Too much success
UPDATE: Good news for Anjali. The Dallas Morning News reports that The University of Texas has awarded a her Dedman Distinguished Scholarship, which awards $13,000 per academic year for four years.
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Many schools choose the valedictorian of their graduating class based on the highest grade point average. In some cases, students who have transferred from other schools may end up with the highest GPA based on only one or two years at a school, edging out students who maintained a high GPA for a full four years. In the Grapevine-Colleyville (Texas) district, they dealt with that problem with a policy that states, “The valedictorian shall be the eligible student with the highest weighted grade-point average for four years of high school.”
But that policy didn’t take into account students like Anjali Datta. The 16-year-old is graduating from Grapevine High School with a GPA of 5.898, which officials say may be the highest in the high school’s history. Still, Anjali isn’t the valedictorian. That’s because , The Dallas Morning News reports, she zipped through her high school requirements in three years instead of four. Anjali’s family and her supporters have appealed to the district to use common sense and not hold rigidly to the policy language, but district officials have not budged.
As one Morning News columnist wrote: “In one masterful stroke, they have managed to subordinate the value of genuine academic accomplishment to bureaucratic obsession with officious trivia.”
The school will recognize Anjali as “Valedictorian – Three-Year,” but because she is not the official valedictorian, she may be denied college scholarships that are awarded to valedictorians.
Do you think the school board made a wise decision in refusing to award official valedictorian status to the girl? Leave a comment below.
June 3rd, 2008 @ 8:37 am
Unbelievable…Anyone who was responsible for the denial of the academic accomplishments of the ‘unofficial’ valedictorian should promptly resign themselves of any/ all responsibilities from the district. If they refuse to step down, they should be recalled or fired.
June 3rd, 2008 @ 8:57 am
I believe the school district should recognize this student as valedictorian. She’s spent her entire high school career at that high school and did all the coursework. It seems as if she’s being punished for completing the work, with the highest GPA, in less time. It just seems like she’s being punished for being smart.
June 3rd, 2008 @ 12:25 pm
This is another unfortunate example of administrators’ substituting “policies” for common sense, courage, and professional judgment. They should be proud of the student’s accomplishments, rather than “nitpicking.” We seem to want to aim for the common denominator rather than encouraging and recognizing outstanding students. By all means the student should be recognzed as the valedictorian.
My youngest son had a similar problem. He was selected as the valedictorian, but he had transferred in because we were military and moved frequently. There was a protest from a four-year student’s parents. School officials went back and recomputed my son’s GPA and awarded valedictorian to a four-year student. It is disturbing to see school districts not treat all students fairly.
June 10th, 2008 @ 9:23 am
This is a perfect example of a school run by idiots. The inmates are running the asylum there. School administrators who develop and implement policies like that should be fired. If only we had school boards with the common sense and intestinal fortitude to do just that……….