District 207 eliminates class ranks in high schools

The Maine Township High School District 207 school board Tuesday night voted to eliminate class ranks at the district's three high schools, Alternative Resource Center and Youth Campus starting this fall.

Students or parents who still want a ranking may opt in to have it as part of the student's transcript at any time during the school year, officials said.

Class ranking is soon becoming a vestige of a bygone era similar to distinctions such as valedictorian and salutatorian. District officials said many area school districts, including Carmel, Barrington, New Trier and Stevenson high schools, already have eliminated it.

Northwest Suburban High School Dist. 214, which includes Elk Grove, Rolling Meadows, Prospect, Hersey, Wheeling and Buffalo Grove high schools, also plans to eliminate class ranks with the class of 2013.

“I think there's a lot of reasons for it,” said Barbara Dill-Varga, District 207's assistant superintendent of instruction. “Around 2000-2002, a lot of area schools started investigating this and found that continuing class rank was disadvantageous to students.”

Dill-Varga said it is unfair to compare the top 20 percent of District 207 students to the top 20 percent of more rural or urban districts that offer a less rigorous academic program.

“More than 50 percent of the colleges now are not using rank or know that they are not going to get the rank from the high school,” Dill-Varga said. “They are forced to look at the big picture, all that the student has to bring to the table.”

That includes teacher recommendations, extracurricular activities, test scores, community involvement, student essays, the rigor of students' class load and their grades.

“It tells a more accurate story of the student and whether that student will be fit for the college as opposed to a number,” Dill-Varga said.

District 207 officials consulted several of the surrounding school districts, more than a dozen area colleges and universities, and the National Association of College Admission Counseling. The school board vetted the proposal in May when board members and a couple of parents expressed concerns about eliminating class rank entirely.

“For the old-timers, it's a whole new way of thinking,” said school board member Eldon Burk, a former assistant principal at Maine West.

As a result, the proposal approved Tuesday is a “do no harm” policy meaning students will be able to get a ranking if they need it for a specific scholarship or application, Dill-Varga said.

“I've not seen anybody doing it this way with the opting-in proposal,” she added. “I think it's going to do more good than harm.”