Class rank is becoming a thing of the past at many high schools

By John Shaughnessy

Chuck Weisenbach knew he had a situation that was hurting a growing number of academically talented students at Roncalli High School in Indianapolis—a situation that has also plagued many students at Catholic high schools across the archdiocese.

So after the Roncalli school community spent a year studying the situation from all sides, Weisenbach, Roncalli’s principal, announced in January that the interparochial high school for the Indianapolis South Deanery would no longer provide “class rank” for its students.

In changing its long-standing tradition of providing class rank based on a student’s grade-point average, Roncalli became part of a growing movement across the country and the archdiocese.

About 55 percent of the high schools in the United States don’t use or provide class ranks, according to the National Association for College Admission Counseling. That choice has been made by seven of the 11 Catholic high schools in the archdiocese.

Besides Roncalli, those seven schools include Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School, Cathedral High School and Providence Cristo Rey High School, all in Indianapolis. Providing class ranks has also been abandoned by Father Michael Shawe Memorial Jr./Sr. High School in Madison and Oldenburg Academy of the Immaculate Conception in Oldenburg.

Bishop Chatard High School in Indianapolis provides its students with their class rank at the end of their junior year, but it doesn’t share that information with colleges.

The four schools that still provide class rank are Cardinal Ritter Jr./Sr. High School in Indianapolis, Father Thomas Scecina Memorial High School in Indianapolis, Our Lady of Providence Jr./Sr. High School in Clarksville and Seton Catholic High School in Richmond.

“There are reasons for both,” says Tom Davis, the principal at Scecina. “We continue to rank students in the traditional way. We want kids to compete. We want them to work for their highest rank. Our feeling is, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’ ”

The feeling at Roncalli was different. In recent years, school officials noticed that its use of class rank was limiting the options and opportunities of its students to get certain scholarships or get into certain colleges, especially since some state ­universities began accepting only the students who were in the top 50 percent of their high school class.

‘Our kids were really getting cheated’

“We were seeing an increasing trend of very strong academic students being turned down by universities where, in previous years, we had sent similar students who had been successful in those colleges,” Weisenbach says. “When we inquired about it, the school said they weren’t in the top 50 percent.”

In at least one case, that college told Roncalli to re-submit the student’s application but omit the class rank. The student was admitted, graduated from that university and now has a successful career, Weisenbach says.

Father Michael Shawe Memorial Jr./Sr. High School faced similar situations before it dropped its use of class rank two years ago.

“We felt it was hurting a lot of our kids who were excellent students,” says Jerry Bomholt, Shawe’s principal. “It seemed to have a negative effect on how our students were considered for scholarships. We felt our kids were really getting cheated.”

As an example, Bomholt noted that to be considered for some scholarships, students had to be in the top 10 percent of their class. Because Shawe has small graduating classes, that requirement has worked against its students.

“We recently had a graduating class of 30,” Bomholt recalls. “To be in the top 10 percent of the class, you’d have to be one or two or three. We had seven kids with a G.P.A. over 4 [an A average]. Those kids were at a tremendous disadvantage.”

If more high schools are moving away from using and providing class ranks, how do colleges measure a high school student’s performance and his or her ability to succeed at the next level?

Part of that answer comes from a student’s results on standardized tests, such as the SAT and the ACT. More selective colleges also emphasize leadership ability, community service and a commitment to extracurricular activities. A major emphasis is also placed on the academic difficulty of the courses that a student takes in high school and how well the student does in those courses.

“Colleges look at the academic rigor of your program,” says Benedictine Sister Louise Hoeing, the director of guidance at Bishop Chatard High School. “We try to get our students into an academic mode where they’re taking the most challenging courses for them.”

Removing undue stress and competition

At Bishop Chatard, the Class of 2008 will be the last one to know their class rank throughout their high school career. The current freshmen, sophomores and juniors won’t be provided with that information until the end of their junior year, and even then the information is just provided for the individual student’s knowledge. It’s a decision that school officials believe frees the students to select courses that will prepare them best for college and life.

“They take the classes where they want to excel, and they want to prepare themselves for college and not worry if they have a class rank that’s less than their friends,” says Sister Louise.

The change from an emphasis on class rank to a focus on class selection has been positive so far, according to officials at secondary schools that no longer use or provide class rank.

Students are less likely to “manipulate” their choice of courses to maximize their class rank, school officials say. It also removes undue stress and competition among students, some of whom saw their health suffer as they strived to be number one in their class or in the top 10 of their class.

When Cathedral High School still used class rank, a new counselor to the school “really noticed the stress level of our students in terms of competition,” says Mike Jaskoski, Cathedral’s director of guidance and college advising. “In the past three years [since Cathedral stopped providing class rank], there’s been a reduction of that, without question.”

Before it made its decision to not provide class rank, Cathedral checked with admission officers at the top 30 colleges where its graduates attended. None of the university officials said it would have an effect on Cathedral students being admitted to their college, Jaskoski notes.

“The more selective the college is in the admission process, the less they care about class rank,” says Roncalli’s Weisenbach, who also polled college admission officials in Indiana and outside the state.

Even at many high schools that no longer provide class rank, that information still exists. While it isn’t available to students and their parents, school administrators and counselors have it available as a way of helping determine the valedictorian and salutatorian of the class. The information is also available when certain scholarships absolutely require a class rank.

Roncalli’s approach states, “If the scholarship application requires a specific class rank, the student will complete all components of the application with the exception of class rank. They will submit the application to their guidance counselor, who will complete the class rank component and then mail the application.”

Whether their school does or doesn’t provide class rank, students are encouraged to put their emphasis on their education in all its forms.

“Class rank, although it may be important, is not the end-all. Gaining a good knowledge base is important,” says Joseph Gressock, the principal of Oldenburg Academy of the Immaculate Conception. “Students are in high school to learn from a multitude of ways. The proper focus for any high school student is to gain a well-rounded experience, to experience all things.” †