Ciarra Lee, 2017 valedictorian of Burlington Township High School in New Jersey

The Burlington Township Sun

Should Schools Have Valedictorians?

Many high schools are doing away with the tradition of naming a single student as valedictorian of the graduating class. According to the National Association of Secondary School Principals, about half of American high schools no longer rank students at all, much less designate a single senior for top honors. Some say this is a positive shift that will encourage students to collaborate more instead of competing with each other for the top grade-point average. Others argue that naming a valedictorian is an important tradition that rewards achievement. Two education professors face off about whether this shift is a positive or negative development.

Recognizing the top graduating student is one of the few ways American schools publicly reward scholarship and hard work.

Academic effort and achievement are all too often not at the center of high school culture, with friendships and athletics usually higher on the prestige scale: Wearing an honor society graduation tassel isn’t nearly as cool as wearing a varsity letter jacket.

But being valedictorian is the one academic honor that does matter to students. We understand that athletes and performers merit special honors because their achievements represent hard work, focus, and motivation. So why shy away from awarding honors to students who succeed in academics?

Opponents of naming valedictorians point to problems with competition for the top spot. Maybe the answer is to increase the number of scholastic honors; it doesn’t mean we should do away with the only meaningful academic award currently offered in many schools.

In 1995, I co-authored a book on what becomes of valedictorians later in life. We studied 17 years of data and determined that valedictorians become hardworking, productive adults whose educational and career achievements remain outstanding.

Being valedictorian is the one academic honor that does matter to students.

The valedictorian study reveals how students earn the best grades in a high school. Number one is sustained hard work. Valedictorians try hard and do their best across all their classes. They care about learning. They are willing to cooperate with their teachers. They work effectively within the institution of school. These qualities are closely related to what we ask of adults in college and careers. We should reward the students who exhibit them.

As a nation, we have a vital stake in developing the talents of our young people. That’s why we should keep recognizing educational achievement by continuing the valedictorian award as well as establishing other meaningful academic honors.

—KAREN ARNOLD

Professor of Education, Boston College

Outstanding academic achievement certainly should be recognized. But the competitive practice in most high schools of selecting the valedictorian based on students’ cumulative grade-point averages harms more students than it helps. It forces students to compete against each other for the honor, often resulting in bitter rivalries that squelch student collaboration and ruin friendships.

What is particularly ironic about this process is that the term valedictorian has nothing to do with achievement. It comes from the Latin vale dicere, which means “to say farewell.” It’s the individual selected from the graduating class to deliver a farewell address at the commencement ceremony, called a “valedictory.”

Long ago most colleges and universities abandoned competitive ranking procedures to identify honor students and, instead, adopted the criterion-based Latin system. They graduate students cum laude (with honor), magna cum laude (with great honor), and summa cum laude (with highest honor).

Naming a single valedictorian forces students to compete against each other.

High schools that establish similar, criterion-based honors systems generally find that both achievement and morale improve. Instead of competing against their classmates, students just strive to meet rigorous performance goals. Collaboration is enhanced, because helping someone else doesn’t hurt your chance of success.

High schools could also follow the lead of many colleges and select a graduating student to be the commencement speaker on the basis of more than just grades. Schools could consider involvement in community service projects and participation in extracurricular activities in addition to academic achievement. The idea would be to pick someone who broadly represents the school’s values, not someone who’s simply outdone their classmates in the grading game.

By abolishing the selection of a single valedictorian, schools can take pride in helping the largest number of students possible meet the highest standards of excellence.

—THOMAS GUSKEY