Students Question Honor Roll Policy at Language and Diplomacy High School

Homework handed in on time. Tests completed effectively. Participating in class discussions.

The honor roll, a system that rewards student achievement, is the subject of much disagreement at Language and Diplomacy High School (LAD), located at 40 Irving Place inside Washington Irving High School. The qualifications to get on the school’s honor roll are questioned by both students and teachers alike, who feel that it is not a fair reflection of a student’s ability.

“[The] honor roll is so old-school awarding. It’s a piece of paper; a slice of pizza that the principal loves to give,” said Leticia Collado, 16, a junior. Collado has been on honor roll, but says she has little to no interest in the system.

When Collado was on honor roll, she said she did not understand why she was on a list that did not contribute to her learning or development. Since the honor roll is based on grades, in one sense, Collado feels that it is fair because there cannot be favorites. But while Collado feels the honor roll is a good reflection of what a student accomplishes in class, she thinks it can also be subject to a teacher’s biases.

“It depends on the teacher, if the teacher likes shy students, they get good grades,” she said. “Very few systems are based solely on grades, other things look at the whole person, like [the] college admissions process.”

Vanessa Barrientos, 16, a sophomore, said while she feels that a student’s grade should be the major requirement to get on honor roll, extracurricular activities and community service should be taken into consideration.

“The [hours students are] willing to take out of their lives to help out, in my opinion [is] what makes up an honor roll student,” she said.

Barrientos also feels that the honor roll may undermine the efforts of those who work hard.

“Sometimes [being] on honor roll [is] like saying ‘I got better grades,’ to students who are working their butts off but don’t seem to get high grades.”

Principal Santiago Mayol, 46, said that honor roll is not intended to be all-inclusive, but instead rewards achievement and shows a student they produced something during a set time.

“The honor roll is a metric of achievement,” he said. “[It] does not measure a student’s potential.”

The requirement to get on honor roll is a grade point average of 80. The dean’s list and principal’s list for higher achievement, another form of the honor roll system which LAD uses, requires an average of 85 and 90, respectively. Mayol designed LAD’s grading policy and strongly believes in it and how students get on honor roll.

Mayol said his grading policy seeks to capture excellence and progress in a variety of domains.

“Students are gifted in many ways [and] our goal is to acknowledge those gifts,” he said.

At LAD, test and quizzes account for 25 percent of a student’s grade, 35 percent is based on performance projects, 20 percent on class discussions, and 10 percent on homework. What the other 10 percent is based on is up to the teacher to decide, Mayol said.

“If your humanities teacher believes research projects are necessary for college preparedness, that 10 percent can go to a research paper,” he said. “If your math teacher believes modeling world phenomena is critical to students’ understanding that math is a language, then 10 percent might be dedicated to statistical study.”

Benjamin Siegel, 28, a trigonometry teacher at LAD, said though there is one grading policy at the school, teachers tend to grade differently, and that can have an effect on who gets on honor roll.

“In theory [the honor roll is] a good concept, if it’s done correctly,” he said. “Once we all have the same grading system, then it works.”

Testing, participation, homework, and quizzes are taken into consideration when grading students. Participation in class is what Siegel questions.

“[Grading] participation gives room for teachers to reward students they like, because you can’t tell who spoke and can’t force someone to speak,” he said.

Though Siegel agrees with Mayol’s grading policy he feels that students’ grades depend too much on tests, and that the bar to get on honor roll is low.

“It should be at least an 85 with perfect attendance,” said Siegel. “There are [students] on honor roll without perfect attendance.”

Siegel believes the honor roll is 85 percent accurate and that it benefits and highlights the most devoted students.

Kimberly Rodriguez, 16, a junior, feels that a student’s attitude and behavior toward a teacher will influence the grade they receive.

“If respect is given, respect is rewarded,” she said.

The benefit of being on honor roll, according to Mayol, is that a student will receive recognition for their sense of discipline and efforts that produced exemplar results.

Being on honor roll gives students who maintain an 85 average and complete 30 hours of community service every year, a chance to be inducted into the National Honor Society (NHS). Being part of the NHS will add another extracurricular to a student’s repertoire, and for seniors applying to college, it could help make their application more competitive.

Xun Qing Zheng, 17, a junior, said she does not care about the honor roll.

“If I’m on it, it’s pretty fair,” she joked.