End of Year Awards

End of Year Awards

by Denise Pope, Ph.D.

Several administrators at a recent conference asked my opinion on year-end student awards and assemblies. At their schools, they typically rewarded students who had straight A’s or who had GPA’s above a certain cut-off point. Some gave these students awards at schoolwide assemblies; others listed student names and GPA levels in local newspapers or graduation programs. I told them that I am not a fan of such practices because they tend to emphasize grades – and particularly grade point averages – over other important measures and milestones for student success. What we reward is a reflection of what we value as a school. It’s not that we shouldn’t recognize and honor hard work and achievement, but an A grade is not always an accurate measure of these things. Can we find ways to honor the student who showed the most growth over time in a particular content area? Maybe this is a student who struggled at first, but persisted and worked diligently to understand the material? What about the student who took a risk and showed great creativity? How can we show that we honor kindness, honesty, service to others, excellent collaboration and communication skills – as much as we value academic mastery? When we reward A’s and high GPA’s in very public ways, we send a narrow message about success. When we honor students at community events, let’s use this opportunity to celebrate achievements that go beyond getting the grades. Let’s reward a wide variety of achievements and success stories that reflect the true values of our schools and communities.