Valedictorian Tradition Increasingly Threatened

As college and high school graduations take place, thousands of select students will step to podiums to deliver their graduating class's farewell remarks at commencement ceremonies throughout the United States.

These students – usually the graduating seniors with the highest grade point average, or GPA – are recognized with a formal title: valedictorians.

Though the tradition goes back to colonial times, the validity of valedictorian honor is increasingly being called into question. A growing number of schools are changing how they bestow the honor or doing away with it altogether.