The Online Newspaper of Lakewood High School

Lakewood Times

Lakewood Times

Lakewood Times

    Does Class Rank Matter?

    Does+Class+Rank+Matter%3F

    In recent years, high schools across the country have been getting rid of the age-old tradition of class ranks. One of the main goals of getting rid of class ranks is to stop the intense rivalry and competition between students. Another goal is to help students be more interested in what they are learning, and not about what grade they need. Some people even want to get rid of grades and GPAs all together.

    I think that getting rid of class ranks would be a good idea. The system is one that is not beneficial to students who have talents beyond test-taking. Associating self-worth with a number is not a good way to go through life, but these kinds of systems are teaching children that it is. Furthermore, the existence of weighted AP and College-Credit-Plus classes make the system even more unfair, because those classes are not necessarily more difficult than the unweighted advanced ones.

    Being competitive is something that can motivate some students, because it gives them concrete goals to strive for. But it is not something that works for everyone, and just because someone has a higher class rank does not mean they are better than someone else.

    People argue that getting rid of class ranks could hurt students ability to get into college, but this is not the case. Schools were there are no grades, no GPAs, and no class ranks still have kids that are getting into competitive colleges.

    Class rank is becoming old-fashioned; it no longer demonstrates the skills of students. Lakewood High School student, Annika Mintzlaff, said, “I think that it is a good idea to get rid of class ranks. I really don’t see any benefit of class ranks”.

    More to Discover