Does FCPS award honors forcGPA at graduation

[Anonymous]

When I graduated from FCPS in the 90s, we had one valedictorian and one salutatorian. A handful of kids had perfect 4.0 GPAs (literally nothing other than all As for 4 years, there was no weighting). Among those kids, the administration had a formula they used that considered AP courses and scores and several other factors. We didn’t know the exact point system, so it couldn’t be gamed.

60 kids calling themselves Valedictorians is laughable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:McLean HS: If a student earns a 4.0 or better, they get a medal at Convocation to wear at graduation. Too many to honor at graduation in the time slot allotted at DAR. Two student awards are given at graduation, Faculty Student of the Year, male and female. It is the replacement of valedictorian.

It is a shame thay schools no longer honor the valedictorian.

I hope the "faculty students of the year" are selected from the top ten or so kids in each class and not open to every student.

I say this as a non valedictorian whose kids will never have valedictorian grades.

Langley parent here. The faculty and principal awards go to two students who display exceptional integrity, kindness, initiative, service, humility, and excellence. These aren't necessarily the top academic students, but definitely the most deserving in all ways, probably including academics. I'd much rather see those kids honored than giving it to Larla and Larlo, simply because they have 4.5+ GPAs. When the principal was announcing the recipients of these awards at graduation yesterday, it actually brought tears to my eyes even though I don't personally know these students. What he said about them was so heartfelt and honest and touching, that you could see exactly why they were being honored. There are many things more important than the top GPA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:McLean HS: If a student earns a 4.0 or better, they get a medal at Convocation to wear at graduation. Too many to honor at graduation in the time slot allotted at DAR. Two student awards are given at graduation, Faculty Student of the Year, male and female. It is the replacement of valedictorian.

It is a shame thay schools no longer honor the valedictorian.

I hope the "faculty students of the year" are selected from the top ten or so kids in each class and not open to every student.

I say this as a non valedictorian whose kids will never have valedictorian grades.

I think they start the pool with the top x, don’t know the cutoff. Then the teachers vote from the list of finalists. I do know one of the students that won in the last three years had all As every quarter and an unweighted 4.0 and took a bunch of APs and honor courses. Also, the class President won in both of the years my children graduated. It is more than just grades. It is grades AND....

It really should be grades only, not things like class president where they already get other accolades.

My recollection is they recognized lots of kids at graduation. Don't know that they need to encourage kids to take even more AP courses by designating a single valedictorian.

+1
They did away with valedictorian at Langley (maybe at all FCPS high school?) because there are just so many honor graduates to begin with (4.0+). We don't need to know who edged out everyone else by an eighth of a percentile, or whatever. I mean, who really cares?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We now live in an everybody gets a trophy society. If there was a valedictorian, someone would sue

actually, people would game the system to be Valedictorian. Things like taking every thing they can that does not include a GPA bump pass fail.

Exactly. Not having a valedictorian removes that absurd competition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s almost worse when they recognize a large group as opposed to one or two. It’s easy to realize you’re not at the top, but harder to swallow when you’re one of the few singles out as having a lower GPA.

This is true. I think what they should do is recognize the top ten students, and leave it at that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s almost worse when they recognize a large group as opposed to one or two. It’s easy to realize you’re not at the top, but harder to swallow when you’re one of the few singles out as having a lower GPA.

Agree. There were 60+ "valedictorians" with medals in my DC's Langley class. It's absurd.

+1
Another Langley parent and I agree. Though they weren't valedictorians, just "honor" graduates. It was pretty silly, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:McLean HS: If a student earns a 4.0 or better, they get a medal at Convocation to wear at graduation. Too many to honor at graduation in the time slot allotted at DAR. Two student awards are given at graduation, Faculty Student of the Year, male and female. It is the replacement of valedictorian.

Why does one have to be a boy and the other a girl? Sounds archaic.

The faculty awards went to two boys this year - one heading to Yale and the second to Williams.

Who was the speaker?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s almost worse when they recognize a large group as opposed to one or two. It’s easy to realize you’re not at the top, but harder to swallow when you’re one of the few singles out as having a lower GPA.

Agree. There were 60+ "valedictorians" with medals in my DC's Langley class. It's absurd.

+1
Another Langley parent and I agree. Though they weren't valedictorians, just "honor" graduates. It was pretty silly, though.

It is silly to Honor graduates who put in the hard work to earn a 4.0 or higher at a graduation?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s almost worse when they recognize a large group as opposed to one or two. It’s easy to realize you’re not at the top, but harder to swallow when you’re one of the few singles out as having a lower GPA.

Agree. There were 60+ "valedictorians" with medals in my DC's Langley class. It's absurd.

+1
Another Langley parent and I agree. Though they weren't valedictorians, just "honor" graduates. It was pretty silly, though.

It is silly to Honor graduates who put in the hard work to earn a 4.0 or higher at a graduation?

It’s a weighted 4.0. Some of these kids are solid B students, and others are straight A students. Of course, kids who get nothing but As in four years of high school should be recognized, but that would likely be fewer than 10 kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:McLean HS: If a student earns a 4.0 or better, they get a medal at Convocation to wear at graduation. Too many to honor at graduation in the time slot allotted at DAR. Two student awards are given at graduation, Faculty Student of the Year, male and female. It is the replacement of valedictorian.

Why does one have to be a boy and the other a girl? Sounds archaic.

The faculty awards went to two boys this year - one heading to Yale and the second to Williams.

Who was the speaker?

Major General Frank Bolden, the NASA Administrator under President Obama.

https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/bolden_bio.html

[Anonymous]

^ Charles Bolden.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:McLean HS: If a student earns a 4.0 or better, they get a medal at Convocation to wear at graduation. Too many to honor at graduation in the time slot allotted at DAR. Two student awards are given at graduation, Faculty Student of the Year, male and female. It is the replacement of valedictorian.

Why does one have to be a boy and the other a girl? Sounds archaic.

The faculty awards went to two boys this year - one heading to Yale and the second to Williams.

Who was the speaker?

Major General Frank Bolden, the NASA Administrator under President Obama.

https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/bolden_bio.html

Cool!

[Anonymous]

At our FCPS, it looks like about 20% of the class were honor graduates. It would be nice to recognize the top few students or any that made straight As all four years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s almost worse when they recognize a large group as opposed to one or two. It’s easy to realize you’re not at the top, but harder to swallow when you’re one of the few singles out as having a lower GPA.

Agree. There were 60+ "valedictorians" with medals in my DC's Langley class. It's absurd.

+1
Another Langley parent and I agree. Though they weren't valedictorians, just "honor" graduates. It was pretty silly, though.

It is silly to Honor graduates who put in the hard work to earn a 4.0 or higher at a graduation?

It is when there are 60 of them and they each wear medals. And in my daughter's year they were called "valedictorians". Anyone over a 4.0 got a medal and was called a valedictorian.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s almost worse when they recognize a large group as opposed to one or two. It’s easy to realize you’re not at the top, but harder to swallow when you’re one of the few singles out as having a lower GPA.

Agree. There were 60+ "valedictorians" with medals in my DC's Langley class. It's absurd.

+1
Another Langley parent and I agree. Though they weren't valedictorians, just "honor" graduates. It was pretty silly, though.

It is silly to Honor graduates who put in the hard work to earn a 4.0 or higher at a graduation?

It's silly because there are so many of them.