This year Neuqua Valley has undergone many changes throughout the school. With budget cuts, new option rules, and now with the discussion of removing class rank, students are learning to make adjustments.
Administrators came together on November 1st to discuss the topic of eliminating class rank designations on transcripts. The proposal came from board members Linda Rakestraw and Mike Popp. In their presentation, they came up with certain recommendations in place of class rank.
The proposed alternative is the Latin honors system. It’s commonly used in colleges that recognize students in different categories based on their grade point averages (GPA). The categories are Cum Laude, for students with a GPA of 4.0 to 4.19, Magna Cum Laude, for students with a GPA of 4.2 to 4.49, and Summa Cum Laude, for students with a GPA of 4.5.
Rakestraw and Popp concluded that the Latin honors system should replace the Valedictorian and Salutatorian designations starting with the 2011-2012 school year. Other board members are unsure about this proposal. Member Alka Tyle said ““I’m struggling with changing the rules in the middle of the game.” Tyle thinks the best decision is to apply these changes for the next freshman class.
“The big (internal) discussion is rank or not to rank,” Rakestraw said. According to the College Board, class rank used to be a major part of the admission decision, but now it no longer is. With the elimination of class rank, colleges can look at other aspects of a student’s application and make their decisions based on other factors. Other schools around Neuqua that have eliminated class rank include district 203 schools, New Trier, Stevenson, Deerfield, Benet Academy and the Illinois Math and Science Academy. Administrators are debating options that range from immediately dropping class rank, or a measured phase in.
Board members and administrators are greatly considering the benefits and disadvantages of both sides of the argument. No decisions are being made until December 6th, 2010, the district would like more input from the rest of the community on this topic before taking any action.
Meghana Sharma, Neuqua Media Editor
