A Maryland high school is planning a dance for students with high grades — students with lower grade get to come later, 300 students with the lowest grades don’t get to come at all. Read all about it in The Washington Post story, Straight A’s = dancing: Grade celebration questioned by some (see the excerpt from it below).

I’m not an absolute strict believer in not having public recognition of academic achievement (and, importantly, other forms of achievement), but this seems to be way, way over the top. Come on, if you feel like recognizing top grades, you sure don’t have to point out what everybody else got, too.

Besides using plain common sense, the administrators there might want to read Starting the Conversation on Rethinking Awards Ceremonies by Chris Wejr and my own list, The Best Posts & Articles On “Motivating” Students.

And, while they’re at it, since they’re planning on issuing color-coded wristbands as dance tickets to indicate which level students are at, they might want to read Getting A Special Wristband Is Not The Best Road To Greater Student Motivation.

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