by competition should simply bow out. They’re out of their league.
Personally, I think people who do exceptionally well should be rewarded as an inspiration to others. I am also very happy for that person. We may as well do away with the Oscars, Olympics, etc. Achievement without a benchmark leads to indifference & mediocrity.
The moron who uttered this nonsense should be carried out of town on a rail after being tarred and feathered.
This fits right in with the ‘lets not keep score crowd, everyone gets a medal or trophy etc.
Some of these leagues will have a tournament with maybe the first round being a two loss elimination, dropping the team to the ‘second tier’.
The first tier will be the survivors of the first go around while the second tier has its own ‘tournament’, both being single elimination.
IN essence the 3rd place overall finisher is ‘lower’ than the winner of the 2nd tier who got a ‘championship trophy’
Not only wasting money but ridiculous to boot.
Of course, I am a ‘meanie’ that believes that if a kid beats you at ANYTHING he/she has to EARN it and actually win, not me throw the ????? to make them feel better.
“Let him/her win, you made him/her cry”.. doesn’t work with me...
When one wins on their own, they really appreciate it more.
I remember one from our school who had a wicked sense of humor. He started his speech and one of the "hoods" stood up and started telling him he didn't know what he was talking about. The valedictorian pulled out what looked like a gun and "shot" him. loud bang and the guy fell down in the bleachers. Staff looked scared as hell for a second then the guy stood up as the speaker blew off the barrel and asked if there were any more dissenters. Everyone realized it was a prop and instead of getting canned/arrested, everyone took it in stride. Times was different in the late '60s.....
Valedictorians and Salutatorians get free rides (4 yrs val and 1-2 yrs sal) to in state colleges in TX. A decision like that would hurt a lot of kids. Why bother to do well in school if your effort doesn’t count for anything other than a participation ribbon.
I ain’t in no ways tarred.
WaCan’t get the maxpreps site to give this year’s sports rankings but am very curious.
From the Wake schools site, they proudly advertise they use Common Core and they print announcements in 7 languages. ‘Nuff said.
The district ranks at 60 out of 192 in the state and 3 out of 5 educational stars so it isn’t that great - http://www.schooldigger.com/go/NC/district/04720/search.aspx
Because too many Chinese and Indians were qualifying? Not enough Blacks? So eliminate the standards so the failures won’t feel bad?
Hmmmm…Would anyone let one of THOSE kids from one of THOSE schools do the brain surgery on you? Work on your car? Paint your house? Teach your kids…?? Uh oh… I answered my own question!!
Everyone should be honor students so they’ll feel good about themselves. /s
Let’s don’t keep score! Don’t give grades! It hurts feelings!
IOW, there are too many white valedictorians. Oh, and I suspect all competitive sports programs at the schools there will similarly be banned, too competitive?
Hey...diversity is our strength.
there is a presumption that a top scholar can be determined
given the inability to measure with absolute precision that presumption may not be valid. coupled with parental pressure on not only the individual students but the faculty by unrelenting mothers , the measuring is just not worth the effort.
the concept of magna cum laude recognizes excellence
mothers that unrelentally press and press and then whine and whine and whine are a serious problem
pretty soon there will be generic transcripts too, all they will say is you graduated, but no GPA
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