One particular counter-trend over the past decade or so in elementary and secondary education has been to downplay the value of grades to decrease competition. This has created problems for college admissions. How so? When the college admissions process increasingly relies on rankings and test scores to make their decision, the less rankings you have, the less you have to offer the college admissions people.

Some school districts do not recognize the valedictorian or salutatorian of the graduating class. The idea behind keeping class rankings a secret is that it would promote unhealthy competition. I’m going to go ahead and assume that the board members who made these decisions never made it to the top of their class. The truth is, that humans like to measure things. What I hate about fairness arguments is that they usually don’t even have the desired effect of letting each person reach their full potential based on their own goals. Competition pushes us to be better than our current selves. To protect the losers from the sting of being the worst is a mistake. How are the underachievers supposed to know they’re the low spot on the totem pole? Rankings motivate people to work harder.

The top achievers at these hippy high schools of anti-competition are being deprived of scholarships that are rightfully theirs because of their fear of offending the less-than stellar students. For them, in the perfect utopia, people are driven to work for love of labor and strive for self-betterment without ever glancing at the guy next to them. Reward and pride are important I say! Let people decide for themselves if they don’t want to compare themselves to the rest of the class instead of denying everyone a valuable source of motivation.

I’m not saying that current testing or ranking methods are by any means a good measure of a person’s intelligence or abilities. Many of you get your SAT scores back in the next few days and weeks. Don’t let a sour grade upset you. Several top liberal arts colleges have realized that standardized tests aren’t a very good indicator and have joined the “SAT Optional” movement. But for those who do score well, I think they have a right to claim their rewards.

Competition and ranking is beneficial to the top students because it rewards them with scholarships. It also pushes students to be their best. However when the entire system of how and what we measure has come under question, the value of these rankings becomes shady. If they don’t want to measure students’ success based on grades, then the rewards should not be based on these numbers. Until the rewards change to not favor valedictorians, let’s not force these number-one students into oblivion.

POSTED BY Bloggin' with Robin IN Articles

06.25.09

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