Salisbury Parents Question Eliminating Class Rank

Two parents of students asked the Salisbury School Board to consider eliminating class rank because there are so many students with high grade-point averages who were being ranked lower than they might at other schools.

Bonnie Heydt, whose daughter is a junior, asked the board at their curriculum and technology committee meeting last week, to consider "doing away with class rank" because there was such a slim margin between so many students and it was hurting their chances at getting scholarship money.

"If you really compared apples to apples and took another class, you could have 3.8 average and you might be in the top 10 percent, 20 percent of your class," Heydt said. But in a class with students who earn high grades, "you might be at 32 percent, which takes you out of scholarship money," Heydt said.

"If you had no class rank, from what I was told by one of the admissions officers, then your GPA would be used instead, which would have gotten us big scholarship money," she said.

"I think what you're proposing is very interesting and I would certainly encourage the high school administration to have some further discussion," said Assistant Superintendent Louise Beauchemin.

Jennifer Brown said class rank should be reconsidered because her son's class rank is not a reflection of his high GPA "because of how smart this class is."

She said a college planning company told her his class rank should be higher. "So it does hurt them in a smaller school even though their grade point average is higher."