MORE: High school juniors headed toward ‘cliff’ warns Hamilton school leader
The board of education heard a report at their May 15 meeting in which it was proposed phasing out the current system of ranking members of each graduating class in favor of a “Latin system.”
No decision was made at that meeting, but two related policy adoptions were presented for first reading and possible action the June 19 board meeting.
The change would not be fully in place until after the graduating class of 2022 completes high school, however, in order to not change the rules for any student currently in this year’s seventh grade class.
RELATED: How did your school perform on state report card?
“We have looked at this issue since the last school year,” Superintendent Kelly Spivey said at the May meeting. “It was a year ago, Mr. (Michael) Crowder approached us about how we look at class rank.”
Crowder, the board vice president, had asked for the study because of the number of students taking College Credit Plus classes at a range of area colleges and universities and earning both high school credit and college credit simultaneously. At an interim report several months ago, he said part of his concern is that the district has no control over course content or instruction and fears uneven value of the education received.
Another issue Curriculum Supervisor Joan Stidham raised at that time was the possibility of students having limited or no classes at the high school.
She repeated that at the May 15 meeting saying students have for many years been able to take advantage of college courses while still in high school but as a supplement to their high school courses.
“With the explosion of (College Credit Plus), we do not have that close relationship with students,” Stidham said. “Theoretically, they can graduate without any classes at Talawanda High School.”
MORE: Should schools graduate citizens or workers?
Under Ohio’s CCP program, students can begin taking those college courses as early as seventh grade, which is the reason for the proposed new policy taking effect after the class of 2022 leaves high school.
At that point will come a formal switch to the Latin system of listing graduates in the categories of summa cum laude, magna cum laude and cum laude. That system is already recognized, however.
“We already do that in the graduation program,” she said. “Students compete against a bar, not against each other.”
The guidance office would still be able to track class rank for use if requested and Stidham said there are practical reasons for doing that, while downplaying the ranking as standard procedure.
“Wright State University has a valedictorian scholarship and we could confirm that a student ranked first in the class,” she said.
MORE: Talawanda Class of 2017 earns $5.5 million in scholarships
Class speakers at graduation would be chosen by some other method rather than topping the class rankings and Talawanda Assistant Principal Chris Rhoton added another note with regard to that concept.
“Student speakers would not be valedictorian and salutatorian,” he said. “In the past, we have had some speak out of a sense of obligation, but it was out of their comfort zone.”
The proposed policy statement placed before the board May 15 removes the words “class ranking” from the existing policy manual and adds a sentence to the first paragraph of the policy.
“The Board of Education acknowledges the usefulness of a system of computing grade point averages for high school students, both to inform students of their relative academic placement among their peers and to provide students, prospective employers and institutions of high learning with a predictive device so that each student is more likely to be placed in an environment conducive to success,” the first paragraph would now read with the addition of the following sentence. “A system of recognizing students based on grade point average will be implemented and the superintendent will develop procedures for this recognition.”
The high school currently holds a recognition for the Top Ten (grade point) students on Senior Awards Night each year but Crowder said there is an inequity in that.
“At the Top Ten recognition, even some with a 4.2 (grade point average) will not be in the room,” he said.
He praised the staff members who took part in the class rank study, saying they brought excellent information to the board. He pointed to a parent meeting at the middle school where the idea was discussed and said the response was positive.
“Any time we discuss (issues), we want to not hurt the kids,” he said. “I feel like this is uniformly positive for kids.”
About the Author