Lincoln East High School's home of Spartan news

The Oracle

Lincoln East High School's home of Spartan news

The Oracle

Lincoln East High School's home of Spartan news

The Oracle

Valedictorians Missing Across The Country

Valedictorians+Missing+Across+The+Country

        Across the country, high school districts are eliminating the class rank system and are no longer recognizing valedictorians at graduation. Many administrators agree that the competition in selecting a single valedictorian causes unnecessary stress and creates an unhealthy environment where students often overlook the vast experiences available within education. The tremendous pressure to have perfect grades buries valedictorians, and the contest for class rank generally produces students with a mindset to focus, solely, on chasing grades rather than pursuing an all-around education. In fact, this discussion of eliminating class rank is a current decision in the works for Lincoln Public Schools.

East’s Instructional Coordinator, Mr. Fries, explained that LPS has not identified a valedictorian for as long as he can remember. Fries can’t specifically say why the decision–to not elicit a valedictorian– was ever made, but his guess is that “It’s already a little bit too competitive with class rank, and honoring a valedictorian might even make it more so. You could also get into having such a numerous amount of valedictorians, with classes of 400-500 students, that the graduation would take too long if they all gave a speech.” Fries propose that these reasons may be why schools across the district rather recognize the top three percent.

        In response to the active debate within our district–of removing class rank–Fries shared his agreement with many administrators across the country. “I personally would like them [The District] to get rid of class rank, reason being is that there are other ways for universities to evaluate students–which they do use. Getting rid of that burden would allow students to take classes they’re actually interested in and to be a little less concerned about taking classes that boost their class rank.”

        Regardless of the ultimate decision for LPS, schools– all around– are deciding against valedictorians and class rank. Most have begun to acknowledge students with titles such as “Graduating with Honors” or “Highly Distinguished.” depending on the GPA range. This method allows the recognition of more students and shifts the focus from being within the top 3% to succeeding in school while taking classes for interest. As graduation classes grow, the image of a single valedictorian disappears. Because many school officials want to honor more students, Valedictorian may well be absent from our vocabulary in a few decades.

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