Its total misuse of the word:

schol·ar
?skäl?r/Submit
noun
a specialist in a particular branch of study, especially the humanities; a distinguished academic.
"a Hebrew scholar"
synonyms: academic, intellectual, learned person, man/woman of letters, mind, intellect, savant, polymath, highbrow, bluestocking; More
archaic
a person who is highly educated or has an aptitude for study.
"Mr. Bell declares himself no scholar"
a student holding a scholarship.

Seems to be catching on in many places. I say we call them pupils.

our second grade teacher uses this word and i think it sounds pretentious, but she just came out of inner city schools, so maybe it had a weight there that it doens't for me.

Trying to sound fancy.

I think it became popular in charter schools to get students in the college bound mindset. My friend works in a charter school in NY and told me all about it years ago. I teach in a city public school and we are going in that direction. We introduce students to what college is like, where we went to college, college attire day, etc. Each teacher has his/her name and the colleges he/she attended outside their classroom door.

Scholar implies active engagement -- coming up with questions and diving into the material to find answers.

Student implies being taught the answers and told when to apply them.

It's just another of the same-old-same-old "we're not going to spoon feed them; they are going to learn critical thinking," but then they teach to the test anyway.

Why would an elementary school call their students scholars rather than pupils or students? A particular school always uses the word scholar and I wonder if there is a reason.