<p>Ah, some news from the OTHER high school in our district:</p>
<p>What do you think? I will say by way of a bit of explanation that middle school grades for high school courses are shown on the transcript, but I've always been told they are NOT used when computing the high school GPA.</p>
<p>I'm just glad our distict already had a stated policy. If memory serves me, she's been admitted to the Honors College at UT, so I'm pretty sure she already has a free ride.</p>
<p>I think the school handled things perfectly. She wasn't a member of the class of '08. She could have stayed in school another year and graduated with her class. It was nice of them to give her a title and honor her at graduation ceremonies. Her parents should encourage her to not feel vicitmized as she obviously has a bright future ahead of her.</p>
<p>I think it was a fair solution. One way to look at this is that she wasn't exposed to the risk of getting one lower grade over another year of high school, which could have dropped her GPA. It's also possible that the other kid's GPA is lower because, over four years, he took a number of non-weighted classes that she didn't take. He may have as many weighted classes as she does.</p>
<p>They should have defined the val in this school as the person who "completed their entire high school career in this school," not as someone who spent four years to do it.</p>
<p>This is stupid. She deserves to be val, and she deserves the scholarship money.</p>
<p>What this says is that if she hangs around for another year and takes basket weaving and gets all As, she'll be eligible for the prize next June. That's silly.</p>
<p>This is probably a dumb question, but in a situation like that, would it ever be possible for one student to be valedectorial and another to have the number one ranking? No idea why I'm asking this, just curious.</p>
<p>I think they should have read the rules more closely. Remember, in Texas the Valedictorian Race is a sport sanctioned by the state, complete with cheerleaders and a district rulebook. If they were interested in "playing",they should have learned the rules of the game. </p>
<p>Now, in the overall scheme of things it won't matter in her college admissions or her later life. She is unlikely to use the state scholarship anyway. This is just about the game. She has had a remarkable high school career that will serve her well. Congratulations to her on her outstanding achievements.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, her dad is all over the local radio talking about how unfair it all is. The scholarship in question appears to be a one year scholarship to a state school...again, not worth litigating over, esp. if you already have a full scholarship.</p>
<p>Graduation is not until June 7th...I hope by then this all cools down and the girl can give a nice speech and be allowed to enjoy her moment. Believe me, with that GPA, everyone thinks she's a godess already, so she will get plenty of positive strokes. (But like you said, as long as her dad doesn't make her feel like a victim in all of this.)</p>
<p>I wonder if the results of all of the lengthy deliberations would have been the same if the person with four years and a lower GPA was named Anjali Datta and the person with three years and a higher GPA was named Tyler Franklin?</p>
<p>So y'all believe in vals down there in Texas? Us folks up here in my neck of the woods think singling out the one kid who did the best in the most difficult course of studies hurts all the rest of the kids. No val. It would be too much like keeping score in tee ball. Some schools do bend a bit & name their "top students" and even sometimes call it "val" ... but there will be 5-10 of them.</p>
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<p>It's also incorrect. Unless it is either Dual-Credit Basketweaving, or AP or IP Basketweaving. Anything else will lower her GPA. ;)</p>
<p>Here in CT, we just call that "High Honors" and restrict it to the top 3%.</p>
<p>Edit: Referring to Kelsmom's post.</p>
<p>"It's also possible that the other kid's GPA is lower because, over four years, he took a number of non-weighted classes that she didn't take. He may have as many weighted classes as she does."</p>
<p>Hunt, you have an excellent point. On the radio they're saying that she had "run out of classes to take." Believe me, the school offers scores and score of clases. I'll bet that means that she has taken all the AP classes that are offered. If so, her senior year would be filled with unweighted "regular" classes which would certainly lower her GPA.</p>
<p>"What this says is that if she hangs around for another year and takes basket weaving and gets all As, she'll be eligible for the prize next June."</p>
<p>That probably wouldn't work. If there are no more honors-weighted courses for her to take, taking any normal class (like basket-weaving) would bring her GPA down, perhaps by enough to put her behind the other kid. That's my poiint--the other kid earned his GPA over four years, and may have taken non-weighted classes during that time. Although she accelerated, he may have done just as well in all the weighted classes as she did.</p>
<p>Cur, she's probably taken every AP that the school offers.</p>
<p>I am in the camp of "it doesn't matter in the scheme of things." I say this as the parent of a kid who had a higher gpa than a couple of the many "vals" in her class ... but she had a B in there. Unfair? Maybe. Important? No.</p>
<p>"I wonder if the results of all of the lengthy deliberations would have been the same if the person with four years and a lower GPA was named Anjali Datta and the person with three years and a higher GPA was named Tyler Franklin?"</p>
<p>Midwestmom, I believe they would be the same. Over the years our vals and sals have been quite diverse. (The one who impressed the heck out of me was the sal 2 years ago, who moved to the US and started learning English in middle school!!!!)</p>
<p>Excellent catch, Hunt. That's exactly what was going on. They gamed. They lost. Now they whine. Next salvo? Bias.</p>
<p>Hmmmm. Maybe I agree with the decision after all, then.</p>
<p>D's school has multiple vals, ususally 10-15 or so, but I guess it would be different if a scholarship were at stake... BTW, judging by this year's list of names, our vals are a very diverse bunch.</p>
<p>In fairness, they may not have gamed. It sounds like this girl may have good reasons for graduating early, and some uniformed counselor may have told her that it wouldn't matter.
I'm in no position to criticize even if it was gaming--when I was a senior in high school I had a free period, and went to the first couple of classes of Mechanical Drawing, because I thought it might be interesting. I dropped it and took a study hall instead when I realized that even an A would bring down my average, and the teacher announced that he gave very few As. Getting a B might have allowed Julie to get ahead of me.</p>