Battle
to go to head of the class a testy subject for area
districts
Sunday, June 26, 2005 • By
MEGAN ZARODA • The Express-Times
Chalk slates, slide rules and
typewriters.
Should school districts add
valedictorians to the list of vanishing academic
icons?
Some school officials say class rankings
are overemphasized and not necessarily indicative of the
academic message they want to send to their
students.
Others say class ranking is a valuable
measure of a student's ability to achieve academic
excellence.
Clouding the debate are school districts
that offer student opportunities to exceed the "perfect
score." By taking Advanced Placement and honors courses,
schools create a playing field on which many students can
lay claim to being the best.
Educators in the Lehigh Valley and
northwestern New Jersey take a variety of stances on the
ranking rumble.
Computer goofs
Many local Pennsylvania institutions are
maintaining the status quo.
With a twist.
Orianna Fisher received surprising news
when she arrived at Easton Area High School's graduation
rehearsal. The principal pulled her aside and explained
there had been a computer glitch and that she was the true
salutatorian of her graduating class.
After reviewing the computer's
miscalculation, Fisher had achieved a weighted average of
102.05, trumping the current salutatorian by one
one-hundredth of a point.
"I was really surprised," said Fisher,
who plans to attend Brandeis University in the fall as a
biology major. "They had told us before graduation that the
three of us were really close; we should all be ready to
write a speech."
Fisher had not prepared a speech because
she did not expect to come out on top. After learning of her
new rank, Fisher said she wrote what she wanted to say in a
half-hour while she sat through rehearsal.
The principal wanted both Fisher and the
former salutatorian to speak at commencement. She and Laura
Kocsis were named co-salutatorians and spoke in alphabetical
order at their graduation ceremony last Wednesday
night.
Kocsis, who will be studying chemistry at
Carnegie Mellon University, said the change didn't bother
her greatly. She said she never aimed to be at the top of
her class; her only goal was to speak at graduation. Kocsis
said she had spoken with a teacher to ensure she could
deliver a speech if she were knocked out of her
ranking.
Fisher said she finds naming a
valedictorian and salutatorian pointless, especially when
students' grades are so close.
She said it would be fine if ranking was
just recorded on report cards, but it is unnecessary to
distinguish positions at commencement.
"Graduation is special for everyone,
whether you're the first or the last in the class," she
said.
Though Kocsis said she was relatively
unconcerned with her own class rank, she said the ranking
system should be eliminated because it would yield "less
pressure for the kids who do take it seriously."
One school just says no
This year, Delaware Valley Regional High
School stopped reporting a student's class ranking unless
specifically requested to do so by the student. DelVal's
policy follows other New Jersey schools, such as those in
Bergen and Mercer counties.
"We were getting feedback from our
students, counselors and colleges that class rank to some
degree can turn out to be a negative," said Principal Brian
Fogelson.
Fogelson said DelVal had never declared a
valedictorian or salutatorian but did designate academic
first, second and third places in the class. These students
received special recognition at commencement.
DelVal's grades are calculated on a
100-point scale, although scores exceeding 100 points are
possible.
"A 98.9 is a better indication of what
(students) do rather than saying they're second in their
class with a 4.63 average," Fogelson said. "The way we do it
is a little bit cleaner. The numerical value is a bit more
of a science."
Fogelson said the academically motivated
DelVal students are competitive and conscious of their
position in the class but are less stressed than students at
schools that do use class ranking.
Even without a ranking system, "they know
where they are, and they want to know where they are,"
Fogelson said.
Rankings 'an illusion'
Going a step further, Blair Academy in
Blairstown has never ranked its students, said Selden Bacon,
the school's dean of academics.
"We feel that in a school of our size,
where most of the kids are close together in ability,
rankings are pretty much an illusion," he said.
Bacon explained that Blair could have
multiple students at the top of their class -- if they were
ranked -- because its grading system resembles that of a
college.
Bacon said he doesn't understand what
purpose rank serves. Why schools don't rank students is not
the question, he said. The question is why schools do rank
students.
"I think one of the great things of
education is you have so many opportunities to revisit
questions," Bacon said. "It's helpful for any institution to
go in and ask, 'Would we serve our population better if we
did this?'"
Bacon said schools should question if
student ranks should even be published.
"Is it a tool to motivate people?" he
asked. "At that age, it becomes a tool to manipulate I see
kids getting into the position where the number supercedes
whether they've learned anything."
Bacon said he does not see the value in
weighted grades either. He said schools run the risk of
their students taking classes to improve their rank rather
than because the subject interests them.
He said Blair's lack of a ranking system
has never been a detriment to its students. Bacon said he
has never gotten the sense that the students would be better
motivated if a ranking system were in place, nor have any
colleges refused to look at a Blair student because a rank
was unavailable.
"The key is in the kids learning how to
learn and realizing the world will present challenges that
have nothing to do with their class rank," he
said.
Statewide, NJ ranks
Frank Belluscio, a spokesman for the New
Jersey School Boards Association, said he first noticed
districts deciding against issuing class ranks about 10
years ago. He said school officials felt class rank did not
serve the interests of their students anymore.
"I think they feel that a large number of
their students are high-achieving. It does not provide an
accurate picture of a student's record," he said.
Though some New Jersey schools have
discontinued class ranks, Belluscio said a majority still
issue them.
North Warren High School Principal Ken
Green said the district did an extensive review of its
student ranking system two years ago and decided to maintain
the status quo.
Green said the district considered
switching to a decile range, which divides the class into
tenths. Under this system, students who are in the top 10
percent of their class would be in the first decile, for
example.
North Warren's current system uses
weighted grades -- level one courses receive a 1.0 mark,
level two gets 1.02 and level three is at 1.07 -- to
determine class rank.
To identify a student's rank, seniors'
grades are cut off after they have completed seven
semesters. The details of the system are published in the
student handbook.
Green said in his four years as
principal, he has never seen a contested race for
valedictorian. He said grades can be calculated to the
fourth or fifth decimal place in the event of a close
call.
Green said some schools eliminate
rankings because they want students to focus instead on
being their best.
"When you have a competitive academic
environment, what you're trying to do is get students to
compete with themselves," Green said. "When you have many
competitive kids in the same class, they tend to start
competing with one another,
No happy ending here
Not every story has a happy
ending.
A bit of a debacle ensued in the Nazareth
Area School District in 2003 when the final grade
calculations revealed that two new top dogs had upstaged the
current valedictorian.
"We knew there was a cutoff, but it was
always kept a secret," said Lydia Golas, the mother of one
of the affected students. Her son, Aaron, had earned the
highest grade point average, but another student remained
valedictorian.
"We thought the grades would be
revisited, certainly for the top 10 prior to graduation, but
that was not the case," Golas said.
At the time, Nazareth followed an
unwritten policy which determined students' class rank based
on grades calculated two weeks prior to the senior academic
banquet held in May.
Due to the controversy over Golas'
ranking, subsequent student handbooks included new ranking
policies beginning with the 2003-'04 school year.
Golas said her son's story is not unique,
that rankings have changed in the past but were not
recognized by the district. Now two years later, she said
Nazareth has still not changed its policies.
"He worked until the very end. He put
forth effort into everything he did. He should have received
recognition," she said.
Despite the situation, Golas said ranking
students is a positive system. However, she said students'
placements should not be announced until graduation
rehearsal.
She suggested the top five students
prepare speeches ahead of time.
"You need to make sure the right kid gets
the deserved recognition," Golas said.
Representatives of the Nazareth Area
School District did not return calls for comment.
Pa. schools weigh in
William Falstich, assistant
superintendent of curriculum for the Northampton Area School
District said the district has never encountered ties for
top spots, but with the close competition, it can be a horse
race right up to the very end.
"No one is termed valedictorian until
they are so noted as the top-ranked student -- the speaker
at graduation," he said.
Falstich explained the current weighted
grading system and the formula used to calculate rank was
devised by both teachers and the administration.
Northampton students do not receive
letter grades. Instead, they use percentage grades
translated into a grade point average that determines their
class rank.
Falstich said eliminating class rank is
"not an issue that's been discussed recently in terms of
possible revisions."
At Liberty High School in Bethlehem, the
valedictorian is the true number one because the school does
not use cut off dates to determine ranking, said Assistant
Principal Joann Durante.
"We're very good about that," she said,
noting that sometimes those who do the choosing are up late
at the last minute before graduation day. "It means burning
candles, but we get the right one up there," Durante
said
Liberty does not use percentage
multipliers, but instead assigns more weight to grades in
higher level courses. For example, an A in an honors course
receives a five, whereas an A in a regular course receives a
four.
In 2002, the school district abolished
the assignment of a "D." Durante said this decision was made
to produce better quality students.
"I think it's very competitive to get
into schools and to get hired coming out of schools,"
Durante said. "I think more and more employers are looking
for higher grades and I think colleges are doing the
same."
Durante said she was unsure if the
district could ever eliminate class rank.
"Colleges ask us for weighted and
unweighted class ranks," she said. "I don't know how we
could get around that and still be able to disseminate
proper information to the schools."
File that rank
"It is always to the benefit of the
student to provide a weighted rank," said Patrick Smith,
director of communications and customer services for
undergraduate admissions at Penn State University. Though it
is important, Smith said class rank is not the driving force
of an admission decision.
When a high school does not provide a
class rank, Smith said the college admissions officer
requests the high school counselor to best estimate an
applicant's position in their class.
Smith said he has not seen a significant
trend of high schools discontinuing the ranking process, but
he feels the emerging controversy is part of a larger issue
than merely academic competition.
He attributes the concern to "intense
paranoia" about applying to college and that the importance
of class ranking has become "overblown."
"People have just become extraordinarily
concerned about any possible factor that will keep them from
getting into the college of their choice," Smith
said.
Unlike Smith, Carol Rowlands, director of
admissions for Lafayette College, said she has noticed a
trend of high schools discontinuing the process of ranking
students.
Among this year's enrolled students,
Rowlands said 52 percent came from high schools that
provided class rank. That number is down from 57 percent in
last year's enrollment.
"In a one-year period, among our enrolled
students, that's a pretty significant decline," she
said.
Rowlands said admissions officers
thoroughly read through each application, and while class
rank is useful, they have to be careful about how to
interpret it.
High school profiles are often more
valuable.
"As long as high schools are giving you
good information about their schools and their grading
systems, I don't think rank is necessary," she said.
Megan Zaroda is a summer intern for The Express-Times
enrolled at Lafayette College.
She can be reached at 610-258-7171 or by e-mail at
mzaroda@express-times.com.
© 2005 The Express-Times. Used with
permission.
|