Does your school do Top 10% in MS?

[MSWR0319]

Just curious if your school does top 10% in middle school. They are doing an awards ceremony today at DS's MS and he missed it by .03 because of a D+ he got on a test he was forced to take the day he came back from being sick for a week. This was against school protocol but no one would do anything about forcing the teacher to let him retest. The poor kid has been obsessing all day, texting me regularly, about how he should be in the Top 10% and if he had just gotten a % better here or there he would be in it. It's literally wrecking him and is so unhealthy. I don't know how to help him right now other than to tell him it's not a big deal. His friends are all gone because they get the day off so he's sitting in class obsessing because they aren't doing anything. I don't really understand the Top 10% thing in middle school and was just curious if other schools did it.

[SnuggleBuggles]

No.
But, what impact does it have outside of just this awards ceremony?


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[georgiegirl]

No. Our school still does standards based grading through middle school. So no one has legit grades until high school.


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[smilequeen]

No, they do some awards, but not a top 10%.

Poor guy, he’s putting way too much pressure on himself for something that is meaningless except for during the awards ceremony itself.

[Tenasparkl]

Not top 10% but they did awards for 4.0 and above 3.5 GPAs. The amount of kids that got the one for 3.5 and above was huge - it took forever! All the kids on the 4.0 list were obviously also on the 3.5 list so they got both - seemed a little unnecessary to me. Many of them also got an award if they did service hours with a high GPA, so essentially 3 awards for basically the same thing.

[nfceagles]

No. Absolutely no ranking at MS. We don’t even have leveled courses (that part does bug me).

I would let this teacher and the guidance counselor know how much he’s hurt by this so they at least understand the impact of the choice they made. I’m really annoyed by the lack of policies to encourage sick kids to stay home these days.


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[essnce629]

Definitely not.

My son's private high school didn't rank either and even made it difficult to know your own GPA until junior year (you'd have to calculate it yourself, it was never on report cards, etc).

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[MSWR0319]

No.
But, what impact does it have outside of just this awards ceremony?


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None! That's what I keep trying to tell him. Other than the kids in top 10% don't have to come to school today except for the awards ceremony. He doesn't do well in classes where kids goof around, and that's what's happening today because they have nothing to do and the kids whom he normally socializes with are out because they were in the top 10%.

No, they do some awards, but not a top 10%.

Poor guy, he’s putting way too much pressure on himself for something that is meaningless except for during the awards ceremony itself.

That's what I keep telling him. That it literally doesn't matter for any reason. We've been very conscious with him never to make grades a big sticking point because he's such a perfectionist. So if he gets a B, we never say anything about it. He'll complain but we always remind him that if he did his best, that's all that matters. This is also the first year they've had actual grades and it makes him even more of a perfectionist.

Our school system seems to reward people for everything. I hate it. Three years ago they did this big assembly and gave ribbons to all of the kids who knew their letters and numbers at the end of K. DS was in K that year and I felt so bad for some of those kids. There weren't many that didn't get it and they were so heartbroken. They were looking for their parents in the audience, who of course weren't there, and then everyone around them got ribbons and they didn't. I volunteered that year and the kids that didn't get ribbons were really trying, they just couldn't do it. It was heart wrenching. I wrote a letter to the admin, as did many other people after that award ceremony and they never did it again thank goodness. It's always the same kids getting the awards and more likely than not most of the kids who aren't getting them aren't going to be motivated to try harder just to get that reward. Yes, there will be a few but not many. Then you have the few like DS who maybe just had a bad day or who really try but just can't get there and they're destroyed. It's a good life lesson that awards don't define you, but it's still hard.

[chlobo]

No rankings here in Middle School.

[chlobo]

None! That's what I keep trying to tell him. Other than the kids in top 10% don't have to come to school today except for the awards ceremony. He doesn't do well in classes where kids goof around, and that's what's happening today because they have nothing to do and the kids whom he normally socializes with are out because they were in the top 10%.


That's what I keep telling him. That it literally doesn't matter for any reason. We've been very conscious with him never to make grades a big sticking point because he's such a perfectionist. So if he gets a B, we never say anything about it. He'll complain but we always remind him that if he did his best, that's all that matters. This is also the first year they've had actual grades and it makes him even more of a perfectionist.

Our school system seems to reward people for everything. I hate it. Three years ago they did this big assembly and gave ribbons to all of the kids who knew their letters and numbers at the end of K. DS was in K that year and I felt so bad for some of those kids. There weren't many that didn't get it and they were so heartbroken. They were looking for their parents in the audience, who of course weren't there, and then everyone around them got ribbons and they didn't. I volunteered that year and the kids that didn't get ribbons were really trying, they just couldn't do it. It was heart wrenching. I wrote a letter to the admin, as did many other people after that award ceremony and they never did it again thank goodness. It's always the same kids getting the awards and more likely than not most of the kids who aren't getting them aren't going to be motivated to try harder just to get that reward. Yes, there will be a few but not many. Then you have the few like DS who maybe just had a bad day or who really try but just can't get there and they're destroyed. It's a good life lesson that awards don't define you, but it's still hard.

Wow, that sounds really bad. I'm sorry the school is like that. I think they need to rethink some stuff for the sake of the kids' mental health.