Trend: Class Rankings Being Axed

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Laura B. Weiss -- School Library Journal, 7/28/2006

With high school students under mounting pressure to achieve high grades and gain acceptance to select colleges, a new trend is taking hold—getting rid of class rankings, which some say just intensify the pressure teens already feel in the competitive college application environment.

A recent story in Time reports that Naperville, IL, noted for its excellent school system, has jettisoned the rankings, which colleges have traditionally used to sort the academically weak from the strong. The rankings will be phased out over the next year; 2007's upperclassmen will choose whether to include a rank in their official transcripts, Time reports.

But Cecelia Freda, Middletown High School South school librarian and winner of this year's SLJ Giant Step Award, whose school maintains the statistics, says, "Rankings are a good thing. One of the benefits is that the people who work hard deserve that honor. For the other students, it's something to strive for."

Lessening hypercompetition and stress is the goal of letting go of the rankings. Proponents of striking them say that they adversely affect maturing adolescents.

Eighty percent or more public schools still report rankings, the article states. But a growing number of high schools nationwide—primarily in affluent districts from California to Miami to New Jersey—have already adopted the practice. An even higher number of private schools do not give out their rankings, says Time.