In 2016 I wrote about my high school alma mater, Bishop McCort, had a higher percentage of it’s graduating class in the National Honor Society (NHS) than the graduating classes that were there when I was there from 1985-1988.  I calculated those numbers from their alumni newsletters and from the high school yearbooks and old graduation programs that I had.  I didn’t receive another alumni newsletter for 2017 but I did see it posted on McCort’s website.  


As the class of 2018 has it’s graduation, I thought I would see what the NHS percentage was for the class of 2017.  I found that 40 out of 87 seniors or 45.98% were NHS members last year.  This is almost half of the class and 14 percentage points higher than it was in 2016 and 22 points higher than it was for my graduating class (our 30th reunion is this year but I won’t be able to go because).   


I don’t have a good explanation for the high percentage.  According to the student handbook a 96% grade point average is needed to get in to the NHS.  When I was there the GPA was on a 4.0 scale and a 3.3 cumulative average was needed to be in the NHS which is roughly equivalent to a 90% grade point average.  The size of the graduating classes for the last two years are smaller than they were in the 80’s.with more than 120 in each class compared to 97 and 87 in ’16 and ’17 respectively.

I really don’t have a good explanation for why the percentage was so high last year.  I sent last year’s post to the school asking for comment and got this response on Facebook but nothing else:


“Thank you for your contribution as your statistical analysis is greatly appreciated! Your work has been forwarded to our guidance department. With school starting this past week, things have been busy on Osborne Street.”


The percentage is even higher this year.  I’ll be looking for the 2018 numbers.  Next week I will look at how the 1988, 2016 and 2017 classes compare to each other in terms of which colleges they are attending.



**Related Posts**

Comparing McCort’s Class of ’16 to the Class of ’88 in their College Plans