CLASS RANKINGS A LIFE PREVIEW?

Another effort to shield American youth from the real world is alive and growing.

About half of the high schools across the country no longer report class rank, the National Association of Secondary School Principals has reported.

In other words, in many schools, Amber’s just-passing “D” average is no worse than Deadrick’s “A” average in advanced placement classes. It’s the unhealthy competition, you see, that’s the problem. If Deadrick is recognized as having the top rank in the class, Amber and her “D”-list student friends will worry and fret that Deadrick is somehow better than them, battering their self-esteem into the school’s mint green tile floors.

Truth be told, Amber has a lot more to worry about than Deadrick, if she even knows who he is. Her trajectory was set many semesters ago when she gave up homework for nights out, when she had to abandon studying because she had to take care of her younger brothers and sisters while Mom was carousing, or when she began cutting classes to get high.

Unless high school has changed dramatically, most students are oblivious to their class ranking. They may hear it sometime in their senior year if the determination about who would speak at graduation is on the line. Otherwise, if they’re college-bound, they’re trying to shore up their grade in English on the Beowulf exam or hoping to maintain their math average by improving their trigonometry. If they’re not college-bound, they’re either playing out the string or concentrating on their technical or vocational field.

Undoubtedly, class ranking doesn’t make the student. Participation, ability, and willingness to study and improve join grades as metrics on which a student might be viewed by high school teachers. Extra-curricular activities, college entrance exam scores and rigor of classes are added to grades and class rank in how a college might view a potential freshman.

In post-college life, degrees, certifications and training are important, but so are aptitude, communication and soft skills. Like it or not, we are always being measured. Dropping class rankings to avoid hurt feelings or unhealthy competition is only delaying that real-world reality.

In a recent Associated Press article on valedictorians and class rankings, National Association of Secondary School Principals Bob Farrace said administrators view rankings as obsolete in an era of high expectations for every student. Let’s stop right there for a moment.

When did administrators not have high expectations for every student? What changed, when and why? For which students did they have high expectations and for which did they not? Was it remotely possible for a student for which an administrator had low expectations to succeed and one for which an administrator had high expectations to fail?

If Farrace’s statement is true, has having high expectations for every student improved public education in the United States today? Since most would agree that public education for the masses has not improved, what does that say about high expectations?

We hope newly elected Hamilton County Schools Superintendent Dr. Bryan Johnson — once on the job — finds that all his principals and administrators have high expectations for every student. But the reality is some students will perform brilliantly in school, the great majority will do reasonably good or acceptable work, and some students will not — or cannot — do well. But school personnel should always have high expectations for them.

If they can’t move from point A to point E, can they move to point B? Is something fixable holding them back? If administrators don’t have high expectations, how can the students have high expectations for themselves?

Some administrators believe schools should switch from a class ranking to college-style Latin honors of summa cum laude, magna cum laude and cum laude. In other words, if you reach a certain grade threshold, you have achieved one of the honors.

In Rutherford County, Tenn., this year, its highly ranked Central Magnet School set its threshold at a 4.0 grade-point-average and 12 honors courses. About a fourth of its students hit the mark, so the school had 48 valedictorians.

If 48 valedictory speeches were to be delivered, graduation may still be going on.

Instead of worrying about a student’s feelings as to whether he or she is ranked 10th or 11th in the class, though, we would prefer teachers, principals and administrators concentrate on setting high expectations, assessing the students where they are and helping move them as far as they can go.

That would help the students not only better manage their high school careers but would be a more realistic preview of their post-secondary school life.