Four Glen Lake students are preparing a valedictory speech they may not have to make.

Glen Lake's race for the top honors went down to the wire this week. While most schools named their top two students at the end of the seventh semester, the Lakers' valedictorian and salutatorian at the school had yet to be determined as of press time this week.

Graduation is Sunday.

“Less than .08 of a point separates our top four students,” Glen Lake secondary principal Kevin Kelly said.

“Final grades (for seniors) are due by noon Thursday.”

In the running for the top spots among the Class of 2007 are Ali Cruz, Marissa Treece, Jennifer Bush and Dane Hillard.

Glen Lake uses a straight scale over eight semesters to calculate top scholars. All other county schools choose valedictorians and salutatorians at the completion of the seventh semester so their top scholars have ample time to prepare commencement speeches.

“Some years, we’re refiguring (grades) just to see where we’re at,” said Donna Allington, a longtime counselor at Lake Leelanau St. Mary. “Everything is much more competitive than when we were graduating.”
Allington said the media has played a significant role in emphasizing the importance of grades and standardized test scores to students and parents.

“Parents responded to the attention to be the best parents they can possibly be,” Allington said, explaining that emphasis is on test scores even before children officially begin grade school. “It’s like packaging the right preschool … It’s made ACT scores artificial.”

To qualify for valedictorian recognition at St. Mary, seniors must have an accumulative grade point average of 3.5 or better; salutatorian, 3.0. At Northport, both the top scholars must have GPAs of 3.5 or better.

Grade point averages are based on the completion of seven semesters.

No county schools consider the “rigor” of classes taken by top scholar candidates, although that may change.

Suttons Bay Superintendent Michael Murray said the process of evaluating academic performance is “something to look at” in coming months. Currently, course difficulty is not taken into consideration during the review process.

“We want to encourage students to take the most challenging courses available,” Murray said. “And this may not happen if the valedictorian and salutatorian are figured strictly on grade point average.”

Murray, a former principal at Traverse City Central High School, said Traverse City Area Public Schools employs a complex process to determine the top scholars in its graduating classes that number about 500, compared to Leelanau’s largest classes of 100 or so.

“The ‘award of excellence’ takes into consideration community service, future coals, course rigor and compilation of a scrapbook over their high school career,” Murray said. “It not only takes into consideration the scrapbook, but how well the directions were followed.”

Awards of excellence are given to students in the top 10, 20 and 50 percent. No valedictorian or salutatorian is named.

At Leland School, top scholars are usually those who have challenged themselves over their high school careers, although the difficulty of course work is not part of the top scholar formula.

“In some classes, there’s real competition,” Principal Terry Breen said. “It’s a pretty high honor.”

However, it’s not that big of a factor in determining long term success.

“Some schools give extra scholarship money to valedictorians or salutatorians,” he said. “But generally they also consider standardized test scores (ACT) and involvement.”

Breen said he’s been quite happy with the process used at Leland. In his previous position, as an administrator in Hamilton (Mich.), he was at odds with others in the district who used full letter grades to recognize students.

“The same number value was given for an A and an A- … so they had didn’t separate anybody,” Breen said of classes which had as many as 12 valedictorians in a class of 120 to 160. “It’s a shame in a sense.”