More High Schools Consider Eliminating Class Rankings

Class Rank

Three things:

1. It's a travesty that schools do not offer AP business classes. Our country (and the world) is based upon business and to have so many AP classes in Math, Chemistry, etc and none in Business is just ridiculous.

2. It's a dog eat dog world and students who choose to apply themselves and carry tremendous workload should brag about their class rank. It blows my mind that, on the one hand, we bemoan the general failure of our educational system while, on the other, we decry students who thrive and succeed. Sorry, you can't have it both ways. In my opinion a BIG factor in the slow decline in our educational system is because more and more we want all students to feel good about themselves versus truly recognizing the top performers.

3. Let the student determine if s/he wants to report class rank - our High School won't even (yet) tell me his rank. But I'm going to make a stink

class rank

As a current high school student I admit the competition for class ranking is rediculous. Even among peers it seems more brutal than when it comes to colleges. The student view point on AP and ACP classes is that it at least prepares you for the college work load. Yes, sometimes it is a large amount for students to be handling at times, but they are told about the tough criculum even before you schedule the class. It all goes back to planning your freshman year. If you don't push yourself freshman year then the college decision making becomes even harder. I know all the other grades matter when it comes to this, but freshman year starts your GPA, and thus class rank. The thing I can't stand the most about at my current high school is that they don't weigh the harder classes. I took Chemistry and Physics together along with Latin II, English Honors and Algebra II all as a sophomore. On top of that I was on the junior varisty tennis team and had my toughest schedule that same season. I did that so that way I could visit colleges my junior and not have to worry about missing harder classes. I left that year with a 2.963 GPA and a class rank of 223 of 422. In self defense I (like so many others would declare) am a lot smarter than that. However, grades nor the gpa, or class rank can ever show that. Most of the people in my classes top ten percent cheat off of each other on every test. So in someways I agree with the removal, but I would rather the weighing of harder classes be a larger priority on the grand scheme of things.

class ranking

I agree that there is too much emphasis in AP classes. I have a daughter who, because she was interested in pursuing music in college, took several music classes. None of the available music classes were rated at the AP level in her high school. Therefore, despite taking AP Physics, AP Calculus...AP Govt, she was way down in the top 30% of her class. Didn't help her in the college process to be so low in ranking, but she is thriving in a music program at the college she now attends.

I see students that look like walking zombies because they are so heavily pressured by parents and counselors to take all AP classes and are up half the night trying to keep up. This is insane! We are stealing our childrens' lives so that they can brag about their class rank!

Unfair emphasis on Rank and AP

As someone who graduated in the top 10 of my class, in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't really matter. The classes students take to prepare for college and the real world are far more important. I went to school for business, but never took a high school business class since to do so would lower my class rank. (Apparently, "business classes" do not count.) I struggled through introductory business law and accounting as my classmates who did take business in high school had no problems. That was thirty years ago. After enjoying a business career for close to two decades, I now teach high school business. Nothing has changed. I lost several accounting students this year in favor of AP classes they will NEVER need in real life. When questioned as to why they are dropping the class, they said they need it to keep up their class rank.

It is VERY sad.