By Maysen Marolda
Staff Writer
Every year at Mira Costa, the administration creates a ballot to determine Student of the Year from a list of potential candidates. Although the students who win this prestigious award do deserve the recognition, the process should be improved to include all teachers’ views throughout the whole process as opposed to solely the first round and more student involvement throughout the whole process overall.
For the selection process, the administration distributes the ballot of the nominees to all teachers, who then cast one vote each to create a list of finalists. Then, from that list, solely the department chairs and members of Ed Council, a committee of select administrators and teachers, each get to cast one vote for whom they believe should earn the title. The administration gives the nominee with the most votes the title of Student of the Year.
In the first round of voting, each teacher gets to cast one vote to create a list of finalists, and in the second round, the school solely allows department chairs to cast one vote, Costa Principal Dr. Ben Dale said. This is unfair because, according to the Costa website, there are only 13 department chairs as opposed to 118 teachers. Therefore, with a smaller entity of teachers to represent all of Costa, the vote seems to become more exclusive, which is unjust to students who might not have a current or former teacher on the panel.
Students can only appear on the ballot if they are within the top 10 academic percent of Costa students, Dale said. Although academic excellence is an important aspect when it comes to selecting nominees, Costa should take other factors into greater consideration when selecting the Student of the Year, and not automatically exclude students who are simply not in the top 10 percent of their class academically.
According to a La Vista survey of 231 Costa students, 86% of respondents believes that teachers do not have a full understanding of students’ accomplishments outside of the classroom. Therefore, students should be included in the process so they can help choose a winner that encompasses a plethora of achievements rather than just academic accomplishments or recognition by specific teachers as opposed to the Costa community as a whole.
Additionally, according to the survey, 96% of students believes that teachers are more inclined to vote for students they have taught over students they have not taught. The survey reflects a common belief that the process is unfair for candidates who have fewer of their past teachers on that panel. Therefore, the process should be revised so that in addition to incorporating student voting, all teachers vote in both the first and second rounds of the selection process, ideally making the process more fair.
According to the La Vista survey, 57% of students believes that both students and teachers should take part in the process. There should be voices from both groups that have seen both sides of the students to better ensure that the hard work of the recipient is properly acknowledged.
However, when asked if the voting process would become a popularity contest if students were involved, 74% of students said yes, according to the survey. Even though it has the potential to turn into a popularity contest, student input is still vital to ensure that the process includes all of Costa’s population.
The voting process should be revised so that student input is considered for candidates. In addition, the number of teachers that are involved in the process should be increased so that all students have a fair chance to receive the distinguished award.
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