OUR GOVT SCHOOLS in action. nashville bans honor rolls

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Focus on: Education

Schools banish class honor rolls

Nashville officials fear underachievers could be offended

By Matt Gouras / Associated Press

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. The school honor roll, a time-honored system for rewarding A students, has become an apparent source of embarrassment for some underachievers.

As a result, all Nashville schools have stopped posting honor rolls, and some are also considering a ban on hanging good work in the hallways all at the advice of school lawyers.

After a few parents complained their children might be ridiculed for not making the list, Nashville school system lawyers warned that state privacy laws forbid releasing any academic information, good or bad, without permission.

Some schools have since put a stop to academic pep rallies. Others think they may have to cancel spelling bees. Now, schools across the state may follow Nashvilles lead.

The change has upset many parents who want their children recognized for hard work.

This is as backward as it gets, said Miriam Mimms, who has a son at Meigs Magnet School and helps run the Parent Teacher Association. There has to be a way to come back from the rigidity.

The problem appears unique to Tennessee, since most states follow federal student privacy guidelines, which allow the release of such things as honor rolls, U.S. Department of Education officials said.

Its the first time Ive heard of schools doing that, department spokesman Jim Bradshaw said.

But Nashville school lawyers based their decision last month on a state privacy law dating back to the 1970s a law thats not always followed because no one challenged the honor roll status quo.

School officials are developing permission slips to give parents of the Nashville districts 69,000 students the option of having their children work recognized. They hope to get clearance before the next grading cycle in about six weeks at some schools.

Until then, school principals are left trying to figure out what they can and cant do.

Sandy Johnson, chief instructional officer for the Nashville schools, says the restrictions go far beyond the honor roll.

Its for anything having to do with grades and attendance or anything normally reserved just for the student or parent, she said.

Getting parents to sign permission slips wont help protect students from being left out, but at least it will comply with the law, school officials said.

Christy Ballard, general counsel for the state Education Department, said shes getting a lot of calls since the Nashville decision, and will recommend that all Tennessee public schools get honor roll permission slips from parents.

In Knoxville, school district spokesman Russ Oaks said they do not think posting good information about a student violates state law. He said they put such information in the same category as sports statistics.

But some school systems already get parents to sign a release before student information is made public. Others think it might be a good idea to get rid of the honor roll, as Principal Steven Baum did at Julia Green Elementary in Nashville.

The rationale was, if there are some children that always make it and others that always dont make it, there is a very subtle message that was sent, he said. I also understand right to privacy is the legal issue for the new century.

Baum thinks spelling bees and other publicly graded events are leftovers from the days of ranking and sorting students.

i discourage competitive games at school, he said. They just dont fit my world view of what a school should be.

Parents at most schools, though, have been close to outraged over the new rule.

So far, what weve heard parents say is: This is crazy; spend your time doing other things, said Teresa Dennis, principal at Percy Priest Elementary School. It does seem really silly.

A similar issue over student privacy went to the U.S. Supreme Court two years ago, when some parents objected to students grading each others work. The court sided with tradition in that case, ruling the long-standing practice of teachers asking students to swap papers and grade them in class does not violate federal privacy law.

Its not always clear what falls into (the privacy laws), said Naomi E. Gittins, an attorney with the National School Boards Association. Schools often take a more cautious route.


this is scary!! i know many of you think this wont happen, but it wont be long before all public schools stop recognizing excellence

[Anonymous]

I find this hilarious, personally. I'm in HS, and if anything, it's those that DO make it on the list that are "ridiculed" (as common sense would tell anyone with a brain). What a joke. The argument to ban the honor roll is absurd because it is simply listing the top performers; the vast majority aren't on the list, so it does nothing to humiliate the "underachievers," it merely honors the "overachievers."

[stormraiser]

Gee, why would it offend someone to have a good role model to look up to?

[rainstorm]

I discourage competitive games at school,” he said. “They just don’t fit my world view of what a school should be.”

thats a telling quote. the liberal world veiw is that everyone is equal. to recognize excellence invalidates the liberals veiw of the world. dont think this wont spread to your school system, because it will.

[ColdFront77]

The only way to see how students are doing in their classes is to grade them. However, there are people like myself who are intelligent, but get average to above average grades.

I was on the honor in high school a couple of times, two or three terms (quarters), my senior year; during the 1995-1996 school year.

[janswizard]

As usual, I'm the odd one out here. I sorta agree with this.

I can remember back in grade school, starting in 4th grade, our classes were numbered 4-1, 4-2, 4-3, 4-4, and 4-5.

Those in 4-1 were the students who were doing accelerated programs because learning was either easy for them or they really buckled down and studied and did well on their tests and classwork. 4-5 was the class that had those students who had a hard time grasping their lessons and weren't doing well at all. During the school year, kids came and went, moving up and down, according to how well or not well they were doing.

I always hated that there was a distinction between these classrooms. I always felt bad that those kids who were in the lower groups were called names like "stupid" and "dummy"; labels that kids use not realizing, at that age, how devastating it could be for those that had the learning disabilities that put them in those classes to begin with.

I can almost understand why people who aren't on that honor role feel that they would be embarrassed. They may be trying harder than the next guy but just be having a difficult time trying to grasp the concepts.

[rainstorm]

this is very dangerous. in the real world, kids better learn to compete. govt schools will at some point be a dumping ground for mindless mediocrity.

[ColdFront77]

I wasn't in accelerated classes, but that doesn't mean that I and others with my level of intelligence should be in higher level classes.

[David]

Hey... I tell you what..public schools suck. Special Education people get alot more help then us. I'm not saying it's their fault things dont click in their head faster then us, but all because of that, they get a whole nother class period to do homework, while we get more homework. It's really unfair.

That story is just stupid.

[furluvcats]

I strongly disagree with this article. Honor roll students deserve to be recognized for academic achievement. When my daughter was in the public school system, she was on honor roll, and it made her strive even harder to make sure she made it the next semester.

[Anonymous]

Hey... I tell you what..public schools suck.

You got that damn right... even here in N VA, where people boast of having some of the best schools in the nation, things are quite messed up. Sure, this area is affluent and the schools are well-funded and well-maintained, but the quality of what goes on inside the schools is dismal IMO, as I suspect is the case in most public schools. The problem as I see it is simply that teachers are underpaid and, as a result, the people who are hired as teachers are generally underperforming and unable to find a better job. Of course there are exceptions... I have nothing but respect for the people who teach because they love to see people learn and say heck with the low pay, but they are few and far between IMO (based on my current school and the others I've gone to). Not only are the teachers frequently incompetent (to different degrees), but I strongly disagree with the cirriculum and the way things are taught. Everyone caters to the kids who don't give a damn about learning, resulting in time-consuming projects that are utterly pointless being assigned rather than just learning the subject by the books and taking tests. The worst example is in my HS's science department... every science class is REQUIRED to assign a "Creative" project at least once per quarter, including purely technical/mathematical courses like Physics and Chemistry. Rather than getting in an extra chapter, we work on building a musical instrument out of household materials (physics) or writing a "humorous autobiography of an element from the periodic table... be creative!" (chem). It's just depressing.

[streetsoldier]

As a member of Phi Theta Kappa (scholastic honors) and several postings in The National Dean's List (both honors shared with my wife), I'm appalled.

Those who, by diligence, application and just plain hard work, achieve excellence SHOULD reap the fruits of their labors; and stand as an example to others. More than that, those like myself also took the time to mentor students who needed remedial tutorials, encouraged them, befriended them, and some of these rose to be invited themselves into our ranks.

Denial of excellence is just another brick in the path to academic oblivion..."dumbing down", to a grey, hopeless artificial egalitarianism for the SAKE of egalitariansim.

And that will never do.

[rainstorm]

sorta like communism, eh? i feel the ultra-left national education association has far too much power to indoctrinate kids in the thier "world view"

[blizzard]

sorta like communism, eh? i feel the ultra-left national education association has far too much power to indoctrinate kids in the thier "world view"

Far-left has nothing to do with this crap. Who instituted the "No child left behind" policy?? That is what this is all about. Trying to convince the students that they are all equal academically. We don't want to hurt anyone's feelings after all.

My daughter's are both in teh Advanced learning classes in school because they needed more of a challenge. If they would not have been abled to do this, thye wouldn't be bettering themselves. And removing the "honor roll" system is doing the same thing. IMO

[Pburgh]

Bad behavior can no longer be punished and good behavior can no longer be praised. Go figure!!!!!

[streetsoldier]

Well said, Karan!!! This idiocy is taking the tenet of "All men (and women) are created 'equal'" and re-inventing it to absolutist interpretation in all matters...egalitarianism at its worst.

[nystate]

What a bunch of bull...if the parents really didn't want their children to be embarrassed, they should push them to make the honor roll. It drives me crazy that schools will bend over backwards to get a kid over 65 %, when they could care less about whether a harder working kid has an A or a B. They get a bumper sticker, so what. There needs to be more of a reward for being on the honor roll...something that will make the kids that aren't try harder to make the list.

[ColdFront77]

Some students can try so hard and still not make it, doesn't mean they are unintelligent/moderate to poor minded individuals.

[Skywatch_NC]

When my sister was in a public junior high (middle) school...well it was just 7th and 8th grades way back then (late 1970s)...hehe...anyway, she got some complimentary Cincy Reds games tickets every now and then courtesy of the school for her honor roll achievements!

It was AWESOME to go and see a Reds game with her and my Dad!
Mom isn't really a sports fan.

Strike UP another one for America's schools these days!

Eric

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i wonder if the same school system has eliminated atheletic awards?