<p>The founder of Golden Key, who was ousted from the nation's largest college honor society two years ago, is now running a for-profit honor group for high school students that has some educators warning students not to join.</p><p>James Lewis, an Atlanta man who founded Golden Key in the 1970s and built it into a million-member behemoth, left the honor society in 2002 after a scathing internal report accused him of sloppy accounting and inappropriate behavior with college co-eds.</p><p>Now, after settling for an undisclosed amount of money with Golden Key, Lewis has founded a new club, the National Society of High School Scholars, which has signed up 70,000 students in less than two years.</p><p>The high school version differs markedly from older high school honors groups, such as Beta Club or National Honor Society.</p><p>Lewis' group is for-profit _ so it doesn't have to disclose how much money it takes in _ and it has no chapters. A student simply pays $45 membership dues and gets a certificate in the mail, with no meetings to attend or school advisers to decide who gets in.</p><p>Educators warn it's little more than a vanity honor designed to make money by selling students an award to tack on their college applications.</p><p>"We tell parents to really be careful," said Jeff Sherill of the National Association of Secondary School Principals, which oversees the National Honor Society.</p><p>"Students and parents may see this as a valid recognition, but they need to be aware of what it really means in college applications. It's not necessarily authentic recognition."</p><p>Here's how Lewis' group works: It identifies, through mailing lists, juniors and seniors with a grade point average of 3.5 of higher. Teachers and counselors can also nominate students for membership. Then the student gets a congratulatory letter in the mail, asking $45 for membership in the society.</p><p>"That's a red flag, when you're asked to pay for a recognition," said Galen Reavis, lead counselor for 16 high schools in suburban Gwinnett County, Ga. "Parents should always check with their high school counselor if they get letters like this."</p><p>Lewis, reached by telephone at his Atlanta office, said needy students may apply for a fee waiver and insisted that his group offers real benefits. Last weekend, for example, a convention was held in Washington, and the group also has online newsletters and chat rooms.</p><p>"This is an excellent opportunity to bring together exemplary, likeminded students," Lewis said.</p><p>Others are skeptical, especially because of the troubles that rocked Golden Key two years ago with allegations of sloppy accounting and sexual misconduct.</p><p>Lewis founded Golden Key in 1977 while a student at Georgia State University. The concept was a more inclusive, more diverse version of old-guard honor groups like Phi Beta Kappa, and the society spread to campuses nationwide.</p><p>Golden Key later moved into a $2.5 million mansion in one of Atlanta's most exclusive neighborhoods. Board meetings were held at fancy hotels in Aspen, Colo., and Cancun, Mexico. Guidestar, an auditing group for nonprofits, put Golden Key's worth at $9.8 million in 2000. Lewis earned close to $300,000 a year.</p><p>But academics sniffed trouble. Golden Key was rejected three times for membership in the Association of College Honor Societies, in part because of questions about whether all members met the requirement of being in the top 15 percent of their class.</p><p>Others looked askance at Golden Key's practice of selling members' names and addresses to corporate sponsors. Student members were mailed ads for things like credit cards and car insurance.</p><p>Lewis' undoing came when Georgia State president Carl Patton resigned as chairman of Golden Key's board and compiled a blistering report about Lewis. It included allegations that Lewis had sexual contact with a Golden Key intern and other conference attendees. Patton also said that accounting was so sloppy at Golden Key that it was unclear how much Lewis was actually earning.</p><p>Lewis left Golden Key, which later sold its showy mansion and hired a new leader. Lewis called reports of his behavior at Golden Key "clearly defamatory," but said he couldn't elaborate because of a settlement with the group. Patton would not comment for this story.</p><p>So now Lewis is running the National Society of High School Scholars, earning a self-reported $116,000 a year.</p><p>Lewis' group must report its finances only to its advisory board _ a star-studded assembly that includes writer Maya Angelou and actors Edward Norton and Kevin Spacey _ but it's unclear whether the full board has ever met.</p><p>College admissions counselors said there's no harm in joining a group like Lewis', as long as students know it won't help them get into college.</p><p>"These things aren't necessarily new, and groups like this are straightforward enough if you read the fine print," said David Hawkins, director of public policy for the Virginia-based National Association for College Admissions Counseling. "But our data consistently shows that colleges don't pay these things much attention because they know what they are."</p><p>___</p><p>On the Net:</p><p>HASH(0x2863474)</p><p>HASH(0x286351c)</p><p>HASH(0x2863600)</p>
