<p>Our school does it after the third (of four) marking periods senior year. It would not be feasible to wait any later than that. I think it is a fair way to do it, as far as timing.</p>
<p>I think it is feasible to wait later - all the high schools in our district do it. The registrar already knows who the top 6 or so are, and the top 4 are asked to prepare a speech. The registrar gets final grades, final exams, crunches the numbers and notifies the top two. They get a day to be nervous and then give their speeches at graduation! ;)</p>
<p>Ours are announced at a Senior Awards assembly held several weeks before graduation. Besides the valedictorian and salutatorian, the president of the senior class and maybe some other students also give speeches. All of these speeches have to be a specified length in minutes and they are reviewed by a panel of teachers ahead of time for appropriateness. The students also practice their speeches. There are also rather fancy programs printed which have the names of the speakers. For these reasons, it would not be feasible to wait until right before graduation to announce the speakers. FWIW, I don't think there would ever be any change in val or sal if they waited until the end, because one marking period has very little effect on a final grade, and even if a final grade did change, one grade has very little effect on overall GPA out of a total of four years.</p>
<p>Preliminary in August, then final at end of January. When I went to HS in the day, we didn't find out for sure until all final grades came out in June, right before graduation.</p>