I hope they all make long speeches and bore the hell out of everyone.
easier than it used to be?
It isn't "easier" it's just grade inflated for those who are already most capable. Hence the number of Vale's.
I know a coach who is trying to line up visits for the first week in Sept (Div 1).
Of the ten girls he has on his list, seven have better than 4.0 "weighted" GPA's. He never has had anything like that before.
my school made the news wrote:
http://schoolsofthought.blogs.cnn.com/2013/06/06/oregon-high-school-has-29-valedictorians/
Hey, they're part of the "everyone's a winner" generation.
There are 29 valedictorians because everyone is a winner guys!!
Come on guys! Share the glory.
I didn't read the article so I don't know about this school's case, but...
...I would never say high school is getting easier! In fact I think it is becoming much much harder. Science has made leaps and bounds and the levels of expectations are raised everywhere. There is so much more to learn these days. If you are a parent of a high school student go through their curriculum and be honest with yourself about the level of learning you had to learn back in your high school days. All the sciences have much more to learn these days. History has been made and thus studied (if you think this is a joke tell that to people who make the AP US test because modern-er events are on that test.)
Many more students are achieving over 4.0 weighted GPA's and that is from AP's. APs are in more subjects now than ever. These classes are attempts by students to go above and beyond high school level work to achieve college level credit. Academically high schoolers are having to try to take harder classes than back in the day were not available.
Now I actually agree that kids these days are coddled more and that awards are given too easily (29 vals seems ridic), but I wouldn't go so far as to say high school is getting easier these days.
being valedictorian means diddly squat as far as your brains and potential. It usually means you're a child of Asian immigrants who lock you in your room all day to study and punish you for getting less than an A+ in any class.
If you want to impress smart people, ace standardized tests and difficult college courses like analysis and organic chemistry. Nobody cares if you get an A+ in Algebra or were president of the Latin honor society. I guess college admissions people care about that, but they're not genuine smart people.
zz wrote:
...I would never say high school is getting easier! In fact I think it is becoming much much harder. Science has made leaps and bounds and the levels of expectations are raised everywhere. There is so much more to learn these days. If you are a parent of a high school student go through their curriculum and be honest with yourself about the level of learning you had to learn back in your high school days. All the sciences have much more to learn these days. History has been made and thus studied (if you think this is a joke tell that to people who make the AP US test because modern-er events are on that test.)
Exactly what has changed in basic high school science? What is "so much more to learn"?
grade inflation across the board high school and college
weighted grades do have merit, say for advanced science/math/IB courses, but giving kids a whole +1.0 (4.0 for a B) because they took AP English is comical.
High School has always been easy, if you give a sh*t and have half a brain a 3.5 isn't too hard (I got a 3.2 in the "honors program" cutting class and never doing homework), but you do see many more kids with 3.9s and 4.0s nowadays. The thing is when I went to high school in a graduating class of 250 and there was 1 kid with a legit 4.0, and he was a f*ckin nerd brainiac, so times definitely have changed.
Looking at my nephews graduating class a year ago there was a number of kids (20 or so, almost all of them girls) that got "high honors distinction", so an unweighted 3.9+ I knew some of those kids quite well and they weren't geniuses. They were just your classic try-hards with blowhard helicopter parents who took laughable classes focusing on "the arts", and now they're off to college to major in ballet theatre. He says none of them did that well on the SAT either, which I can believe. IMO If you have a 4.0 GPA and under a 1900 SAT something is suspect.
In the end they decided the valedictorian by narrowing it down to percentages, im surprised your school didn't do that. (Johnny got a 100% and Sonny got a 95% in this class)
Everybody wants their kid to be speshul.
Let me guess. There are 30 students in your graduating class, and you are not a valedictorian.
at least he can say he was a salutatorian lol
Bad Wigins wrote:
being valedictorian means diddly squat as far as your brains and potential. It usually means you're a child of Asian immigrants who lock you in your room all day to study and punish you for getting less than an A+ in any class.
If you want to impress smart people, ace standardized tests and difficult college courses like analysis and organic chemistry. Nobody cares if you get an A+ in Algebra or were president of the Latin honor society. I guess college admissions people care about that, but they're not genuine smart people.
You've got it all wrong. Getting straight A's in a myriad of different settings and classes is more indicative of intellect than being able to game an extremely predictable standardized test. Sounds like you're just bitter about not being able to attend anything other than your crappy local state school.
my school made the news wrote:
http://schoolsofthought.blogs.cnn.com/2013/06/06/oregon-high-school-has-29-valedictorians/
There is grade inflation for sure, both in high school and college, but I say high school is HARDER than it was when I was in high school. My daughter has a ton of homework every day...WAY more than I ever did.
According to this article,
they are just giving a valedictorian to anyone who finished with a 4.0 or higher. With many students taking AP/Honors classes, it may not be simple but it's not the real definition of what a valedictorian is supposed to be.
Really ruins it for the person who earned the valedictorian.
Yes.
John Boehner wrote:
You've got it all wrong. Getting straight A's in a myriad of different settings and classes is more indicative of intellect than being able to game an extremely predictable standardized test. Sounds like you're just bitter about not being able to attend anything other than your crappy local state school.
"Myriad of different settings?", you mean High School? Getting straight As is a notable accomplishment and you cannot be a complete dumbazz to do so, but give me the kid with the 2300 SAT over the future liberal arts major with the 4.0 any day. High school classes are not that tough, you just have to give a few more sh*ts than the other kids.
On the other hand, you cannot truly "game" the ACT or SAT.
You can prepare, yes. But when it comes down to it prep courses/books only do so much if much at all, look up the stats if you want. That's how the test is designed.
Its not like 80th percentile kids are taking prep courses and "gaming" the system and coming out with 2200s.
The bottom line is, any kid who gets a 2300+ on the SAT is an extremely smart kid. Nowadays with grade inflation, the same cannot be said for someone with a 4.0, although a 4.0 is still remarkable.
Honestly, with the internet and media nowadays, kids are getting smarter and smarter. They have all the information in the universe at their fingertips. Libraries and the hard cover books in them are now almost completely obsolete. Also, a lot of the kids graduating nowadays seem how crappy the economy is and KNOW how hard they will have to work to get ahead. They see their older siblings with college degrees struggling to get jobs. Whether or not old people want to admit this or not every successive generation is getting smarter. Sadly, the opportunities for these kids is getting less.
What are you smoking? Science may have progressed but this has not made HS any more difficult.
When I graduated HS 20 years ago, we had 3 valedictorians in a class of 133. All graduated with 4.1 GPA's. We had one AP class (Calculus) available. Now, kids are graduating with 4.6, 4.7, etc...I know a girl who went to a private HS in DC and she said her class alone had 7 perfect SAT scores in 2004.
I don't think HS is any easier than when I went, but I do think a 4.0 now is easier than a 4.0 20 years ago.
I was one of four at my high school... out of a class of ~45. Honestly, the lack of competition ruined the whole experience for me. I take no pride whatsoever in being a valedictorian when there are three others.
Oh, and did I mention one of those others had been caught cheating several times?
This is why our education system is failing.
The only contribution I have to thread is to offer an additional data point.
Graduated 2004
class of 285
5(?) valedictorians with a 4.0, plus or minus 1
2 of them got both 36 ACT and 1600 SAT
I was one of the others and only managed 32/1510, which was fine by me
Des Linden: "The entire sport" has changed since she first started running Boston.
Am I living in the twilight zone? The Boston Marathon weather was terrible!
Ryan Eiler, 3rd American man at Boston, almost out of nowhere
Matt Choi was drinking beer halfway through the Boston Marathon
2024 College Track & Field Open Coaching Positions Discussion