How many students/parents understand it? (I think some may just see the word “scholarship” and don’t distinguish.)
At our school the only way the school would know about scholarships would be if the student reports it (and they do ask students to report it so they can recognize the students at “scholarship night”). I don’t see how they would be aware of it otherwise.
What about Honor Rolls? Can they be listed? or announced? or awards given?
Names of sports team members and their times/records?
Our private HS used to list all of the seniors and the colleges that they would be attending in the HS newspaper. Students could refuse to participate if they wanted to, but very few (if any) refused. Yes, it was a kind of marketing, with everyone patting themselves on the back for all of the elite college acceptances. A few years ago, one student greatly protested this practice and also refused to tell anyone where he was attending college out of principle. Since then, the school paper gives generic stats like number of kids attending the ivy league, number of kids attending California colleges, etc.
Our small diverse public HS does publish the seniors plans in the last issue of the school newspaper. I am sure you can opt out. The majority of the kids go to community college or state directional Us but there are kids at Ivys and kids going straight to work or the military. I don’t have a problem with it as long as a kid can opt out although it doesn’t seem like anyone does; the kids all know who is going where.
They also take photos for the year book on decision day, when all the kids wear T shirts of the college they plan to attend. They take a photo of all the state flagship kids, kids in southern colleges, kids in Boston, etc etc.
I’ve never understood why we are all right with publishing all the sports statistics, but can’t celebrate academic achievements. I don’t think scholarships should be published - particularly since schools can’t seem to separate the concept of need based awards from merit - and colleges do a lot of mixing and matching on that score as well.
I think we can end up opening a can of worms with this stuff. If privacy is going to be taken to such a level, then honor rolls, Val and Sal designations, athletic awards, athletic stats, subject awards, etc, are all going to become private because when you name Sally as Val, and Johnny as Sal, then that means everyone knows that Sammy and Susie and the rest weren’t the two top students at that school.
Think about how crazy this can become…Can you announce that Michael won the math award? Is doing so revealing that Mary and Bobby weren’t as smart as him in Calculus?
When a 1/3 or 12 of the school is named on the Honor Roll, are you then saying that Billy and Julie didn’t have at least a 3.5 because they weren’t named?
Very interesting points of view! Thanks for commenting guys 
Personally, I think the newspaper is a great idea. I’m sure everyone is curious on where the seniors end up. BUT I do think they should at the very least notify the students of this practice, especially since this is the very first time my school is doing this. (Usually they just release the list of schools – no names) For whatever reason he/she doesn’t want to be included, they should comply to their wishes.
Our small town newspaper used to publish each senior’s post-graduation plans. The editor got the information from the school guidance counselor. The school provided this information to the paper for many years–then, a few years ago, the paper started publishing a list of colleges where the current seniors were accepted with an asterisk next to the colleges kids would be attending. I know the editor. and she told me that there were complaints to the school and the school started providing the information in the new format where kids are not linked with schools. I get the privacy issue, but this is a small town where each graduating class is about 100-125 kids. Everyone already knows where kids are going to college.
Scholarship awards are announced at a special honor’s ceremony and again at graduation.
Our school doesn’t do this, but they used to have a chart at the front of the school that listed the scores and names of everyone with an 1800+/27+ SAT/ACT. I’m guessing an issue arose, because they don’t do it anymore. They do still publish the honors students I think.
Grades, awards, etc are all things that reflect the student’s abilities and accomplishments in high school. Colleges are a whole different ball game. They involve a parent’s ability to pay, may reveal religious or cultural restrictions that a student doesn’t want to reveal (example: female student’s parents won’t let her go to a sleep away college), etc.
Imo they are NOT comparable. Though I do know people who would not allow their child’s name to be published online due to various issues (mostly abusive ex spouses that they were trying to avoid).
We live in Georgia. All high school students who graduate with a cumulative 3.0 GPA in their Math,Science,English&Social Studies classes can use the Hope scholarship for college and 3.7 they have the Zell Miller scholarship. I was surprised when I went to DS’s graduation. The program listed each kids name and the kids with the Hope got 1 star and the Zell kids got 2 stars. So basically everyone could see the kids who graduated with a 3.7 or above , which ones were above 3.0 and which ones were below. While my son had 2 stars I still thought it was wrong. I could see kids that I thought for sure would have had at least a 3.0 G.P.A. and didn’t. I don’t think people needed to know that.
Plus since this was the high school graduation program it’s not going to be tossed in the trash like a newspaper. It’s going to be around in some peoples scrapbooks forever…
At my school, they did a wall of college decisions with our senior pictures and the school we chose. It was included in the graduation program too, no one seemed to have an issue with it
I think this is an incredible invasion of privacy. In fact, it might even be illegal depending on how the GC got that info.
If you’re going to be a journalist, please understand that even if you’re able to get information, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s OK or ethical to publish it.
The difference is in who is providing the information. When mine were graduating their ECs had a Sr night where each kid’s photos and post-college plans were part of a parent-provided video.
Then later The graduation program listed NM, NHS, NAS, programs for which you have to allow public recognition.
There was also a scholarship recognition evening assembly . Everyone who was attending under any scholarship was honored equally. Q
While I liked that I think it fostered some false impressions in the community. For example, it the program reads- “Ashley Post - has been awarded scholarship to Yale”.
Far too many parents will think their kid will get merit scholarships to an ivy.
It is not in violation of FERPA for schools to disclose “Directory Information.” Directory information can include honos, awards, college…but they must be classified as such and parents must be informed.
http://familypolicy.ed.gov/faq-page?src=ferpa#t61n94
I wouldn’t be surprised if parents are notified by many forms we signed without giving too much thoughts.
My kid’s private school published where each student is going to college in the final senior people. No one has every objected to it.
OP’s school is not the first school to publish such information, and it is not the paper’s first time in doing so. If it was a violation, they wouldn’t have continued to do so. Those school administrators spend most of time to make sure their behind is not exposed.
Taking the OP’s post at face value (not that I think s/he is lying but assuming that the parents didn’t sign or know per):
ETA: Further, in general, the argument that “well, no one’s objected (publicly) so it must be fine” does not sit well with me on any level.
Just because OP didn’t think they were not notified, it doesn’t mean parents were not notified. I remember beginning of each year I signed a big stack of papers, but my kids didn’t know what I signed. One of those papers was about giving consent to allow them to publish pictures of my kids and other information. One of my kid’s friend wanted to keep the family whereabouts from her abusive father, so they always had to specifically ask the school to never publish any information about her.
Schools publish information about students - honor rolls, awards outside of school (both academic & sports), ECs - all the time, not sure why it is such a top secret about where they are going to college.
Based on what’s published by the government about FERPA, student’s directory information can be disclosed without parent’s consent.
I wonder if students who are holding out for a late wait list acceptance feel uncomfortable having their placeholder college published?
Yes, that is one of the exceptions to ferpa.
since the games/competitions are public the results are public; anything already in the public domain is not subject to ferpa.