A -real- valedictorian would know what he or she needs to take to graduate. I too could be valedictorian if I took four study halls.

I failed study hall.

Valedictorians should be mature enough to handle it.

Ouch for all 11 of them, regardless of class standing, I'm sure they all had summer plans that didn't include "psyche, you didn't really graduate." Not that it should happen, but I'm surprised some CYA-type didn't just "amend" the 11 students' records to prevent this shiatstorm.

It also sucks that the principal wasn't named in the linked article.

She's named in this one. Poppity (new window)

How can you not know how many credits you need to graduate? Why are you not keeping track of them? I was obsessive about it in high school because I needed so many of a certain kind to qualify for honors graduation which then led me to some scholarship money.

Something like this happened to me in college.

It comes time for graduation and they get really pissy because I didn't have enough credits. I told them I was sure I had enough, and showed them, but they insisted I take one more class. So I spend entire extra semester at school for one 3 credit class. End of the semester comes along and I go to get my diploma and they flipped out and tore me a new asshole for taking too many classes.

Sometimes you can't win no matter how aware of your scholastic standing you are.

Principal Rashada Simmons-Tedder

/ I see the problem - a hyphenated last name.

gadian: How can you not know how many credits you need to graduate? Why are you not keeping track of them? I was obsessive about it in high school because I needed so many of a certain kind to qualify for honors graduation which then led me to some scholarship money.

If the school district is this confused, and even admitting that they screwed up, then it wouldn't surprise me to learn that they also failed to provide the students with adequate/accurate information on the credit requirements in the first place.

That valedictorian is a complete idiot and needs to go ahead and pick up a trade b/c surely they won't make it at Duke or Chapel Hill, or even community college for that matter. I remember we had to have 24 credits and that over a decade ago. They typically make it very clear.

Wow. So this actually happened to 17% of the students?

Garinger High School is a shiathole, and being their valedictorian just means you can count past potato.


/lived in Charlotte for two years.
//thankfully was spared the CMS experience.

I have a cousin that graduated from Garinger in '07, or do I?

I'll just leave this here.......

states that dfo not allow teacher unions, Link ( new window)
You get what you pay for people. Education is no different

Phlem Pickens: Principal Rashada Simmons-Tedder

/ I see the problem - a hyphenated last name.

Yup, I see it too.

What the article doesn't mention is that in 2008, they changed the graduation requirements. However, anyone under the old system had to use the previous requirements. It wouldn't surprise me if students were told to use the new requirements and got hosed.

There are also 3 different graduation tracks under the old system: career, college technical prep and university prep. If, for example, you used the math requirements for the wrong one, you would be pretty screwed. This is something a competent counselor would have caught, but it sounds like there was no one competent available.

Bigdogdaddy: I'll just leave this here.......

states that dfo not allow teacher unions, Link ( new window)
You get what you pay for people. Education is no different


INFINITELY THIS

Treat your teachers like shiat, expect students to perform badly.

If the Valedictorian is the student with the highest GPA, how can the valedictorian not graduate while at the same time, other students with a lower GPA do?

Phlem Pickens: Principal Rashada Simmons-Tedder

/ I see the problem - a hyphenated last name.

I see the problem, and I don't think you got it right.

Monkeyfark Ridiculous: If the school district is this confused, and even admitting that they screwed up, then it wouldn't surprise me to learn that they also failed to provide the students with adequate/accurate information on the credit requirements in the first place.

College I went to had the dread department of education that was responsible for making sure you had enough credits to graduate. Problem was they continuously churned requirements, prerequisites, which classes satisfied which graduation requirements. And they were often incompetent and lost records. They didn't assign advisers to students, you made an appointment and then got someone from a pool of who ever showed up to work that day. So the person you saw had the attitude of, who cares I will never see this student again. They were notorious for deciding a few weeks before graduation that you were short a class, or a credit, or hadn't taken classes in the right order. That they had previously signed off on everything, didn't matter.

Cloudchaser Sakonige the Red Wolf: If the Valedictorian is the student with the highest GPA, how can the valedictorian not graduate while at the same time, other students with a lower GPA do?

Hrrm. You graduated from the Carolinas, didn't you?

/Averages, how do they work?

Hillwilliam: Garinger High School is a shiathole, and being their valedictorian just means you can count past potato.


/lived in Charlotte for two years.
//thankfully was spared the CMS experience.


Ah, Guninger High.....yup, still a shiathole.

/had the full CMS experience
//lived to tell about it

Bigdogdaddy: I'll just leave this here.......

states that dfo not allow teacher unions, Link ( new window)
You get what you pay for people. Education is no different

The entire article gets ripped to shreds about three or four comments down in the comments in your link.

Oh, noes! A person with 4 study halls, an art class, and the ability to memorize, temporarily, the information required to get perfect marks in their remaining three classes didn't graduate. Heavens forfend against such a travesty.

telejester: Phlem Pickens: Principal Rashada Simmons-Tedder

/ I see the problem - a hyphenated last name.

I see the problem, and I don't think you got it right.

I could get the problem right, but I would probably get b&

Phlem Pickens: Principal Rashada Simmons-Tedder

/ I see the problem - a hyphenated last name.

Never interact with someone with a hyphenated last name, especially a woman. A corollary would be to avoid if at all possible "repeaters" (e.g., Mike Michaels, Phil Phillips, Simone Simone), interchangeables (e.g., Michael Johns), and first names that are obviously fabricated (the abovementioned Rashada will do, although one must obviously be wary of accusations of racism when avoiding the Bashamomas and Phylicias of this world.....although it's probably safe to just run from someone named "Microprocessor Wombat.")

rico567: first names that are obviously fabricated

I find your post amusing, and surely good advice, but I'm left wondering what names AREN'T obviously fabricated? Matthew, Mark, Luke and John?

Considering how anal, meticulous, and grade-grubbing the handful of students at my HS who were competing for valedictorian had to be, I'm surprised this slipped past the Valedictorian themselves,.

Seriously the difference between #1 and #2 in my class was that #1's parents had the foresight to make him take Gym P/F instead of A-F his freshman year.

Bigdogdaddy: I'll just leave this here.......
states that dfo not allow teacher unions, Link ( new window)
You get what you pay for people. Education is no different

During the Wisconsin/Indiana/Michigan/etc. fights between legislatures, governors, and people who work for a living trying to educate the next generation, I looked (out of curiosity) at what I would make if I taught in Charlotte. I swear I almost choked; even though the cost of living is low in the state, it was a joke. Even maxing out their educational standing it was maybe $40K. That might not sound too bad, but if you have student loans in addition to rent and a car payment, sorry, FFFFFFUUUUUU. Oh, and no, there isn't fast salary growth; if you're going to have a kid, better get that second shift job at McDonald's, Mister Kot-ter.

The health insurance plan, while it is a PPO, at best has 20% coinsurance, which means that you pay 20% of the cost of your medical care, AFTER and ABOVE copays. Sounds like one of those "medical discount" plans on TV. Good news, little Bobby, you don't have to have that yucky those yucky immunization shots! But we have low state income taxes and smokes are cheap, so we got that going for us.

Of course, I'm sure none of this has any bearing on the fact that NC is 41st in the nation in educational rank. Fortunately, since many of the good states are eliminating unions, lowering school expenditures, and teaching to state and federal tests, education will soon be more level throughout the country. "In US, you can fail school, but in Soviet Union, school fails you!"

Since I'm already ranting, I might point out that the GOP wants to eliminate "welfare for the middle class" by cutting social security and medicare. On CNN, Cain asserts that this is why Coburn walked out of budget talks(^), although Cain's entirely wrong about where the deficit comes from. If you are paying (or have paid) payroll tax (and no teacher in CMS makes even a dollar that is over the payroll tax cap), how will you be able to save anything for retirement? If payroll taxes were eliminated today and all teachers could invest that money in 403Bs, what about all of the money they already dropped into the program? And what are you going to do for medical care? Clearly the solution is to cut teacher salaries and eliminate these programs (but not change the fact that the middle class is paying for them). Big corporations need to not pay taxes; otherwise, how will they afford to fund political campaigns? And don't you tell me that big corporations don't know how to spend money properly; once they figured out it was cheaper to buy legislators in advance through campaign contributions than it was to buy them afterward with lobbying, they stayed focused and funded *ahem* "Citizens" United, regardless of the cost. I wish we could run our government like a business, ya know, like the banks receiving over a trillion in bailouts (^) or Enron.

My only hope is that Obama is as ballsy as Clinton was, and lets the Republicans shut down the government.

vatica40: A -real- valedictorian would know what he or she needs to take to graduate. I too could be valedictorian if I took four study halls.

Pretty much this.

Every valedictorian I've ever met is the kind of kid who can not only tell you exactly how many hours they need to graduate but what her precise GPA to the second decimal is at the given second.

rico567: and first names that are obviously fabricated (the abovementioned Rashada will do, although one must obviously be wary of accusations of racism when avoiding the Bashamomas and Phylicias of this world.....

Plenty of white people give their children "obviously fabricated" names.

If you're avoiding Laquisha and Tayshawn, but not Jayden, Kayden, Makinzee, and Kaitelynne, they're not accusations, you're just racist.

My high school had a smaller, math and science oriented magnet school (~25% of student body, maybe) incorporated into it. These kids took multivariate calculus, differential equations and linear algebra by the time they graduated, and most had their entire first year of university level science classes (chemistry, bio, and phys) taken care of by AP credits.

The valedictorians were, inevitably, not the kids that went to MIT. They were the kids who took art, theater, and had a tutor on retainer so they could eke out that A in Algebra 2, and then went to party at their parents' lake house on weekends.

Not that I was ever part of either aforementioned group, but I have never heard of valedictorians ever being close to the best students of the class. They probably got what they deserved for putting grades ahead of actual, you know, learning.

Lord_Dubu: vatica40: A -real- valedictorian would know what he or she needs to take to graduate. I too could be valedictorian if I took four study halls.

Pretty much this.

Every valedictorian I've ever met is the kind of kid who can not only tell you exactly how many hours they need to graduate but what her precise GPA to the second decimal is at the given second.

It doesn't matter what her numbers were, or if they were right.
The school is ultimately the one responsible for handing out diplomas. They set the standards, they dish out the rewards, and they didn't seem to have a farking clue who earned what so those under their tutelage suffered for an admin mistake. No amount of "But I thought I was right" is going to save the student at this point.

Instead of informing these kids that they were short of credits well ahead of time, when something could have been done, the school waited until after graduation.
If it was intentional, it was a dick move. One that's going to cost these students valuable time and probably a great deal of money.
The school should have offered a bit more than an "oops" as their apology.

I still have nightmares about this happening and having to go back to school. And I graduated 10 years ago

The Homer Tax: rico567: and first names that are obviously fabricated (the abovementioned Rashada will do, although one must obviously be wary of accusations of racism when avoiding the Bashamomas and Phylicias of this world.....

Plenty of white people give their children "obviously fabricated" names.

If you're avoiding Laquisha and Tayshawn, but not Jayden, Kayden, Makinzee, and Kaitelynne, they're not accusations, you're just racist.

You can't use that word, only we can use that word.

/By fabricated - did he mean made from cotton?

I'm gonna go out on a limb and wing it. This "leadership" school sounds like it's a feel-good concept school that was put into effect to assuage specific demographics. Being hastily implemented plans the school board simply threw together a staff that would reflect the student population so the logic of "they can really connect with the students" could be applied. Of course this made the aforementioned demographics even happier because their little oh-so-special angels would receive that oh-so-special attention they would need to make it big in life. And oh boy, how proud was the mayor and the school board! This school was something awesome because it was all about giving an advantage to the disadvantaged. We all like to see the little guy win. It looks great in all the media coverage and lets our city shine.

Meanwhile, with all the warm-fuzziness going on no one was really minding the store. The school's administrators were being bandied about for making a difference whilst the real work of being an effective group of leaders was being grossly neglected. That's when and why crap like this happens. With that small of a graduating class there is zero excuse for not knowing how many credits a student has and what needs to be done YEARS before any student puts on a cap and gown.

Silly principal, what you did isn't falling on your sword because you failed. By resigning you admit that you were more for filling out your CV than you were for doing the actual job you were hired to do in the first place. That job is to help the students succeed in their education and to fulfill your appointed duties in managing a staff of people who should be committed to that same goal.

As for the ex-valedictorian; shame on you too. Be proactive. You are officially an adult and believe me, if you can't figure out that no one has your best interests in mind more than yourself then you will fail time and again. Make things happen for you. Don't wait for someone else to fail you. Be aware of everything that you do and don't expect that other people will have your back.

Hopefully I'm utterly wrong and speaking out of the wrong orifice but I'm shamefully cynical when it comes to public education. Too much shine, not nearly enough substance seems to be all I see when it comes to education.

I live in this city and all i can say is welcome to Charlotte

Ill leave this here as it happened a couple of weeks ago in Charlotte
Link (new window)

*facepalm* Sounds like my high school. One of my seniors last year got screwed out of a HALF credit because the head counselor (who was her counselor as a freshman) forgot to put her in a math class her second semester of her sophomore year. The student, being a child, had no idea anything was wrong, and worked her butt of in all of her classes. She had a 3.95 gpa and was not an AP kid.

Because of that half credit, she lost her place at UT and her full scholarship. She's now at TCC taking classes and is trying to figure out her next move. The school? Meh, Who cares? She's already graduated. It's her fault.

When I see that counselor, I'm going to KHITBASH her for reals. Biatch.

retriever: Hopefully I'm utterly wrong and speaking out of the wrong orifice but I'm shamefully cynical when it comes to public education. Too much shine, not nearly enough substance seems to be all I see when it comes to education.

I guess I don't see why you had to make it a race issue. School Administrations as a general rule, are bumbling idiots. White, brown, black, purple, it doesn't matter - it's something about the job and people who would actually want to have it. I mean, it's not like we've never seen a story with white administrators massively failing a predominantly white school district. No one would say in that situation "Those admins failed because they were hired for their race, not their qualifications." I just think your cynicism is misplaced here.

To me it's like this cartoon:

Purity Of Essence: Something like this happened to me in college.

Graduated in January with an engineering degree and was looking for a job. Had gone through the whole review to ensure I had all the right credits. Was working in a tool and die, unskilled laborer, when I got a letter saying I didn't graduate because I flunked a course. The design of experiments course required that all lab reports be kept by the professor and if you didn't you fail regardless of anything else. Turns out the professor who only taught one or two classes as an ad hoc professor lost one report and was away for a while. Couldn't work it out over the phone, took me leaving work and driving back to school to find a TA and show him the paper work that I had turned in all the labs. Still have night mares about it today.

What happens if the extra class (or classes) she takes result in a lower GPA?

To me it's like this cartoon:



It's stick figures, Dude. It's not really a "cartoon."

rico567: Phlem Pickens: Principal Rashada Simmons-Tedder

/ I see the problem - a hyphenated last name.

Never interact with someone with a hyphenated last name, especially a woman. A corollary would be to avoid if at all possible "repeaters" (e.g., Mike Michaels, Phil Phillips, Simone Simone), interchangeables (e.g., Michael Johns), and first names that are obviously fabricated (the abovementioned Rashada will do, although one must obviously be wary of accusations of racism when avoiding the Bashamomas and Phylicias of this world.....although it's probably safe to just run from someone named "Microprocessor Wombat.")

Rashada is actually a pretty traditional name in some parts of the world. It's usually a surname, but it's no more "fabricated" than naming your kid Flynn or Tyler.

those who can, teach.
those who can't become administrators and school guidance counselors.