Does your school do Top 10% in MS?

[westwoodmom04]

My son’s private does. It’s one of the awards given out at the end of middle school — there are also character and sportsmanship awards that go to multiple kids.

[bcafe]

I just found out that our MS does a top 5% for 8th grade.

[scrooks]

My 8th grade had her end of the year awards yesterday and no mention of class rank at all.

[westwoodmom04]

My son’s private does. It’s one of the awards given out at the end of middle school — there are also character and sportsmanship awards that go to multiple kids.

I’ll add that it is just an academic prize that roughly goes to the top ten percent, which is 8 or so boys. They don’t give the kids a class rank.

[♥ms.pacman♥]

Yikes. i am not a fan of giving MS kids a day off for getting in the 10% (i think i understood that right?) I'm so glad our district doesn't do this! Seems very exclusive and setting kids up for unhealthy attitude. I'd be upset if i was your DS too.

This is our first year in MS, and the awards at DS school are a complete mystery to me. For 6th grade, I know they do give out awards to some kids, and i think they are mostly ranked at the class level (e.g. 6th grade Science, etc). Though apparently only kids and parents of kids getting awards are invited to the 6th awards ceremony. I only happened to find out there was a 6th grade award ceremony from Facebook, as a parent of one of DS classmate posted photos of a ceremony with her DD getting several awards. I received no invite and there was no announcement of 6th grade awards, and I asked DS about it and he heard nothing about it... so we just figured out he must have gotten no awards, and they only invite the kids getting awards to the ceremony. Interesting approach.... i don't know if it's good or bad. Good i guess to not make tons of kids sit through a boring ceremony when most aren't getting awards, bad i guess bc in other way it feels exclusive.

If it's any consolation, I'm convinced that awards in MS are pretty random. I just checked my son's grades and he has A (above 90) for the year in all subjects, and he's in highly accelerated math (taking Algebra I next year as a 7th grader) and in honors social studies. Second semester he got all As except for an 88 and 89 in the accelerated math & honors social studies. He often complains how his science class and reading class are a total joke and ridiculously easy. I thought he would get some award for As or at least A/B honor roll but he didn't, so they must not give that out, and maybe only if you get all As both semesters.

My DS was in opposite situation - he doesn't care at all about awards, almost to the point where it aggravates me. A few weeks back i checked my sons grades and saw he had an 89 in his math course, and told him he was only one point away from getting an A, and if he got one point higher that he woudl get all As for the semester and he said he didn't care , he didn't need an award or grade to know he knew the material. I was really shocked as DH and I were not like this at all, but am glad he got that attitude from somewhere.

[belovedgandp]

So sorry your son was in this situation. I would have kept my kid home and absolutely told everyone exactly why.

Our middle school is 6-8 and does not do top 10%.

They used to do an awards ceremony at the end of the year and only invite parents of kids being recognized and then they changed it to be everyone is recognized. They do it by grade, so I just went to my 6th graders last week. I think it is sad for several reasons. They only read the names and they do it fast (200 kids and entire event took 25 minutes). You have to be watching the screen behind them to see the actual awards for each kid.

80% of students have promoted to 7th grade and honor roll on the screen. Honor roll is a 3.0 or above. There were THREE out of the 200 students who were not on honor roll, so I feel like this ceremony targets those kids more than it celebrates anyone for doing extra. The other awards listed are specials department recommend a few students (art, music, band, tech), theater has an award for those doing 2 of the 3 shows, and academic awards in four key subjects (which also drives me crazy because it is 95% or above all three quarters at a school where grades are 90% test based - it's just not realistic).

So the few kids that did do some awesome stuff this year get the same fast walk across the stage. DD had classmates win a state competition and place at nationals and all they got was a line on the screen.

[anonomom]

No rankings in our middle school, though there is an "A" honor roll and "A/B" honor roll.

It used to bug me that my kids' elementary school didn't really do awards, but as we've spent more time there, I've become really glad of it. They've always been super careful not to single kids out or make kids feel less than. And awards can be really crummy: a few years back, DS had a teacher who used their end of year celebration as an excuse to give out extremely mean "awards," and that kind of soured me on the whole idea.

[carolinacool]

No rankings in our middle school, either.

There's a sixth-grade awards ceremony later this week and I thought for sure we would be invited as DS made A/B honor role for third quarter. DS doesn't really make honor roll (always a C or 2 hanging around), so he was super proud and we were, too. The first semester awards ceremony was virtual, so everyone got a link, and they handed out the first and second quarter honor roll certificates then. I emailed his teacher earlier today but didn't hear back. But I just saw a comment from a parent on the school's FB page and it looks like they could be shifting the days. It seems very unorganized. My job is flexible so I can take off whenever, but it's certainly not helpful for folks with more rigid schedules.