<p>Just curious how other schools handle students who transfer in later in HS and are eligible to graduate as the val or sal. Suppose it would be a similiar issue if schools use summa/magna/laude distinctions. Here's what I mean: For example, let's say a student comes in from another school at the begining of the senior year and has very high grades. For our purposes, let's say he was #1 at his old school, but parents were transferred and he had to move schools. He continues to do well and takes the highest level of classes and is going to be ranked #1 for graduation purposes. </p>
<p>I'm wondering if this is fair as his former school may have had much lower standards than the current school, giving him the advantage over students who have attended current school for the full four years.</p>
<p>In some ways, I guess it comes down to this question: Are we honoring the student(s) who attended the current school for the full four years and had the highest GPA or just the student(s) who had the highest GPA at the time of graduation, regardless of where the four years were spent? </p>
<p>...I'm sure our school isn't the first to deal with this issue!</p>
<p>If the kid was able to do well at your school, does it matter if his last school was easier? I know it sometimes involves scholarship money, but people take this val/sal thing overboard. Honor someone for going to the same school all 4 years??!!!??</p>
<p>We as a family have had to move during my kiddos high school careers. My children had to move whether they wanted to or not. Transitioning from high school to high school is hard in itself. Worrying about whether they will be val or sal doesn't help. We figured it would work out in the end.</p>
<p>In our situation the school they left was much more difficult in terms of academics and athletics. The school population they left was 4800+ for 1 high school with 32 more high schools the same size in the same district. Big difference in making the varsity squad as a freshman in that school than in the new school of 1500 where there were hardly enough athletes to fill a squad. Big difference in winning a state championship where they go on to junior nationals than in a state that barely has enough facilities for some of their D1 teams.</p>
<p>Add to that leaving a school with EVERY AP offered to a school that offers 3 (maybe). Sophomore son (senior son now) then could have graduated at the end of his sophomore year because he had already fulfilled the new state's and district's graduation requirements. </p>
<p>I don't think it is about honoring students who have to deal with decisions that are beyond their control. I think its about honoring students. Period. Maybe that is why so many schools are doing away with val/sal or ranking in general.</p>
<p>Just my take on the situation from the other side.</p>
<p>At our high school, you must be enrolled for two full academic years to be considered for Val or Sal. Also, your GPA is only computed using the grades from OUR high school for the time spent there. No grades from previous schools are computed into the GPA for any student. In fact, I know one family who was offered a job relocation. Their child (a rising senior) is number one in her class and will likely be the val (no one else is close). She would be ineligible to be the val at her new school. The family will NOT relocate until the student graduates from high school.</p>
<p>It also sometimes works (or doesn't) in reverse. My d. will probably be penalized for her transfer. She came from a private school with a tough curriculum, and in general, a more competitive class, to a public school with a different, although similar, grading structure. Her grades were good at the former school, but the classes are not weighted the same as her current school. Therefore her GPA will be lower than had she started HS at the public school, and accomplished the same grades. We knew this going in, the penalty is not a great one, and she is not in line for the top spots, but even so, it could make a significant difference in the "quartile" achieved, which in turn can affect scholarship eligibility.</p>
<p>I personally hate ranking, and for the most part, my children have benefited from it. Education should not be about a race, but about learning. But, until we change the methods (which I doubt will happen anytime soon), we live with the "rules of the game", and try to be as fair as possible, understanding at the same time, that there is no 100% fair method.</p>
<p>I think that some of the issue comes about when the weighted courses are mostly in junior/senior year. At my high school, the highest possible GPA you could get during freshman year was about a 4.1 or a 4.2, because honours weight was only given to a handful of courses, even though top students would be enrolled in all honours. During senior year, the top possible GPA was a 4.8 during one semester (no gym class) and a 4.6 or so during the semester in which gym is required. Hence the problem. (Blair Hornstine took advantage of this issue, by the way.)</p>
<p>One fair way to do this is to have multiple vals, if one transfer would get it under one system and another, four-year student is pushed out because of required, non-honours courses. </p>
<p>My law school calculates Latin honours for transfers by converting the class rank at the old school to the class rank at the new school. For example, if your 3.4 at your old school put you in the top 50%, the law school won't average in a 3.4; they'll figure out what a student who is in the top 50% has, which might be a 3.15, and give you that GPA.</p>