Recognizing Excellence and Rigor at
Casco Bay, Deering and Portland High Schools
Revised 9-08

Our Unified Aims:

• To recognize students for academic excellence and rigor.
• To encourage students to pursue both excellence and rigor in their course of study.
• To create a system that recognizes students clearly and equitably, regardless which PPS high school a student attends.

Our Proposal:
In addition to existing systems of recognizing student achievement (Honor Roll, NHS), we propose that students earn the right to be recognized at their graduation for meeting the standards of Cum Laude, Magna Cum Laude and Summa Cum Laude.  The standards for admission for the incoming class of 2012 would be the following:

*Honors Levels Courses would include AP and Early College offerings.
**Rigor Points would be awarded for achieving “With Honors” (3.75) in a CBHS course – or by taking an AP or Early College course.

• We will review the benchmarks above every four years to ensure that the standards are appropriately high. We will then re-calibrate as necessary.
• At the end of junior year, qualifying students will be identified as “projected” for Cum Laude, Magna Cum Laude. etc.. Students may use this “projection” as a part of college applications.
• Membership will be determined after the fall semester (or winter trimester at CBHS), but it will not be official until after graduation.

Other Reporting System Details:

• There will be no weighting of grades or class rank - with the exception of identifying the class valedictorian and salutatorian.
• Several seniors at each high school will be recognized for outstanding progress over the course of their high school tenure through the Presidential Achievement awards.
• For college reporting purposes, each school will report out students' relative academic standing in deciles: top 10%, top 20%, top 30%, top 40% and top 50% (only)
• The class valedictorian and salutatorian at each school will be the two students from Summa Cum Laude with the highest GPA's.