I did have to have this conversation with my daughter when I saw her eyes light up at the thought of valedictorian. Students are taking extra on-line AP classes to bring their GPA up--and there are usually around 70-80 kids with perfect GPAs (4.something something) taking all AP classes + stellar ECs. I know that many parents put enormous pressure on their kids. The first violin at one of the concerts burst into tears afterwards because she had made a small, unnoticeable mistake during a solo and was afraid to face her parents.
MY DS16's school/district does not do valedictorian just for this reason. In fact they don't do class 'rank' either. What they do is will give colleges a percentage 'rank".. ie in the top 5%, 10%, 25%. All students who have a 'top' GPA are given awards. There are huge numbers who have GPA's above a 4.0 every year. This is one of the things I think my DS's school does right.
They have turned the valedictorian speech into a contest. There are two students speeches one for ANY student at the school & the other for any student in the top ~2%. (There is a GPA cutoff) Students have to submit a speech, top speeches are selected for a 'contest' that students can attend and vote on. The winners give the speeches at graduation. This eliminates the problem of the valedictorian who is introverted and doesn't want to give the speech. What I like about this is ANY student can win one of the spots.
