Yes, most high schools in the US no longer rank students, and the portion ranking students is almost certainly going to become increasingly small in the future. At some highly selective colleges, less than one quarter of matriculating students submit rank.
There are a variety of reasons for the change. One key ones is grade inflation. If a large portion of the class gets straight A’s, then class rank is going to hurt more students than it helps for college admissions or any other process that cares about rank. Another key one is the move towards a less competitive atmosphere where “everyone gets a trophy.” Beyond that, I don’t see much point to the valedictorian label. It stresses out students who are competing for the top GPA and often encourages them to make poor long term choices in an effort to beat their classmates and come out on top. It often leaves more top students hurt than content with the label selection; and being an arbitrary HS label that depends on a particular HS’s unique weighting system and/or other criteria, it has little meaning outside of HS.
A growing portion of of Texas high schools do not rank beyond designating the top 10%, as required by state law – either you are in the top 10% or no rank is specified. Some Texas HS’s have found this policy helps with college admissions, including portion admitted to more selective UT colleges. For example, one of the HSs in the report at http://austin.austinschools.org/sites/austin.austinschools.org/files/page-uploads/ahs_class_rank_recommendation.pdf mentions a 38% increase in admission to UT Austin and 49% increase at Texas A&M…
“Why can’t people come to grips with the idea that it’s OK for there to be a #1 and it’s OK for that not to be you. Without getting in to the actual latin, the custom is for Valedictorian to be the #1 academic kid in the school, not the top 1%, 5%, etc. ”
The thing is, you can still have ties. My kids’ high school awarded the highest GPA valedictorian and the second highest salutatorian. There were almost always ties. The year my son graduated there were 7 total Vals/sals.
This was with weighting. Class sizes of 300-350. With classes twice that size or larger, I can see where you could have a dozen valedictorians.
How courses should be weighed is not always clear. Having a valedictorian made a lot of sense back in the days when every kid took the same courses. Now there are multiple types and levels of courses. Should a community college course be weighed less or more heavily than an AP course? Should honors courses be given a .3 boost, a .5 boost, or a 1.0 boost? Should good summer course grades be allowed to replace mediocre school year grades for the same course or should both stand? Should non-academic courses like yearbook, gym or student council be included in the GPA? It seems every school does things differently.
I’m not a fan of “everyone gets a trophy” culture, but maybe the answer is to give fewer trophies, not more. I’m with @bluebayou (post #18).
I’m with @Sue22 . I think there should be none. It encourages gaming the system. I recall a friend who wanted to take Latin but did not because her school didnt have honors latin and it’d hurt her rank relative to kids taking Spanish . That’s nuts!
Excellence should be its own reward.
For a high achieving kid, those grades are already over-weighted on the scale of life given their role in college admissions.
I never said the motivation needs to be achieving #1. Personally I don’t care what grades my kids get, as long as they try their hardest, do their best work and learn the information. My point was simply, if a school is going to have the Val / Sal scenario, have it mean something. And that something traditionally means #1 and #2. Don’t water it down to accommodate the masses. Certainly the school should have a clear definition of how that’s measured. Some kids might be motivated to be Val / Sal and then they know what they have to do to achieve that. Others might not care (I wouldn’t have)
DS high school moved to a Latin honors system and quit naming a Val/Sal. At first I thought it was crazy but after I saw some of the gaming going on and pros and cons of taking X class, I see the benefits of not having Val/Sal.
I guess I’m a contrarian because I was val! I didn’t game the system. I just worked my tail off. I got the UT val scholarship and was really proud of myself - it definitely helped my self-esteem since I sure wasn’t one of the popular kids. At our 20th high school reunion, several of my classmates came up to me and my friend, the sal, because they wanted to get their pictures taken with us since we were the top two students. My friend and I gave our graduation speech together - we had a lot of fun with it since she was going to be an Aggie and I would be a Longhorn. She passed away a few years ago, so I treasure that memory.
Our district also gives the Valedictorian honor to all 4.0 students, and I think it’s the right call. You can take newspaper, art, theater, music, etc. (which don’t carry AP weighting) and still be a Valedictorian, and I think that’s important for ‘whole person’ development. If the honor only went to the top single student not only wold competition be fierce, many (most?) top students would seek to only take AP classes.
Our public school is small – about 200 to 225 grads per year. Last year there were 10 Valedictorians so about 5% which doesn’t seem excessive to me.
My 11th grader was telling me the other day about a classmate who’s taking the easiest courses in an attempt to make valedictorian. I can’t help but feel sorry for that kid.
My daughter’s attitude is that maybe it would be nice for the day to be the Val but the real prize is getting into the college that works best for you and, like she says, that’s not happening without APs.
My kids school district (21 high schools) is one that uses the overall averages from all classes to figure out class rank. The valedictorian this past school year had a 102.34 average (AP classes are given a 10 point boost towards the average) so rigor is a part of the calculation and we tend to have 1 valedictorian and 1 salutatorian every year. It does make for some “grade grubbing/trying to game the system” among the top students, but it makes figuring out the top students easier than a 4.0 GPA due to the rampant grade inflation that seems to be the new normal (at least at my kids high school). My kids particular high school has at least 50 kids a year with a 4.0 GPA (class sizes run between 800-850 students). I guess I am in the old school camp as long as rigor and grades are both a part of the equation.
@socaldad2002 We once had a great celebration with the kids. All the participation trophies which had been stuffed in a drawer were removed and we threw them in the trash and laughed about “participation” awards. My kids were in grammar school then. There was quite a collection. Medals, trophies, certificates, etc.
Dial forward a number of years, my kids have been raised to compete. They love it. You compete on the playing field ( which for some strange reason, no one seems to have an issue with), you compete in school and you compete in activities. That’s life. You work hard you try and you throw your hat in the ring. They have won some big awards across the board. I don’t think that would be the case if we had raised them to be in the top %.
I think having a valedictorian is fine as long as it’s the top student ( or if there is a statistical tie-the top students). It’s not the top 1%, 5% etc. Most people who have kids who play an individual sport realize this. If your kid runs, for example, they are not going to share their win with someone who came in a half second behind. That person is still behind.
The winner is the winner. And if you raise your kids to get in there and compete they will learn life lessons. The lesson is, we respect those who win, we recognize our efforts and we work hard to do the best we can every time. We also have to recognize that there are many people in the world who might be better than us in any category. That’s fine. It’s not the winning that’s important it’s the journey. But winning is sweet and should be rewarded. Kids who compete know that.
I’m in the old school camp. By definition, there can only be one Val and one Sal. If a district feels it’s unfair to single out a student based on minuscule GPA differences, then get rid of Val and Sal altogether and recognize the top 5% of the class.
What gets me is that there are scholarships for valedictorians and that is what ends up not fair. Our district with up to 800 in graduating classes has one valedictorian where I see others have 30. Because of the way our district does it kids don’t get scholarships that would have at other schools with identical grades and rigor. I prefer the one valedictorian, one salutatorian rule. There could be a couple of exceptions where two students have identical w and uw grades with no other tie breakers available. Here there also track grades on a 1-100 scale so if identical they go look at the actual grades in the classes.
We respect those who win. Following on from your foot race analogy, the race is handicapped. Some kids eat healthy, sleep, train, have a nice pair of running shoes, coaching, others have to work, take care of siblings, walk to the track, make do with some old sneakers.
It depends where you’re starting from as to how impressive where you end up really is.
I like those schools that award Val and Sal to kids who embody the school spirit. Finishing with the highest gpa should bring its own rewards.