In a recent publication of The Sacramento Bee, Sawsan Morrar reported a recent transition of the Folsom Cordova School District to eliminate class rankings. Her article highlighted the motives of the district to make this change and described that many other school districts in the greater Sacramento region have recently made the same decision.
“Counselors in the district said the ranking system doesn’t accurately represent the students’ achievements, and is often misleading—even hurtful—when they apply to colleges,” Morrar writes. “Several parents and counselors spoke in support of removing rankings from transcripts, citing anxiety and unhealthy competition as factors.”
Morrar discussed that many students who were equivalent in academic success are separated by class rank systems and can be overlooked by college admission processes that take rank into consideration. Many high schools and districts in the Sacramento area have decided to eliminate the system to avoid this problem. A few of these schools and districts include Davis Joint Unified and San Juan Unified school district as well as Jesuit and Saint Francis high schools. Oak Ridge and Del Oro are “discussing following suit.”
Such news begs the question: If class rank provides such a “skewed picture” of a student’s success, why does our school still report it? When interviewed about the issue, Sacramento City Unified School District (SCUSD) spokesperson Alex Barrios stated that the district’s debt is currently overshadowing any movement to change the current system.
“The school district is facing a $35 million budget deficit and is at risk of a state takeover. If all labor partners do not come to the table in the coming days to help reduce costs, then our Board of Education could lose its ability to make decisions regarding issues such as the class rank system,” said Barrios.
He added that there have not been requests from members of the community to change the current system, so it has not been a priority. However, RJ Czajkowski and Serena Feniger (‘20), both actively involved in college admission research, placed greater emphasis on making a change.
“The class ranking system is not a true testament to how well a student performs,” said Feniger.
Feniger also illustrated that a student’s effort to challenge his or herself may hurt his or her class rank. “If a student opts to take higher level classes, such as AP or Honors classes, but do not receive A’s in those classes, despite being high achievers and succeeding in their classes, their ranking will be lower than those who decided to take easier classes and receive all A’s,” she said.
Additionally, students hoping for admission to selective universities already struggle with the stress of portraying themselves well on their applications. Numerically comparing them to their peers “perpetuates our harshly competitive academic culture,” said Czajkowski.