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Ousting the valedictorian

Boulder Valley has reasonable alternative in its plan

The Rocky

Published November 14, 2007 at 11:46 p.m.

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We wouldn't read too much into Boulder Valley School District's move to eliminate valedictorians at its high schools. There are other schools in Colorado that have already done as much, even if they aren't always willing to admit it.

The most straightforward way to end the practice of singling out a valedictorian is, obviously, to change the policy so no one is designated for that honor. That's Boulder Valley's plan - and it's not as if the move is unprecedented.

Many high schools, however, have chosen a stealthier strategy. They've devalued the honor by designating valedictorians in clusters. A graduating class will have five, 10, 15 or even more "valedictorians" - sometimes with each providing a mini-address of 30 seconds or so at graduation.

So much for any truly meaningful honor for the highest-ranked student. "China and India are raising their standards while Boulder is dumbing down," charged Sen. Josh Penry, R-Fruita, when he heard about the demise of valedictorians in Boulder (which will not actually occur until the class of 2010 takes the stage).

"How are we going to define excellence when our kids are falling further and further behind the rest of the country and even the world," he added.

We'd join Penry in his jeremiad if Boulder were actually planning to institute a Lake Wobegon environment in which every student were deemed above average without any important honors for academic distinction.

But that is not what Boulder appears poised to do at all.

A district committee has recommended that high schools create a system of summa cum laude honors, covering about the top 3 percent of studentso magna cum laude (the next 7 percent)o and cum laude (an additional 10 percent) - meaning 20 percent of a class would be eligible for honors.

No high school in the Boulder Valley district has more than 2,000 students divided among four grades. As a result, no graduating class is likely to have more than a dozen students, give or take a handful, in the summa cum laude category. That's a small enough group to constitute a genuine academic elite. If they're given appropriate recognition by the school community - we're talking about something more public, formal and celebratory than a letter from the principal to the home - Boulder will remain true to the crucial mission of encouraging and rewarding academic excellence.

We understand the worry of those who fear that scuttling the tradition of valedictorian sends the wrong message to students about the importance of hard work and academic achievement. After all, in most high schools the stars of the athletic fields already enjoy greater prestige than the stars in the classroom, when the emphasis should be reversed.

Still, there's nothing in Boulder's plan that prevents its high schools from making sure their top students enjoy the recognition they've earned. Graduating summa cum laude at schools such as Boulder or Fairview, after all, will be nothing to sneer at.

Comments

  • November 15, 2007

    4:28 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    DougH writes:

    A very sensible solution that gives credit and recognition to all of the high achieving and hardest working students. Sensible solutions to emanate from Boulder.