Does FCPS award honors forcGPA at graduation

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our high school lists all graduates who have a 4.0 and above in the graduation program. During the ceremony, the students are asked to stand but it is super brief. There is an award ceremony a couple of nights before graduation. Only seniors who are receiving any type of award are invited. The 4.0 students all go up on stage one at a time to receive a certificate. I can't remember if they get a medal or tassel to wear. If a student is awarded a scholarship outside of school (for example a Rotary Club scholarship), the student needs to notify the school - they will invite the outside organization to present at the award ceremony.

At graduation, two students give speeches: the class president and an honor graduate (GPA of 4.0 or above.) The honor graduate submits a speech to the faculty/admin and faculty/admin chooses the speaker. My DS wrote a speech, but was not chosen - the classmate who spoke had written a much better speech. If I had been on the committee, I would have chosen the other student over my DS.

Is it 4.0 weighted or unweighted?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our high school lists all graduates who have a 4.0 and above in the graduation program. During the ceremony, the students are asked to stand but it is super brief. There is an award ceremony a couple of nights before graduation. Only seniors who are receiving any type of award are invited. The 4.0 students all go up on stage one at a time to receive a certificate. I can't remember if they get a medal or tassel to wear. If a student is awarded a scholarship outside of school (for example a Rotary Club scholarship), the student needs to notify the school - they will invite the outside organization to present at the award ceremony.

At graduation, two students give speeches: the class president and an honor graduate (GPA of 4.0 or above.) The honor graduate submits a speech to the faculty/admin and faculty/admin chooses the speaker. My DS wrote a speech, but was not chosen - the classmate who spoke had written a much better speech. If I had been on the committee, I would have chosen the other student over my DS.

Is it 4.0 weighted or unweighted?

sure weighted so recognize half the class instead of just naming 1 valedictorian

[Anonymous]

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

It would be nice to honor the top 5 or 10%. Getting to a single person is too hard now with weighted GPAs. Doesn’t make sense. Maybe there’s another way to calculate it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

It would be nice to honor the top 5 or 10%. Getting to a single person is too hard now with weighted GPAs. Doesn’t make sense. Maybe there’s another way to calculate it.

This is what Loudoun switched to. Latin honors.

Summa - top 5%
Magna - top 10%
Cum Laude - top 20%

So it’s still a nice recognition of hard work.

[Anonymous]

For our high school’s graduation they put an asterisk next to the name if a student graduates with a weighted GPA of 4.0 or higher. Lots of asterisks every year. Easily a quarter to a third of the graduating class. Also get a medal.

[Anonymous]

My son graduated #1 in his class - got absolutely no recognition for it. He only knew he was first because his counselor told him in private after graduation.

He's quiet and not a teacher's pet so also received no citizenship or end of year awards from the teachers or school. It makes me very sad for him. He worked so hard and felt that nobody cared.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son graduated #1 in his class - got absolutely no recognition for it. He only knew he was first because his counselor told him in private after graduation.

He's quiet and not a teacher's pet so also received no citizenship or end of year awards from the teachers or school. It makes me very sad for him. He worked so hard and felt that nobody cared.

Sorry to hear that happened to your son. Sadly FCPS does all that it can to avoid recognizing individual achievement. Fortunately he and you know what he accomplished. Kudos to his counselor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son graduated #1 in his class - got absolutely no recognition for it. He only knew he was first because his counselor told him in private after graduation.

He's quiet and not a teacher's pet so also received no citizenship or end of year awards from the teachers or school. It makes me very sad for him. He worked so hard and felt that nobody cared.

Sorry to hear that happened to your son. Sadly FCPS does all that it can to avoid recognizing individual achievement. Fortunately he and you know what he accomplished. Kudos to his counselor.

Yep. Athletes get tons of acknowledgment. Not so for academics. Very strange in what is supposed to be one of the best school systems.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son graduated #1 in his class - got absolutely no recognition for it. He only knew he was first because his counselor told him in private after graduation.

He's quiet and not a teacher's pet so also received no citizenship or end of year awards from the teachers or school. It makes me very sad for him. He worked so hard and felt that nobody cared.

Our school eliminated the honor grad speech this year, where the honor grads voted for one speech from an anonymous submission to represent the Valedictorian speaker, and replaced it with a popular vote where the kids picked a specific student, because a parent complained to Dr. Reid that it was unfair and against equity that only honor grads were eligible for the honor grad speech. The parent posted her rant on social media and the class page from my oldest, including that she went to the school board all the way to Dr. Reid complaining that the honor grad speech was not equitable.. Lo and behold, the following year the honor grad speaker was gone, replaced by a popularity vote.

The anonymous vote on a speech (instead of a popularity contest) resulted in some great student speeches from unexpected students, since the honor grads include a lot of kids who are not considered "popular" and would never win a popularity vote. The honor grads voted on a speech, truly anonymous, which means they were voting on something meaniful, not just who is popular.

It stinks because there was already a "popular vote" speaker at graduation, the class president.

I wish that FCPS wasn't so hyper focused on equity, to the point that they are now refusing to even have a speaker to represent the valedictorian spot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our high school lists all graduates who have a 4.0 and above in the graduation program. During the ceremony, the students are asked to stand but it is super brief. There is an award ceremony a couple of nights before graduation. Only seniors who are receiving any type of award are invited. The 4.0 students all go up on stage one at a time to receive a certificate. I can't remember if they get a medal or tassel to wear. If a student is awarded a scholarship outside of school (for example a Rotary Club scholarship), the student needs to notify the school - they will invite the outside organization to present at the award ceremony.

At graduation, two students give speeches: the class president and an honor graduate (GPA of 4.0 or above.) The honor graduate submits a speech to the faculty/admin and faculty/admin chooses the speaker. My DS wrote a speech, but was not chosen - the classmate who spoke had written a much better speech. If I had been on the committee, I would have chosen the other student over my DS.

If this is the school I think it is, the honor grad speech was eliminated, replaced by a popular vote speech.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son graduated #1 in his class - got absolutely no recognition for it. He only knew he was first because his counselor told him in private after graduation.

He's quiet and not a teacher's pet so also received no citizenship or end of year awards from the teachers or school. It makes me very sad for him. He worked so hard and felt that nobody cared.

Our school eliminated the honor grad speech this year, where the honor grads voted for one speech from an anonymous submission to represent the Valedictorian speaker, and replaced it with a popular vote where the kids picked a specific student, because a parent complained to Dr. Reid that it was unfair and against equity that only honor grads were eligible for the honor grad speech. The parent posted her rant on social media and the class page from my oldest, including that she went to the school board all the way to Dr. Reid complaining that the honor grad speech was not equitable.. Lo and behold, the following year the honor grad speaker was gone, replaced by a popularity vote.

The anonymous vote on a speech (instead of a popularity contest) resulted in some great student speeches from unexpected students, since the honor grads include a lot of kids who are not considered "popular" and would never win a popularity vote. The honor grads voted on a speech, truly anonymous, which means they were voting on something meaniful, not just who is popular.

It stinks because there was already a "popular vote" speaker at graduation, the class president.

I wish that FCPS wasn't so hyper focused on equity, to the point that they are now refusing to even have a speaker to represent the valedictorian spot.

Love the idea of honor grad speech. If going to get rid of it, too bad they don’t just open it to anonymous speech vote from whole class v just another popular vote speaker.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son graduated #1 in his class - got absolutely no recognition for it. He only knew he was first because his counselor told him in private after graduation.

He's quiet and not a teacher's pet so also received no citizenship or end of year awards from the teachers or school. It makes me very sad for him. He worked so hard and felt that nobody cared.

Sorry to hear that happened to your son. Sadly FCPS does all that it can to avoid recognizing individual achievement. Fortunately he and you know what he accomplished. Kudos to his counselor.

Yep. Athletes get tons of acknowledgment. Not so for academics. Very strange in what is supposed to be one of the best school systems.

Do you truly still believe it's a good school system?

[Anonymous]

FCPS does not rank students and there is no policy or regulation regarding honors graduates.