How is Class Rank determined at your child's school?

[NorthMinnesota]

Our local school does not weight GPA but does give a regular ranking and an "honors" ranking. In order to be eligible for the Honors ranking you must have two Honors or AP classes that run every quarter for every year. You can lose your honors ranking if you don't keep taking the classes. It is very competitive. D2 has a 3.9 GPA and she just dropped out of top 10% Honors ranking. I'm hoping her 4.0 this quarter will push her back up but you never know! I don't see any senior slide with any of her group as they fight to hold their rank. All classes count in GPA and in rank. Val and Sal really battle it out especially if there is a non-honors 4.0 against an honors 4.0! The honors ranking then trumps the other 4.0.

[chintzy]

mathmom--does the school refer to them as "slow classes"?

[mathmom]

No they call them something really weird that I can't remember. But I do mean literally slow. So for example the three semester integrated math sequence was slowed down to four semesters. (Not sure what they are doing now that they've gone back to Algebra 1, Geometry, and Algebra 2.)

[somemom]

I did not realise until reading the various class ranking threads on CC over the years what a crazy mess could be made by some school's ranking procedures and valedictorian designations.

Our HS had a nomination, then speech given, then the senior class voted the valedictorian, no big mathematical craziness.

It was a small school and the classes were not technically ranked yet the top kids in the toughest classes invariably had the top rank. For college apps it was grade 10/11 grades. Every one in the core classes took the same final exam which counted for a huge portion of the grade (50% more or less) thus if you were in the top AP class you had tougher class work but would likely ace the final, whereas the kid who was struggling all year might have decent in class grades but have no chance on the final, putting all the final grades quite in line. Over three kids education it really worked out the way it should have, with the brilliant kids in the top 5.

They did not rank by numbers, but by 5%, 10%, 20%.

At the senior awards, those top ranks were based on grade 12 classes.

It retrospect it worked extremely well

[ssmom62]

I spoke to the head of guidance today. Unfortunately, my son had the right information about class rank at his school. The class rank is determined "solely on the requireed courses for graduation." In our school, 4 English, 4 SS, 3 Science, 3 Math, 1/2 Health, 1 Art/Music, 1 Foreign Language, 4 PE, and 3 Electives. Acclerated kids are finished with most requirements at the end of 10th grade. So the only classes that are counted in 11th and 12th grade are English, SS, PE and health. So much for encouraging vigorous/challenging jr/sr years!

When I asked him about the school's philosophy about this method, he said that it was already in place when he started working at the school. They have had discussions about it, but he feels it "levels the playing field" because some kids aren't capable of taking AP courses. Well, duh! One definition of rank is the degree of importance or excellence of somebody or something in relation to other members of a group.
Obviously, the brightest students taking the most challenging curriculum should rank higher than the average student who is performing in the average range. (The school does weight the classesAP/Honors/Accelerated, so how does that level the playing field?) He could see my point, but...

I don't expect them to change it for my son's class, but I think it needs to be changed for the future. It just doesn't make any sense to me. Oh well, I'm glad English and SS are my son's strong suits!

[ucsd_ucla_dad]

That's just crazy. Is this a public school? If so, do the other schools in the district calculate the same way? Does this school recognize the 'top students' through Vals/Sals, etc.? I hope not since it would be completely unfair to the more accomplished students taking the more difficult courses. It sounds like they're playing the 'self-esteem' game to the max.

At least the colleges will likely compute their own GPA so the school's calc will be meaningless at that point.

Thanks for the update on this.

[ssmom62]

Yes, it is a public school. There is only one hs is our district. Each town has its own school system- it's not county wide. I don't know how all the surrounding districts do it, but the few people I have spoken to do not do it like this.

We do have a Val/Sal. Uscd ucla dad, I think you are right about the self-esteem idea. What does class rank have to do with "leveling the playing field?"

It reminds me of the kids who enter high school sports and want equal playing time like they had in their younger "club" days. The best athletes play- that's reality. Similarly, if they don't want "reality" in class rank, then they shouldn't rank at all.

[ucsd_ucla_dad]

^^ It's like having a 'miler' race but counting only the first 50 yards where those who can reach 50 yards but can't finish the race score the same as those who can finish the mile, having a high-jump competition but counting only up to the first 4 feet, having a reading comprehension exam but counting only the 3 letter words, etc.

There must be someplace where the high schools report up to (the county?). They should be made aware of this unfair and counterproductive method of GPA/ranking.

[PLPMed]

My highschool has a scale of 1-4 per class.
A is 4 points
B is 3, ect.

An A in honors is 5 points. (therefore if it is a "b" it becomes an average courses "A") and an A for a AP/dual enrollment class is 6 points (if it is a C, you receive the average class A).

My school judges rank by your weighted and counts all courses taken, I currently have a GPA of 4.3 and when I graduate if I ace all my DE courses it could rise to an estimated 5.3.

I know that since schools have such different ways of calculating rank and GPA, colleges use only the core classes unweighted to find out the raw GPA. (English math and science, ect.)

[momofthreeboys]

A = 4.00
A- = 3.70
B+ = 3.30
B = 3.00
B- = 2.70
c+ = 2.30
C = 2.00
C- = 1.70
D+ = 1.30
D = l.00
D- = .70

Seniors will have their GPAs, ACT composite scores, and selected advanced courses calculated into a District Rank list (GPA 50%, ACT 25%, and Courses 25% - Example: 28 honor points X 8.93 = 250, 4.00 GPA X 125 = 500, 36 ACT X 6.94 = 250 for a total of 1000). As in all other GPA calculations, there will be no rounding of GPAs or points. Classes awarded points per term will be: Statistics, Trigonometry A & B, AP Calculus A, B & C, Chemistry II A & B, Anatomy and Physiology A & B, AP Biology A, B, & C, AP Economics A, B, & C, AP History A, B, & C, AP English A, B, & C, French III A & B, French IV A & B, Spanish III A & B and Spanish IV A & B or Spanish IV A & B and AP Spanish A, B & C. Students who chose to drop the C section of an AP course will lose all points (3) for that class and an updated transcript will be sent to the student’s college/s of application/acceptance. An extra bonus point will be awarded to students who have taken a full year of Chemistry I and a full year of Physics. Students who have been in band the entire four years will be awarded three honor points. Students who have been in choir all four years with Vocal Ensemble for the last two years will be awarded three honor points. A student will not receive honor points for both band and choir. Advanced classes not mentioned must have Principal approval to be included. They are AP Michigan Virtual classes and dual enrollment classes that are a 200 level or better and in a core area (Math, English, Science, Social Studies).

So basically what that says is the plain GPA (all kids all classes straight 4.0 scale) + the weight of their ACT score (all kids in Michigan must take) + points for a specified list of rigorous classes. The rank is on the transcript sent to the colleges and it is a straight number out of the total. for example it is expressed as the kiddos number/total kids in class e.g. 8/210.

[Erin's Dad]

Probably the best way to summarize this three year old thread is to say that schools evaluate class rank in different ways, UW and Wtd. It just depends.

[bucasmom]

Ranking is figured by weighted GPA. Honors, AP and college courses are on a scale of 0-5, regular classes are 0-4. For ranking, everything is included except on-line courses or college courses outside of school. Those courses do count for your transcript GPA. Val and Sal are important because state flagship will give free tuition to those two kids.

[joszacem]

We have two ranks; a regular rank determined only on GPA (out of a 4.0 scale, no weighting) and a second honors rank which a student needs to qualify for by taking a minimum of 2 honors/ap classes a quarter (still no weighting). There has been some talk about a third honors rank with kids that take 4 or more honors/ap but nothing seems to be happening there.

The strange thing (which I sort of like) is they only go to 2 decimal places and if 2 kids have the same gpa the one with the honors rank is listed higher than the non-honors rank student.

The rank is then just listed as the rank over the number of kids. 6/567

[Midwestmomofboys]

Straight 4 point scale for all classes, regardless of rigor. Highest possible Gpa is a 4.0, no matter what courses taken. We had 7 or so students this year with perfect Gpas, all valedictorians. Class rank in descending order based on unweighted GPA. A challenge for my late blooming son because during 11th an 12th grades, the class size shrunk as more students dropped out (he is in a magnet program in a school with about 50% free and reduced lunch population). Even though his GPA kept improving, the denominator in class rank kept getting smaller too.

[ucbalumnus]

If weighted grade points are used, to avoid incorrect incentives (e.g. not taking an extra non-honors course because it would worsen class rank even if the student got an A grade), it may be better to base class rank on grade points, not GPA. Give more rigorous courses (e.g. honors) whatever bonus weighting points the school determines should be deserved; divide grade points in non-academic courses (PE, auto shop, etc.) by 5 to make them more like tie breakers.

That way, a schedule with 5 honors courses would not be "better" (for class rank purposes) than a schedule with the same 5 honors courses plus one non-honors or non-academic course, assuming the same grades in the same 5 honors courses.