<p>I just got back from D's Academic Awards Assembly ... ninety minutes, 315 academic awards for a class of 200. (Extra-curricular awards for sports, band, theatre, etc. are held separately.) Three Special Ed kids received awards ... they're mainstreamed in our school system. </p>
<p>I should probably provide some context for my D, who intends to pursue a challenging major. Her award for 'Academic Leadership' may not be sham ... even if a third of her class received the identical award. At least 'Academic Leadership' award recipients were selected by teachers. The two top academic awards are a popularity contest voted by the entire school staff "with academic performance being just one criteria." (Yes that's right ... no Val, no Sal.)</p>
<p>Perhaps stuff like this and grade inflation compresses the top of the graduating high school classes’ academic records to the point that there is little to distinguish between the excellent students and the merely very good students in terms of academic record. Which may be part of why admissions to the most selective universities can seem like random chance, and are commonly seen as being highly dependent on non-academic factors (if a school trying to admit 1,000 students gets 10,000 applicants who got 4.0 GPAs in the toughest possible schedules in their high schools, it becomes very hard to use academic record to distinguish between them).</p>
<p>I think this is more the case at small private schools, where parents need to be cultivated and rewarded for spending all that money, and the administration figures there’s always something nice that can be found to say about anyone. At our large public high school, only a tiny fraction of the class received any awards.</p>
<p>Then there’s our HS, 20 Vals! One of the seven Sals made a funny comment about blue and white collar and the fact that he got his grades more for nuts and bolts than tests and writing.</p>
<p>Lake Woebegone HS is in MY district. I counted the 3rd quarter honor roll and of about 380 juniors in the class, 257 were on the Honor Roll. The minimum GPA to get on to the Honor Roll is 3.5! Think about that - 65% of the class is not just above average, but well above average! Grade inflation rules.</p>
<p>However, my SD does not rank and the graduation speaker is a student whose anonymous speech has been selected by a committee.</p>
<p>The awards ceremonies take me back to JHS. I was valedictorian and definitely the top student in English, social studies and several religious study areas (history, laws, Bible, etc). I was given the English award only. When I cried, the principal told my mom they had to “share the awards so the other kids will feel good about themselves!”</p>
<p>Several years ago I caught my eldest D answering test questions incorrectly “so I can fit in.” I explained to her that by doing this she was doing a disservice to not only herself, but the teachers and classmates as well. “School is supposed to be preparing kids for success in life. Don’t you think the other students need to know that they’re not competitive? If they find that out now, they’ll have time to correct their weaknesses.” Of course this was before many universities began providing remedial classes for kids who got good grades but poor education in HS.</p>