{"id":647376,"date":"2026-05-16T21:01:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T21:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/647376\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T21:01:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T21:01:11","slug":"long-island-high-school-has-record-breaking-21-valedictorians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/647376\/","title":{"rendered":"Long Island high school has record-breaking 21 valedictorians"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>These are some Strong Island studiers. <\/p>\n<p>A Long Island high school boasts a record-breaking 21 valedictorians, who achieved straight A+\u2019s in every class for all four years.<\/p>\n<p>Jericho High School has so many that they can\u2019t all make speeches at their June 28 graduation, so they\u2019re filming a video instead.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are trying to create other opportunities to celebrate this incredible accomplishment,\u201d co-Principal Brian Cummings <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnewyork.com\/long-island\/long-island-high-school-21-class-valedictorians\/6501306\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">told NBC<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.74446337;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39399538\" width=\"1024\" height=\"587\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/jericho-highs-graduating-class-breaks-127950863.jpg\" alt=\"Collage of 21 Jericho High School valedictorians, a majority of whom are East Asian.\" class=\"wp-image-39399538\"  \/>Jericho High School has a record-breaking 21 valedictorians this year. ABC7NY<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe students will wear sashes that say valedictorian 2026.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>The Nassau County school churned out multiple valedictorians because they grade on a letter system, which means a 97 or higher average earns students an A+ in a class, Cummings explained.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHistorically this is the way we\u2019ve done it with letter grades.\u00a0The difference between a 99.8 and a 99.83 is insignificant so letter grades really capture what we represent,\u201d he explained to the outlet. <\/p>\n<p>Jericho\u2019s valedictorians didn\u2019t take the easy route either, and packed their school schedules with AP classes and extra curriculars.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.87545788;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39399541\" width=\"1024\" height=\"546\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/jericho-highs-graduating-class-breaks-127950546.jpg\" alt=\"The exterior of a red brick building with the words &quot;JERICHO SCHOOLS&quot; in white letters on the facade.\" class=\"wp-image-39399541\"  \/>Jericho High School is ranked ninth within New York\u2019s best high schools according to U.S. News &amp; World Report\u2019s rankings. ABC7NY<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI took Calculus BC, that was one of the most hardest classes I\u2019ve ever taken in high school,\u201d valedictorian Harnoor Joneja told NBC.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd I was a little bit concerned about losing it this year, but I tried hard and kept my average up.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\tStart your day with all you need to know\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"inline-module__cta\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMorning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have National Merit Scholars; we have musicians at the highest level,\u201d\u00a0Cummings <a href=\"https:\/\/abc7.com\/post\/new-york-high-schools-graduating-class-breaks-school-record-21-valedictorians\/19099330\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">told ABC<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was hard. There were many nights where I wondered why I was putting myself through this,\u201d added valedictorian Riya Shah, who will be attending Princeton in the fall.<\/p>\n<p>Jericho High School, which broke its previous record of 15 valedictorians, is ranked ninth within New York\u2019s best high schools and 108 in nationally, according to U.S. News &amp; World Report\u2019s rankings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"These are some Strong Island studiers. A Long Island high school boasts a record-breaking 21 valedictorians, who achieved&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":647377,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,24866,146,451,23479,2239,5871,3,232,452,453],"class_list":["post-647376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-grades","tag-graduation","tag-headlines","tag-high-schools","tag-long-island","tag-metro","tag-news","tag-schools","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=647376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=647376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=647376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=647376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}