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Issue 4, Volume 78 February 1, 2013 4525 Highway 109
thebugle
Benefit or buzzkill
monika nayak featurewriter
New cum laude system complicates student recognition conceptions The Rockwood Board of Education determined in 2010 that starting with the Class of 2013, the cum laude system of student recognition will replace class rank. A student’s seven-semester weighted-grade GPA will determine their designation within the laude system. Cum laude will be assigned to students with a 3.5-3.74 GPA, magna cum laude for a 3.75-3.99 and summa cum laude for a minimum of a 4.0. The groupings will be recognized during graduation and during Senior Awards Night. The traditional class rank system orders students in a grade according to their weighted GPA, while the cum laude system organizes students into categories. Mr. Jeff Buckman, EHS college and career center specialist, suggested the change in graduation recognition in a meeting with all four college specialists from each of the Rockwood high schools and the director of guidance held in 2010. The college specialists discussed the issues students faced regarding grades, GPA, class rank recognition and college. The Board of Education approved the change in GPA recognition. “We were seeing stress levels of these high-achieving students rise because of competition within the top of the top,” Mr. Buckman said. “They were more concerned about taking classes because of the weight they were going to get versus the overall strength and overall enjoyment of it. Eliminating class rank was best for the mental and physical health of our students.” In recent years, St. Louis districts have made the shift away from class rank. The Clayton, Fort Zumwalt, Hazelwood, Ladue, Parkway and Webster Groves public school districts, as well as private secondary schools, such as Chaminade, Cor Jesu, St. Louis University High School and Westminster have embraced the trend spreading across the nation. More than half of all high schools in the United States no longer report class rank, which used to be a dominant component in the college admission, according to the National Association for College Admission Counseling. “The move towards dropping class rank is something that is taking hold across the country, especially in districts of higher-performing schools,” Mrs. AnnMarie Gilman, freshman principal and Renaissance coordinator, said. “There are many school districts where if you take a 4.0 student and plug them into a different school district, they might earn a 3.0 because of the challenge and the rigor of the school. Ranking our students is a misrepresentation of a student’s actual ability and skill. It’s important that we refocus on learning because in the long run when learning comes, GPA will follow.” Faculty hope the elimination of the ranking system will encourage students to sign up for more AP and honors courses. “Students need to take into account their own ability, the rigor of the course and the number of activities they are in when selecting courses,” Mrs. Molly Smith, Guidance Department chair, said. If students are concerned with their GPAs they should focus on AP courses that apply to a future career, according to Mrs. Smith. “The studies that I do in high school will relate to and help me later in life,” Cody McIlvaine (11). To improve their educational experience, students are encouraged to
monika nayak
Stephen Sugarbaker (9) speeds to ring the bell before Josh Tipton (9) in Spanish II. The review game reinforced previously taught lessons on sentence construction and verb conjugation. The review game
breeds healthy competition in Spanish teacher, Mrs. Altis Durante’s classroom. “Competing in sports here at Eureka is obviously really important,” Sydney Ridinger (11) said. “There is nothing
wrong with competing in sports, but they are suppressing the people who are academically based with the new cum laude system. I focus on my schooling and my education; that’s where I compete.”
sign up for courses based on difficulty and interest rather than focusing on how the grade in a class will affect their GPA. “I think class rank is kind of stupid because people can take easy classes and get all ‘A’s, where you should be challenging yourself,” Adam Vorel (10) said. “If you challenge yourself, you don’t necessarily get good grades. Class rank is not an indication of how good of a student you are.” The discontinuation of class rank could eliminate insecurities in the classroom. “The new system will be better because it’s not as competitive,” Natalie Starzyk (10) said. “I don’t have over a 4.0, and now I won’t be compared to students in AP classes.” Students recognize the flaws in the ranking system, which can affect selfperception. “If a student is of a lower class rank, that could be self-degrading, but I like knowing my rank,” Kristen Wood (11) said. High class ranks proved to be an incentive as well as a stimulus for success. “I wish they still had class rank,” Aileen Markovitz (10) said. “My goal is to be at the top and when they took it away, it gave me less to work for. It doesn’t really matter to me who I’m ahead of or who’s ahead of me, but I like to know that I am doing the best that I can and am being rewarded for it.” Taking weighted-grade classes allows a GPA to be greater than 4.0. “Some people say that others take harder classes just to get the better class rank, but that’s the motivation,” Shovik Bandyopadhyay (12) said. “If you’ve taken one more hard class than the person
behind you in class rank, you deserve to be recognized for that. It’s a lot more prestigious to say you are number one or two or three or four; it’s more specific for applications.” Seniors must indicate that EHS doesn’t recognize class rank on college applications. When class rank is not a factor in the admission process, colleges look more closely at a student’s course load, GPA, standardized test scores and extracurricular activities, according to Recognizing Achievement for Rockwood High School Graduates, a release made by the district. Standardized tests are meant to measure a student’s aptitude for college. The scores level the playing field to some degree, which is why some colleges place more value on the performance events, like the A.C.T. and S.A.T., according to Mrs. Gilman. Students believe an impressive class rank attracts college admissions officers. About 60 percent of Duke’s undergraduate applicants came out of high schools that did not rank, according to Mr. Samuel Carpenter, senior assistant director of undergraduate admissions at Duke University. Duke University is among the most selective colleges in the United States with an acceptance rate of 14 percent, according to The College Board’s website. “Particularly when it comes to Duke, the majority of the applications that we see are coming from talented, accomplished, engaging students; they’ve done well in school; they’ve taken harder classes,” Mr. Carpenter said in a phone
interview conducted, Jan. 29. “When admissions sit together and talk about kids, we don’t talk about rank; we’re not talking about test scores; we aren’t even necessarily talking about grades. We talk about the letters of recommendation, what the students do outside class and what the kids say about themselves in the essay portion.” Motivated students have to navigate often-conflicting demands when planning for their college futures. Just because a school of choice isn’t concerned with class rank doesn’t mean the organization offering scholarship money isn’t asking for that information. The discontinuation of class rank may negatively affect the scholarship process. For instance, the University of Missouri: Columbia grants scholarships based on class rank and GPA. For schools that don’t rank, Mizzou will recalculate a student’s GPA only including core classes and compare that to the GPA of Mizzou’s previous freshman class, according to Mr. Buckman. The new GPA is normally lower because the easier classes in which students usually earned higher grades are disregarded. “We aren’t talking about huge amounts of money; it’s typically $1,500 or $2,000, but it’s enough that a family has to pay out of pocket,” Mr. Buckman said. “There are families that are going to be unhappy, but we can’t appease everybody. We looked at that, and said that we are going to help far more students than hurt with this decision.” The remaining universities and scholarships must conform with the evident trend of eliminating class rank or be rendered irrelevant.