Class Rank

Current Practice Each high school student has 2 class ranks Weighted Non-Weighted Accumulates each semester beginning in the 9th grade year Utilized for college admission decisions Superintendent's Top 10 Have ranked for many years

Why review this practice? Some feel it penalizes Blue Valley students Creates an environment of stress and undue competition for students

What review was done? Internal Committee Research Completed 4 High School Counselors 2 High School C&I Assistant Principals 3 District Administrators Research Completed Leading Organizational Experts College and University Contact High School Contacts

Remarks from College Board (College Board designs PSAT/SAT) “Most small private and competitive high schools have done away with class rank because they feel it penalizes many excellent students who are squeezed out of the top 10 percent of the class and then overlooked by elite colleges. Although many public high schools still rank students, some now make it optional for students to report their rankings to colleges.”

Remarks from College Board (College Board designs PSAT/SAT) “Due to the tremendous differences in curricula and grading standards at different high schools, many admission officers (especially at selective private colleges) have begun to discount the accuracy and importance of class rank as a factor in evaluating students. Some colleges that used to rely on class rank now use SAT® scores and GPA.”

Remarks from NACAC (National Association for College Admission Counseling) governs college admission standards “Colleges as a group are reporting far less interest in class rank. A 2012 survey of member colleges by the National Association for College Admission Counseling found that among the admission factors that colleges use to evaluate applicants, the one whose importance had decreased the most over time was class rank. The percentage of colleges that rated it considerably important, the highest rating, plummeted from 42% in 1993 to a mere 13% in 2012. ”

Colleges & Universities Contacted by Blue Valley Adelphi University Arkansas Baylor Creighton Duke Georgetown Indiana University K-State K-State Scholarships KU KU Honors KU Scholarships Millkin University Naval Academy North Kentucky Northwestern Purdue Rhodes College SLU SMU Stanford Tulsa U Mass Amherst U of Hawaii University of Texas USC Vanderbilt Washington University Yale

What did Colleges Say? About half of those contacted don’t use class rank at all. The rest indicated they use it if provided however if not students are never penalized. Naval Academy was the only one that indicated they felt it needed to stay. If no rank is given they have to assign one using national standards.

High Schools Contacted by Blue Valley Boran High School (Idaho) Cherry Creek (Colorado) Dalton School (Private in NY) Fairfax County (Virginia) Harvard Westlake (Private in California) Highland Park (Texas) Holland Hall (Oklahoma) Jenks High School (Oklahoma) Lake Washington (Washington State) Olathe Papillion La Vista (Nebraska) Pembroke Hill (KC, MO) Peoria (Arizona) Plano (Texas) Poway (California) Rockhurst (KC, MO) Rockwood (St. Louis) Shawnee Mission St Thomas Aquinas St. Teresa’s Academy (KC, MO) Vancouver (Washington) Woodlands Academy of the Sacred Heart (Illinois)

What did High Schools Say? Only 3 schools contacted currently have a traditional rank Olathe, Kansas Plano, Texas (studying this now as well) Peoria, Arizona

What did High Schools Say? Cherry Creek “We no longer rank at all, but we have seen a small increase in percentage of students admitted since we have gone away from rank and the biggest plus has been the scholarship money has seen a double digit percentage increase! Colleges have not had any problems with it as 97% of all private schools across the country do not rank. The ones who want to figure it out will do it regardless of if we provide it for them or not. Rank doesn't help any student, and especially the strong students that every school has in the upper 50% but not in the top 5%.”

What did High Schools Say? Fairfax County, Virginia “Fairfax County Public Schools Regulation 2462 states:  Each high school will be provided with a percentile rating of GPA’s for estimating class rank for individual scholarships or military applications that require this information. High schools will not calculate a numerical class rank other than this percentile ranking It is not listed on a transcript and to my knowledge we have not had any feedback on this issue .”

What did High Schools Say? Highland Park, Texas “We are a non-ranking high school. However, the state of Texas requires us to rank the top 10% for automatic college admission to our state universities. So, it’s a little confusing. Rank does not appear on our transcripts and we report that we are non-ranking. The students who fall in the top 10% receive a certification of rank form that is included with their transcript when sent to colleges.”

Interesting Facts 2013-2015 Class rank, GPA (weighted/non-weighted) were reviewed for the previous 3 years. In each of the three years, there are students in the bottom quartile of their class ranking with over a 3.0 weighted GPA. In each of the three years, there are students in the top 2% of the district rankings who did not make their buildings’ Top 10 Weighted Rank. The median GPA in each of the years ranged from 3.5263-3.584 weighted and 3.3654-3.4191 unweighted. In 2015, a student with a weighted GPA of above 4.0 ranked at 111 in his/her building.

Committee Feedback Felt class rank penalized students. Not just the top 10% of students but virtually all students. Creates an environment of stress and undue competition for students. Rank causes unhealthy competition between students to take as many weighted classes as possible to be in the top %. Suggested we eliminate class rank on the transcript.

Recommendations Eliminate Class Rank from the transcript for the classes of 2017, 2018, 2019 and allow for voluntary inclusion only. Students opt in: Provide a “Certification of Rank” document with transcript for application purposes Completely eliminate class rank beginning with the class of 2020.