Valedictorian v. Cum Laude? Your thoughts wanted

T
he times they are a-changing.  As more and more students are opting to engage in post-secondary education and as competition for scholarships gets tougher, the Wyoming Legislature has ramped things up with the passage of the Senate Enrolled Act 0056 in 2017. 
In accordance with the act, the Wyoming Department of Education (WDE) introduced the 5.0 weighted grading scale to acknowledge and recognize the elevated rigor of some high school courses. 
Raising the stakes a little higher, the act and WDE are requiring districts to use a weighted scale to calculate Hathaway Scholarship eligibility. 
Given the now legal requirement that all concurrent/dual enrollment courses will use the 5.0 scale, and because there are non-concurrent courses offered at Newcastle High School which present students with increased academic rigor, the staff of NHS is in the process of investigating changes to our current 4.0 scale. 
With these changes, the staff is also considering changing how we recognize the academic achievement of our students as they graduate.
In the past, all students who finish their high school career with a 4.0 GPA have been awarded Valedictorian status. We believe students who achieve this goal deserve recognition, however we also see some flaws in the current system.
Foremost in our concerns is that there is no distinction between students who challenge themselves by taking more rigorous classes all four years of high school versus those who back off from those courses in their senior year in order to maintain their 4.0 with little effort.
Another concern is for those students who choose to take the higher level classes and ultimately end up losing their 4.0, also lose the opportunity to be recognized for their academic achievement.
As such, NHS is investigating the option of abandoning the Valedictorian system we currently use in favor of adopting a Cum Laude system, as the latter would allow recognition of all students who achieve academic success.
The following is an example of how students would be awarded honors according to GPA: Cum Laude would apply to students with a GPA of 3.5-3.7, Magna Cum Laude to 3.8-3.9 and Summa Cum Laude to those with a 4.0 and higher grade point average.
Colleges and universities use this classification and there are high schools around the state and in other states that have moved, or are in the process of moving, to the Cum Laude system. In addition, the University of Wyoming no longer offers full ride scholarships to Valedictorians, therefore the financial advantage of the status no longer applies.
We at NHS acknowledge that abandoning tradition can be difficult, so in our effort to come to a decision regarding this matter, we want to know what parents and stakeholders think about making this change. 
As such, during parent/teacher conferences next Monday and Wednesday, there will be a brief survey available to those who wish to share their opinion regarding this matter. If you wish to take part in the survey, but can’t make P/T conferences, there will also be copies of the survey in the high school office.