Choice of valedictorian sparks complaints about dual enrollment

[Baitball Blogger]

The valedictorian of Mount Dora High School, Michaela Novakovic, is a talented harpist who earned straight A's in dual-enrollment courses at Lake-Sumter Community College and volunteers with a Christian after-school program. She also did not regularly attend classes at Mount Dora High.

Michaela's choice as valedictorian has upset some parents at the Lake County school and may lead the School Board to change the way top students in a graduating class are named.


hrough 10th grade, Michaela attended a private, classical Christian school called Champion Preparatory Academy in Altamonte Springs. Students at that school are on campus several days a week and work on assignments from their teachers at home the rest of the week.

After enrolling at Mount Dora High as a junior, Michaela spent most of her time attending classes at Lake-Sumter, where she kept up a 4.0 average and earned an associate degree. According to school-district spokesman Chris Patton, she attended one class at Mount Dora High as a senior.

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-05-30/features/os-dual-enrollment-complaints-sidebar-20120530_1_dual-enrollment-valedictorian-college-courses

[ProgressiveProfessor]

1. Expect more of this, not less

The classic model of 4 years in HS never leaving campus is dead. Dual enrollments, Votech, even working to support your family, is becoming the new norm. Some districts are dealing with it better than others.

[Baitball Blogger]

2. What I wonder is, will parents resent the fact that they're not comparing oranges to oranges.

Maybe this is what it will take for people to look closer into home school programs?

[ProgressiveProfessor]

5. Every child is to some extent home schooled

Parental involvement is required for success, always has been. Undoubtedly this student's parents had invested time, energy, and money to get her to the level she was performing at. If she was the superior student, then it was a valid selection.

[Baitball Blogger]

6. I'm not sure I agree with it.

It's pretty cool when you get a valedictorian who is well known in a school. Kids will actually look up to them, and feel like they're one of them. But someone they hardly know, not likely. It won't have the effect you think it will.

[Igel]

8. My graduating class valedictorian was someone most kids could empathize with.

Dumb as a brick, good with his hands.

Got straight As in his machinist apprenticeship. Home ec.

Did well in his General Science 10 and General Math 11. (The tough bit in General Math 11 was learning fractions and least common denominators.)

The kids who took physics and chemistry, trig and pre-calc, well, they just couldn't compete with his stellar grades.

It had the effect you'd think it would.

The standard joke was that dear ol' S.S. got an A in Basic Fingernail Clipping and Hair Combing, but had to drop Advanced Fingernail Clipping because it would have lowered his GPA.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

10. Most schools today rate a Honors or AP course higher than regular courses

an A in a regular class is worth 4
an A in a honors class is worth 5
an A in an AP class is worth 6

A straight A student in regular classes or Votech will have a lower GPA than someone in honors or AP classes

[Baitball Blogger]

11. I think AP classes pretty much eliminate that risk, these days.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

9. Valedictorian traditionally is the top student in the class normally demonstrated by GPA

Its not a social position, its it announced at the end of the senior year. Any looking up to/respect is pretty well water under the bridge at this point. Some schools have tried to make it less about grades with the staff voting etc. That would seem to be a popularity contest among teachers, not an acknowledgement of the superior performer.

I can see some requirement for 2 years at the school and a certain number of classes. However, given the clear success of dual enrollment, it would still have to acknowledge that the best students are going to be taking classes off campus.

Valedictorian/Salutatorian goes back the English system of Senior Prefects, Best/Head Boy/Girl, and such. Not sure if that is relevant today. I would prefer something like [Honor Grad/High Honor Grad/Independent Honor Grad] the latter to acknowledge those doing dual enrollment

[Baitball Blogger]

12. "I can see some requirement for 2 years at the school and a certain number of classes"

We agree on that point.

[Honeycombe8]

3. 'Splain it to me like I'm a 4 yr old. Why are people upset by this?

What's wrong with her being valedictorian? Why is her prior schooling relevant?

Maybe the fact that she took only one class at the high school, so she got straight A's...meaning she got ONE A? I could understand people being upset by that.

[Baitball Blogger]

7. Exactly.

It's like someone from another school just trumped them.

[Honeycombe8]

14. But why does her prior schooling have anything to do with it? I mentioned the one class...

I did not mention that I thought it was a good reason to resent her because of her prior schooling. I don't see what prior schooling has to do with it at all. People move around. If you get hired by a new company and sell the most thingamajigs, you may win the sales award. Should the other salesmen resent you because you have worked there only one year, coming from another company? You either made the sales or you didn't. You either made the grades, or you didn't.

Unless you're saying there IS a difference in quality of teachers, and her teachers in her other school were better, or the kids in the newer school are less intelligenet.

[Baitball Blogger]

15. The one class says it all, in my opinion.

She really wasn't a part of that school. So why does she get to represent it?

[Honeycombe8]

16. That was her 2nd year there. It didn't say how many classes she took there the prior year.

It sounds like jealousy, to me.

When you change schools, you take your grades with you. You either made the grades, or you didn't. She had the best grades, I guess.

Usually, they also look at extracurricular activities, I thought. But maybe not.

[Baitball Blogger]

17. Why does everyone always jump to the jealousy claim, when someone is looking

for social justice?

Apples to apples. That's all I'm saying.

[Earth_First]

4. Hmmm...I wonder which 'parents' are upset...

Maybe it's just a handful of parents, and likely two of them are the parents of the 'runner up'...

[msongs]

13. off campus classes should not count. phony student should get her ego strokes elsewhere nt