A public school in Colorado effectively has canceled much of the incentive for academic excellence in high school, announcing a decision to drop class rank listings and the valedictorian designation for graduations because learning is “not a competition.”
The Washington Examiner explained officials in Cherry Creek School District, just outside of Denver, confirmed beginning in 2026, no valedictorian will be recognized.
And class ranks will be gone, meaning a student passing classes by only a fraction of a point will be assessed the same as a straight-A student.
The district told families in a letter, “The practices of class rank and valedictorian status are outdated and inconsistent with what we know and believe of our students,” explained a report from KDVR television. “We believe all students can learn at high levels, and learning is not a competition.”
Top students long have been honored by being recognized as the valedictorian or salutatorian during graduation exercises.
One parent told the state that the move is “not going to fix the stress that we are seeing” among students.
At the Daily Mail, a report explained the school’s latest “equity” move left parents “infuriated.”
The Daily Mail, in fact, explained the district would be involved in using “various other ways” to acknowledge academic achievement, such as an “honor roll,” cords given at graduation, and “separate award ceremonies.”
On social media there was an immediate rejection of the school plans, with one writer sarcastically pointing out, “Now everyone gets a trophy and we are eliminating some of the highest honors because it’s not fair to those that don’t earn it?”
The Denver Post’s editorial on the topic noted Cherry Creek officials now were defining “valedictorian” as “mediocrity.”
One district in Boulder and another in Colorado Springs already have adopted the concept.
In the report, Vivek Ramaswamy, a bestselling author and political pundit, said schools now are “infected” with “woke culture.”
“Diversity is a good thing when it’s about the diversity of thought. But today what’s happening, especially in our schools, is we have taken this notion in the name of diversity – we have sacrificed true diversity itself,” he told Fox News not long ago.
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