Bedford Co. high schools consider getting rid of “Top 10” honors

By Christa Desrets
Lynchburg News & Advance
Published: August 29, 2008

BEDFORD — The designation of valedictorian, salutatorian and the top 10 students of a graduating class could become a thing of the past for Bedford County high schools.

The Bedford County School Board on Thursday discussed the possibility of eliminating the selection of the top 10 students, beginning with the class of 2010, in response to the growing complexities of selecting which students make the cut.

The board made no decision Thursday and plans to speak about the issue again late next month.

High school principals all support the change, coupled with designating students as receiving either “honors” or “high honors,” depending on their grade point averages, said Assistant Superintendent Bobbi Johnson.

She said the process of selecting students for the top 10 becomes more complex with the division’s growing number of opportunities in advanced studies courses, which are given more weight than others.

Programs such as Advanced Placement, the Governor’s School and Early College, which all involve weighted classes, now essentially are competing with each other, Johnson said.

The latter two programs involve only a limited number of spots, leading to parents concerned that some students receive an unfair advantage over others.

“You’ve got apples, bananas and oranges. That’s the concern right now,” she said.

In previous years, she said, students were chosen based on their overall grade point averages.

That led to students not enrolling in unweighted electives, Johnson said, so their grade point averages would be as high as possible.

This year’s senior class instead is allowed to choose which 24 classes they want to count toward their GPA for the calculation of the top 10.

Now, “students with means are heading over to the community college to take their (elective) so it’s weighted,” she said.

School board member Talbot Huff suggested that each set of classes be weighted differently, depending on their relative difficulty.

Bedford City representative Mickey VanDerwerker said she liked the idea of designating students as receiving “honors” or “high honors,” but worried removing the top 10 designations could damage college admissions or scholarship potential.

“It does matter what number you are when you apply to college,” she said. “They want to know what your number is.”

She suggested that the board consider how other school divisions have handled the same complications.

Johnson said the matter would be studied more, and brought back for discussion, likely next month.

“We don’t want to do anything that puts our students at a disadvantage,” she said. “… This is a big, big deal for them.”