As the school year begins, I was looking at the Alumni
newsletter from my alma mater, Bishop McCort High School in Johnstown, PA. They had a listing of last year’s graduating
class; their names, where they were going to college or if they had other
plans, and whether or not they were in the National Honor Society (NHS). As luck would have it, I found the program
from my high school graduation in 1988 which shows the exact same
information. I thought I would take a
deeper look at how the classes differ.
The McCort class of ’88 had 148 graduates. The class of ’16 had 97. The tuition in 1988 was about $900. Now it is
$6,500. The class of ’16 had 5 exchange
students from China while my class had no exchange students. The program said the class of ’16 had
received $7 million in scholarships, 92% were going to college, 6,200 hours of
community service was performed, and 33 students had parents who were alumni. I don’t know how many scholarships, hours of
community service, or students who had alumni parents but I do know that 90% of
my class pursued higher education (more on that later).
I next compared the two classes on the number who were in
the NHS. The table below shows the raw
numbers for both classes. There was a
higher percentage of students in the NHS in the class of ’16 (32%) than in the
class of ’88 (23%). According to the McCort website, students now need a 96% cumulative average which is equivalent
to a 3.6 grade point average (GPA). When
I was there a student needed a cumulative 3.3 GPA to be accepted into the NHS
and have a good disciplinary record. The grading system when I was there looks the same as it is now.
Grad Year
|
Total
|
|||
1988
|
2016
|
|||
NHS
|
Yes
|
34 (23%)
|
31 (32%)
|
65
|
No
|
114
|
66
|
180
|
|
Total
|
148
|
97
|
245
|
|
Because I have yearbooks from each year I was a student at
McCort, I decided to look at the preceding 3 graduation classes from mine on
the percentage of the class in the NHS.
None of these classes had the same percentage in the NHS and the classes
of ’86 and ’87 were somewhat lower. A
chi-square test for the equality of the classes shows that the 2016 class had a
higher percentage than the 4 classes in the late 80’s.
Grad Year
|
|||||||
1985
|
1986
|
1987
|
1988
|
2016
|
Total
|
||
NHS
|
yes
|
33
|
22
|
20
|
34
|
31
|
140
|
no
|
107
|
107
|
111
|
114
|
66
|
505
|
|
Total
|
140
|
129
|
131
|
148
|
97
|
645
|
|
NHS %
|
23.57
|
17.05
|
15.27
|
22.97
|
31.96
|
||
I don’t know the reasons for the higher percentage in the
class of 2016. It could be that they are
brighter as the criteria for membership is more stringent than it was when I
was there. It could be that because the
class was smaller the students had more individual attention. Next I will look at differences in how the
class of ’16 and ’88 differed with respect to which the plans for the future on
graduation day. I don't have the graduation programs from the classes of '85, '86, or '87 for comparison.
Many say that being in the NHS doesn't really matter in the long run but it did matter to me when I was in high school and it did matter to the school or they wouldn't publicize it in their alumni newsletter. I would study my but off and miss it by a few points.
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