By RJ Townsend
Through the course of four years, things change. That includes class ranking. But most never change like this.
Delta High School has decided to adopt a new honors system in academics for its students. Delta will be implementing this change starting next year.
Delta has a descriptive and uncommon way of displaying students’ information. This comes from the 12-point grade-point average scale instead of a 4-point scale as well as our unweighted dual credit classes.
Now with the new style of Latin Honors, we will be able to share more common ground with colleges and universities.
“It uses the college terms,” Delta principal Christopher Conley said. “It makes more sense for us since we are an Early College High School.”
He was the one with this idea and presented it to Superintendent Greg Kile and other administrators. The administration, including Supt. Kile, quickly decided to start this transition to Latin Honors.
“Initially we wanted to start this with the current freshmen, but the administrators wanted to start it sooner with the current juniors,” Conley said.
The top 20-30 students in every grade are among the new group called Summa Cum Laude. This includes all kids with a 10.7-12 on our 12-point GPA scale, which is a 3.9-4.0 on the unweighted scale.
Other groups of kids that will be within Latin Honors are students with 10.1-10.6 will be Magna Cum Laude, and finally, there will be the Cum Laude group with GPAs of 9.5-10.
The current juniors are open about their rankings and their hope that more will change or be added to the school’s academics. They are competitive as is evidenced by their close ranking and GPAs.
“I think we all agree on what we want, and who is what rank and how we all try and compete, but it’s different now,” junior Emerson Townsend said.
There are more than 50 students in each current grade at Delta with Latin Honors. Opinions on this topic are widespread and differing.
“Just make them weighted,” said Maddy Copper, a junior. “The classes aren’t worth it if they’re not weighted.”
Some juniors have their thoughts set very straight, such as Kennedy Martinez who shares the number 12 spot with Brylee Beckley in the junior class.
“Rank still matters. Even when they say we won’t have a valedictorian we all will still be numbered,” Kennedy said.
Or even Zach Baty, who currently holds the third rank in the class of 2025. He doesn’t like the new system. “It’s like a participation trophy,” he said. “There isn’t competition anymore.”
All of these students are all within the highest group, Summa Cum Laude.
Principal Conley said the competition to have the highest GPAs has caused students in the past to overlook certain classes that might be good for them to take.
“I think it’s really fair because our classes are unweighted,” junior Avery Stinson said.
But some current juniors don’t like the change.
“Now there’s no point in being number one,” Emerson Townsend said.
Others see a small bright side to the change.
“It’s beneficial to a degree,” Kennedy Martinez said. ”if you’re not in the top 10 percent of your class, it will make you look better.”
Though this topic has proven controversial, the administration and Principal Conley believe this will benefit upcoming students and their road to success.
