ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, July 27, 1996 TAG: 9607300029
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
FIRST IN YOUR CLASS? When several students have a perfect 4.0 or above, is the difference between first and fifth worth noting?
Seth Wood says class ranking is like life: You get rated on how you do your job.
But some high schools across the country are ending the tradition of the class ranking of seniors in numerical order.
They think it sometimes hurts their students' chances to get admitted to the most selective colleges and universities when a school has many outstanding seniors.
"Class ranking can be stressful, but it can motivate students," said Wood, one of four valedictorians this year at Northside High School in Roanoke County.
"It's not a cure-all and end-all, but it seems to be a good measure in the current education system."
Ranking high school seniors by academic standing is a way to grade their performance - just as they'll be evaluated in their work after they graduate, Wood says.
But Marilyn Huang, one of the top seniors at Salem High School this year, isn't convinced that class rank necessarily reflects academic achievement, especially among the best students in a class.
"Once you get a grade-point average higher than 4.0, I'm not sure it proves anything," Huang said.
Huang ranked fifth in Salem High School's graduating class, even though her grade-point average was above 4.0. Weighted honors courses can raise some students' averages to 4.5 or higher.
Unlike Roanoke County high schools, Salem High names only one valedictorian, so Huang did not get the honor. In the county, all seniors with grade-point averages of 4.0 or higher are valedictorians. Seniors with averages below 4.0 are ranked by number.
Wood, who had the highest average at Northside, shared valedictorian honors with three other seniors. He will attend Virginia Tech.
Huang, who will enter the University of Virginia, was not hurt by her class ranking. She and Wood were two of 50 seniors in the nation who were named National Coca-Cola Scholars and received $20,000 scholarships.
Roanoke Valley school officials say they have no plans to end class rankings, despite the growing sentiment among some educators to discontinue the practice.
About half of the 21 high schools in Fairfax County have stopped ranking their seniors. Thomas Jefferson School for Science and Technology, a magnet school in Northern Virginia that is the nation's top producer of National Merit semifinalists, has never ranked its graduates.
A survey of 2,175 high schools for the National Association of Secondary School Principals found 37 percent of them are considering dropping class ranks. Nearly 160 schools, including 102 private schools, have eliminated the rankings. Some highly competitive preparatory schools were among the first to end the practice.
"Our kids are unfairly disadvantaged in applying for college when a student with all A's ranks only 130th in class in a class of 400," said John Cosse, guidance director at West Windsor-Plainsboro High School in New Jersey, which abolished rankings this year.
Ninety percent of the school's graduates go to college, according to the School Board News, a publication of the National School Boards Association.
"Unfortunately, admission programs driven by class-rank formulas are detrimental to our students," Cosse said.
Many college admissions officers say they prefer to see class rankings for high school seniors, but others say they consider many factors in admissions, including rank. Some colleges say the rankings are meaningless.
Roanoke Superintendent Wayne Harris says most admissions officers tell him rank is just one of several factors - including grades, SAT scores, extracurricular activities and an essay - that are considered in admissions.
Harris says he doesn't have strong feelings on class rank, but he would not recommend abolishing Roanoke's ranking system unless the high schools and community requested it.
"I would not initiate any change. I'm not enamored either way," he said. "I think it's a school choice."
Gary Kelly, director of guidance for Roanoke County schools, thinks the elimination of class rankings could put some students at a disadvantage in college admissions if most school systems keep them.
"The only reason for the rank is for the benefit of colleges," Kelly said. "If you don't have a ranking and other schools do, you leave a hole in the application of your students."
Several years ago, guidance directors for several large school systems in Virginia discussed the possibility of eliminating rankings as a statewide policy. If all localities had eliminated them, Kelly says, students would be competing equally in college admissions.
But some school systems wanted to keep the rankings and "the idea fell by the wayside," he said. "Unless you get unanimity, we feel it's best to keep the rankings."
Roanoke County's policy of naming all seniors with a grade-point average of 4.0 or higher as valedictorian ensures that seniors taking different types of courses have an equal chance to get the honor, Kelly says.
Students who take weighted honors courses and attend the Roanoke Valley Governor's School for Science and Technology can achieve a grade-point average above 4.0. Without the policy, students who don't go to the governor's school or take weighted courses would probably never become valedictorian even if they made straight A's, Kelly says. Some schools have had six to 10 valedictorians in one year.
Roanoke, like Salem, has one valedictorian for each high school.
Joe Kirby, director of instruction for secondary education in Salem, believes class rank can help students in the college application process.
"If a college is looking at 200 applications, a high class rank can help students get into a college of their choice," he said.
Salem school officials have discussed the merits of class rank, but "we have given no serious thought to dropping it," Kirby said. "It's partly a matter of tradition, and we think it makes it easier for students to get into college if they have done well."
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