Valedictorians and Class Rank: Headed for Extinction?

Each May and June the familiar strains of "Pomp and Circumstance" carry a time-honored high school commencement tradition closer to oblivion. The valedictorian, once the esteemed embodiment of the highest scholarly achievement in a graduating class, is already exiled from many public school systems - banished along with class rank as an embarrassing symbol of elitism.

This national trend has confused and disturbed parents, who wonder why schools readily reward a stellar athlete's feats on the basketball court or football field but find it reprehensible to recognize a student's academic achievements in the classroom.

There are two sides to every debate, of course, but it is helpful to consider the "vanishing valedictorian" issue in a cultural context.

American society has long been characterized as "anti-intellectual" with a populace that values hard work and physical accomplishments over intellectual prowess. During the past several decades, however, our nation's generally lax approach to academics resulted in poor performance of American students on important international tests. This inspired the current K-12 standards movement to raise the achievement levels of all students.

In scuttling class rank and the valedictory tradition, the education community seems to be at cross-purposes - not only with parents, policymakers and the public, but also with its own obligation to encourage academic excellence. On the one hand, educators speak of the need to motivate children - especially the disadvantaged urban poor - to strive for higher academic goals against all adversity, including pressure from peers who wear academic failure as a badge of honor. On the other hand, they don't want any child to think that he or she is not the equal of every other child. That has led to the self-esteem building trend, which often results in schools giving awards for minimal accomplishment just so students can feel good about themselves. These same educators then argue that recognizing only a few academically outstanding students will damage the self-esteem of those who do not or cannot operate in the same stratosphere as the high achievers. Worse, the good students are made to feel badly for being smart and many stop trying to excel. Why so many educators hew to this philosophy is perplexing because there is no evidence of similar concern, for example, for the psyche of the benchwarmers on a school's football or basketball team.

Educators argue, too, that the traditional system of class rank in which the top-scoring student becomes the valedictorian hurts the brightest students because it causes them to focus on grades and competition (as if that's a bad thing) rather than learning.