Beginning with paragraph 25, talbot presents some historical background on the american high school. how would the effect of this information have differed if she had opened the article with it?

Personally speaking, I believe that if Talbot opened the article by presenting some historical background, the article would not engage the typical reader. This is because a lot of people find historical information uninteresting. Her opening in Paragraph 1, "Daniel Kennedy remembers when he still thought that valedictorians were a good thing", is much better because it gives her the chance to engage more readers, more so because they probably have remembered the fight for the title Valedictorian, or they have even been involved in it.