Item pulled from agenda, but public comments
By:Donna Lukiw
After trying to pull discussion of class rank from the Board of Education agenda Monday, board members still got earfuls of opinions from students and parents over the possible elimination of ranking.
"Class rank does not serve as an educational purpose," Director of Guidance Ed McNeil said. "The only thing the school district uses class rank for is to fill the valedictorian and salutatorian roles."
Currently, students in the high school are ranked and compared to their classmates based on their grade point average and difficulty of courses by assigning points to their numerical grades, number of credits and enrollment in honors or Advanced Placement courses.
But the board’s policy committee proposed last week that class rank no longer be reported or entered on transcripts sent to colleges, beginning with next year’s graduating class.
Mr. McNeil said Princeton High School, Rutgers Prep, Bridgewater-Raritan High School and Watchung Hills High School have all eliminated class rank while Somerville, Bound Brook, Manville and North Plainfield public high schools continue to use class rank.
Mr. McNeil said prestigious colleges like Princeton and Harvard tend to closely look at class rank and base their admissions decisions on the class rank number.
A Rutgers University Information Assistant said class rank is part of the college’s application process and even if schools do not offer class rank on the student’s transcripts Rutgers will still ask the high school’s guidance department to provide those numbers.
"Rutgers also looks at the entire class schedule including course selection and SAT’s," the information assistant said.
Mathew Mergen, Drew University’s associate dean said they look at the applications very closely, not just at class rank. He said even if they receive an application from a student ranked 500 out of 550 students they will still review the student’s application and will not automatically eliminate them from the admissions process.
Princeton University’s Web site said, "Every applicant is reviewed individually and valued for his or her strengths. We look at a variety of indicators to assess students’ academic abilities and achievements, including the secondary school program and record, as well as SAT results."
Mr. McNeil said another disadvantage of the weighted class ranking system is students tending to choose honors classes and AP classes to get the quality points and in turn avoid taking basic classes, art classes or music classes.
Student representative Duncan Horst shared his views on the subject enforcing the importance of not only academics but the fine arts and music programs at the school.
"We weren’t educated in this school to be numbers," Duncan said. "Our education should be controlled by our passions not by numbers."
Board member Steve Sloan suggested to create a sub-committee or task force to review the policy by including students, the policy committee, teachers and the administration.
A few students said class rank should not be eliminated because they have been working towards being the top of their class and said it would be a disadvantage to eliminate class rank in the middle of their high school career.
Board members said they will be discussing the issue during the next few board meetings in July.
"We will still look at the policy," Mr. Kanaby said. "This is a working policy. We will review the research and come up with the fairest policy."