District 300 uses the Cum Laude system to honor graduates. The Cum Laude system establishes three distinct “honors” levels where students are recognized for their academic performance at the graduation ceremony in May. These classifications will account for both the unweighted and weighted GPA. The honors distinctions include:

It is important to note that a student’s unweighted GPA may place them in a different Cum Laude level than their weighted GPA (and vice versa). If this is the case, the higher of the two levels will be applied for the student.

The cum laude distinctions are reserved for only those students who have earned a minimum GPA of 3.5+ (unweighted) and 4.5+ (weighted) with no failing semester grades (F) or incompletes (I). The inclusion of the “and” option using a weighted and unweighted calculation ensures that students who take challenging coursework are recognized for their overall attainment.

Cum laude distinction is based on seventh semester cumulative GPA. However, in fairness to students that do not earn any cum laude designation after seven semesters but do meet the threshold after eight semesters, schools will mail home a cum laude sticker for the diploma. This only applies for students that did not earn any cum laude designation but end up meeting the “cum laude” threshold after eight semesters. Students that earned one of the three distinctions after seven semesters will maintain their cum laude distinction earned despite possible changes in GPA after an additional semester.  

The cum laude system does not eliminate the Valedictorian or Salutatorian designations. Instead, both the Valedictorian and Salutatorian will continue to be selected based upon overall weighted GPA.  In the instance where multiple students have the same weighted GPA, the school will allow for co-valedictorians as has been past practice.