Pro/con views on ranking students as No. 1: A valedictorian and headmaster disagree
The print AJC op-ed page has a great pro/con package today on whether schools should name valedictorians.
The pro piece was written by my AJC colleague Shane Blatt, who was his Key West high school’s No. 1 graduate. The con was written by Paul Bianchi, who is headmaster of a school that does not name a valedictorian, the Paideia School.
Here is Shane Blatt’s reasons for keeping the tradition of naming a valedictorian:
This month marks the 20th anniversary since I delivered my valedictory speech before more than 1,000 students, faculty and parents. Under the stadium spotlights on that sweltering night in June ,1992, I touched on themes of personal responsibility and self-sacrifice, of pushing boundaries and never giving up.
Such themes would resonate in today’s troubling times, and if I were the valedictorian of a high school in 2012, perhaps I would deliver the same speech. Only I might not get the chance.
That’s because a small but growing number of schools across the nation, including some in metro Atlanta, are opting not to rank seniors and pick a valedictorian. Some educators believe that jettisoning the distinction eliminates close calls, controversies and, dare I say it, competition.
Is this the lesson we want to teach our nation’s children: That rather than confronting close calls and controversies — such as those last year in Cherokee County and this year in Gainesville — with sound logic and rational policies, we’d rather remove the valedictory distinction altogether? By that logic, should the same hold true for close votes for best actor or actress at the Oscars? The Heisman Trophy in college football?
More concerning, however, is the inane notion that w e should downplay excellence because, as one local educator put it, ranking students and singling out the top achiever have “a depressing effect” on everyone else. Here’s something that’s really depressing: students who aren’t prepared for life outside high school.
In college or trade school, students will square off with their peers. They will enter classrooms with perhaps hundreds of other students from all walks of life and intelligence levels, and they will compete for the highest grade, internships or apprenticeships. When they graduate, they will vie yet again for jobs with an even larger pool of peers in an ever-competitive workforce.
But some educators are under the impression that removing incentives to excel will miraculously put the focus back on learning for learning’s sake. Yet, in some schools in metro Atlanta, students are allowed to do makeup work to raise subpar test scores. What’s the incentive to study for the test to begin with if students know they can raise their grade after the fact?
Dr. Meena Shah knows a thing or two about the value of hard work, having raised three children who all became valedictorians of Greater Atlanta Christian School. Asked her thoughts on schools nixing the valedictory distinction, she said: “There’s no reason to stop. It is a healthy competition to recognize somebody who has excelled, with not just a God-given IQ but hard work.”
Here is an excerpt of the opposing view, by Paul Bianchi, headmaster at the Paideia School:
The mechanics of selecting a valedictorian by calculating grade point average (GPA) are arbitrary. Some schools weigh certain courses, such as Advanced Placement, to give extra points in the GPA on the assumption that high grades in such courses are less frequent. Sometimes they are. Sometimes they are not. Such practices also promote gamesmanship in course selection.
An obsession with GPA ignores the reality that teachers are different in how they evaluate student work, even when the assignments are similar. Mr. Goodfellow is an easy grader. Mr. Stingy is unable to bring himself to write the letter A. Furthermore, the differences in GPA among high-achieving students are often infinitesimal, a hundredth or a thousandth of a point.
Even if these mechanical problems could be fixed, which I do not think is possible, the fundamental question remains: Why have a valedictorian in the first place? A common, knee-jerk reaction, sometimes spoken in slogans such as “a nation of excellence” or “race to the top,” is the system motivates students to work harder. My experience is such students strive to do well for a variety of reasons. They are rewarded for these efforts.
It is not only unnecessary but also counterproductive to overlay that message with all the distracting intensity of a questionable system that allegedly measures years of achievement in numbers rounded off to three or four decimal points. A common concern among teachers is that many high-achieving students already suffer from an undue amount of stress. Intense stress at any age is unhealthy. It constricts creativity and curiosity. Students become overly cautious, too worried about just the right answer and less able to generate and think about the important questions.
School is not a swim or track meet. Society needs an educated citizenry. The impact of the system that produces a valedictorian is equally wrongheaded for the 99 percent as it is for the 1 percent.
My argument is not a plea for relaxed academic rigor in high schools. We need more rigor, genuine and lasting intellectual challenges that infuse an entire school and motivate all students to do their very best. The competition for class valedictorian and all the hoopla surrounding it fails everyone.
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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66 comments Add your comment
TrishaDishaWarEagle
June 7th, 2012
9:59 pm
sorry, my competition list dwarfed my cooperation list.
Anonmom
June 7th, 2012
10:48 pm
Personally, I’m in favor of retaining val/sal — I like competition — I think it is a driver and it should stay. I like that our current private school also has cum laude recognition (in addition to NHS) and there is a way in Junior year and it opens up to more kids senior year — I think that’s well done. I agree with some posters, though, that in order to be val/sal is somewhat of a “game” at many schools and the kids who “get” that and “vie” for it are going to have an edge “in the race for #1″ — for instance in DCSS — kids who earn Carnegie units in middle school for math and spanish/french go into the process “behind” because they then have 2 carnegie units at 4.0s that will “weight down” against the 5.0 of an AP (and honors/gifted don’t weight at all) — so an incoming kid from private school or another county without the carnegie units already counted who can get to AP classes sooner can “game” the system. Further, some kids have figured out how to take extra AP classes — starting in 9th grade or by taking 1 or 2 in 10th grade as most kids start taking them in 11th grade. The one who winds up val is the one with the most As in the most AP classes and fewest other classes counted at only a 4.0 …. it’s a math game. But if you aren’t aware that it’s happening then you lose the #1 spot by not taking enough AP classes (a good friend’s daughter would have been sal in the class of 2010 had she taken 1 extra AP class over the 4 years). In private school it is working slightly differently because the honors classes are weighted more than non-honors, AP are weighted more than that and all classes go in at the grade earned at the end of the semester so it’s being calculated based on total GPA (compared to DCSS where it was being calculated on As being a 4.0 and Bs being a 3.0 ….. etc. such that a low A and a high A were considered the same — not the case in our current school…..).
William Casey
June 7th, 2012
11:13 pm
@Ed: I’m sorry that you misunderstood the sentence of mine that you quoted. It was not a knock on cooperation. I coached team sports for 25 years and fully understand the need for both competition and cooperation. My list for competition wouldn’t dwarf the one for cooperation but, it would be longer.
William Casey
June 7th, 2012
11:17 pm
@Jerry Eads: EXACTLY right!
William Casey
June 7th, 2012
11:23 pm
@Ashley the anti-sports person: I coached basketball, football and baseball for 20+ years. I never recognized a NUMBER ONE player. We were a TEAM! I don’t believe that your comparison holds.
Tabitha
June 8th, 2012
7:10 am
In our vaunted real world there are winners and losers. The education system is losing sight of this reality and is failing our children becasue of it. One sales rep gets the deal, one does not. One person is promoted, one isn’t.One applicant gets the fellowship, one doesn’t. The margin between winning and losing is often ridiculously small, even irrelevant. But we will have to learn to win and to lose in order to function in the real world.
In learning that there are winner and losers we also learn that these outcomes are not identities unless we choose to let them be so. I Lost is very different from I am a loser. If our kids don’t learn that outcomes happen, they are clear and that they don’t make your life or destroy it they are the poorer for it.
My two cents worth
June 8th, 2012
8:07 am
It seems no one has posted an opinion that has changed anyone’s opinion, so I will leave you with the advice I gave my sons growing up. The world doesn’t love you like your Mama does. Deal with it.
Jerry Eads
June 8th, 2012
9:25 am
@2cents: Indeed heard that. Winning a “competition” in most arenas is a roll of the dice just like grades and test scores, but ya still hafta stay tough and keep pushing. I’ll nevertheless always choose to work with other folks rather than shaft ‘em (all too often what people REALLY mean by “competition”), though.
Ed Johnson
June 8th, 2012
9:26 am
@William, take one day, just one day. Keep a log. For each instance of “competition” you find yourself involved in that day, list it on the left. For each instance of “cooperation” you find yourself involved in that day, list it on the right. At the end of the day, compare. And if your “cooperation” list isn’t way longer than your “competition” list, then, well, I’ll owe you.
PapaSmurf
June 8th, 2012
10:24 am
When you graduate from college, you compete with other job seekers for the best jobs. It’s a grueling process that at times can be highly subjective. When you get that job, you compete with your co-workers for incentives (merit increases, stock, plum assignments, promotions, etc.). It’s a flawed process that at times can be highly subjective. If you’re an entrepreneur, you compete for venture capital to start your business – a complicated dance that can be highly subjective. See the pattern here?
Ed Johnson
June 8th, 2012
10:30 am
Shane Blatt states: “More concerning, however, is the inane notion that we should downplay excellence because, as one local educator put it, ranking students and singling out the top achiever have “a depressing effect” on everyone else. Here’s something that’s really depressing: students who aren’t prepared for life outside high school.”
This specious argument brings immediately to mind one word: indoctrination.
Indoctrination that winning necessarily means excellence.
Indoctrination that competition learned in one area of life does not transfer to other areas of life.
For example, indoctrination that blocks seeing competition contributing to our country’s high divorce rate. One spouse always competing to win the argument, to win out over the other spouse.
For example, indoctrination that blocks seeing competition contributing to our country incarcerating so many of its people. So many people always competing to win at somebody else’s expense through robbery, rape, murder, and mayhem.
For example, indoctrination that blocks seeing competition contributing to our country lagging many other countries on scales of educational excellence. We constantly compete amongst ourselves to produce as few winners as possible and as many losers as possible. They cooperate amongst themselves to produce as many winners as possible and as few losers as possible. Then, the indoctrination leads us to believe they are competing with us when their “winning” in educational excellence is a natural outcome of their cooperation.
another comment
June 8th, 2012
11:49 am
Every County system counts AP, Honors and Regular classes different. They also do the ranking for Val. and Sal diff.
For example Cobb County, grades on an A is 90 and above, B is 80 and above, C is 74 and A above, D is 70 to 73, and F is 69 and Below. A = 4, B= 3, C= 3, D= 1, F = 0. Cobb only gives final grades in classes by the A,B,C,D, F, So the teachers and the admin. in Cobb will tell you that a 90 and a 100 is the same it is an A. Cobb Add’s 1 additional points for AP classes anytime they are taken. Only starting Sophmore year do they add 1 additional points for IB classes, and then .5 points for honors classes.
Fulton County on the other hand bases rank on the numeric grade. They also do not give out any D’s so 70 and above is a C. In Fulton County they had 7 additional points for AP classes and 7 additional points for Honors classes. ( that makes no sence at all that there is no differnce between honors and AP, they are night and day in difficulty.). You will also find in Fulton county that the A grades tend to be alot higher on the A scale then in Cobb, since in Cobb you will be told an A is an A.
The biggest problem happens if you move across the River from Cobb into Fulton, the grading doesn’t match up. If it is so different then why doesn’t it zero out and a fresh start on the GPA be given like the kid from out of state. In state moves are really killed by the lack of coordination between districts.
Really amazed
June 8th, 2012
2:23 pm
I can see Val/Sal but not total class ranking. Some of your best private schools only choose a Val/Sal but opt not to class rank the entire class.
Anonmom
June 8th, 2012
9:55 pm
Thre are lots of things in life with winners and losers — sports, politics, the judiciary, Congress, contracts — just off the top of my head. Sometimes the boy gets the girl or the girl gets the boy. Sometimes they break up and one didn’t want to… Life is about learning how to compete for the “win” and to accept the “loss” with all your heart and pride and with all the gusto that you can muster and to be able to psychologically handle it and to not compete by breaking any ethical rules. The winners in medicine and enginneering get the big patents — the first ones in get them — the 2nds ones lose. Life is about that balance. Sometimes, cooperation is needed — othertimes, sheer will and guts and gusto is needed. School is the training ground and removing the “win” from all of it and never teaching how to “win” and how to “lose” just sets them up for the big, uncontrollable ones to be suicidal moments — you can’t control everything — you can’t make the boy love the girl or ask him/her to the prom; you can’t make the college accept the kid (unless you’ve got an awful lot of money and even then it might be hard); you can’ tmake certain places hire the kid…. at some point it’s going to catch up and back fire — healthy competition is good … the kids need to learn to compete for the win and how to win and lose gracefully — it needs to be fair and the rules to be clear from the get go — e.g. 7 points for AP and 5 for honors so it’s fair for the kids taking the harder classes and set it up from 9th grade on. But let them compete for it. That’s part of what made America great. I want kids who know how to win and lose gracefully running our country in 20 years not a bunch of kids who grow up unable to know the difference and who can be over run as imps because they’ve been so sheltered. I want the skills of the “Greatest Generation” to continue on to the next generation and the next generation so that there are doctors and lawyers and politicians to keep America well and a military I trust to protect us and I’m not so sure I see that on the horizon.
Educator for Life
June 9th, 2012
10:38 am
@Shar, with regards to Paideia giving grades only when it is forced to, I am trying to determine the source of your information. I taught high school mathematics there for over 6 years and grades were always due. We sent home advisor reports every three weeks. These reports included homework and assessment grades. Please make sure to get the facts straight before you type.
Profe
June 10th, 2012
10:11 pm
In the name of fairness in the 1980’s. The DeKalb school system eliminated the valedictorian title. At least a decade of fine scholars were denied this time honored reward for hard work and hours of study. We want our students to achieve excellent results but think recognizing their achievement isn’t fair. Go figure!