Krawitz Believes East Should Drop Class Rank

SM East’s principal Karl Krawitz believes class rank should be dropped because it can harm students in the college admissions process as well as cause student’s stress. Students can earn all A’s for their high school career in regular classes and may not even be in the top third of their class. The class ranking system uses a student’s culmulative grade point average to decide how student’s stack up to one another. Because the difference between some students’ GPAs is more than two decimal places away, Krawitz believes class rank gives a skewed perception of the academic ability at East.

“Right now rankings in our school are misleading,” Krawitz said. “We could take the students from the top ten and go out all the way to the 30th student and see that the difference in their GPA is out to the thousands position. That doesn’t mean that the 30th student is less academic than the first in the class.”

A student’s GPA is based on the formula that their district has created. According to East counselor Laura Carter, East calculates it by how many classes you have taken, your grades in those classes and the rigor of the classes. GPAs can be inflated causing the class rank to be skewed, since honor classes are worth 5.0 points and regular classes are worth 4.0 points.

“The situation that we have at Shawnee Mission East is that we have a very small fish bowl with a lot of really talented fish swimming around,” Carter said. “Consequently, you will have students that will have a 4.0, perhaps never taken an honors class and they won’t even be in the top third.”

GPAs of students can be the same from school to school but their class rank may be different. This has led to some East students to receive consequences for their low class rank even if their GPAs weren’t low.

“In this particular building, class rank will hurt you,” Krawitz said. “We have come across situations where students have been placed on academic probation for a semester (in college) because their class rank was too low. However, a kid with the same GPA but ranked higher may not have been placed on probation.”

Sophomore Jasmin Deng has a different outlook on class rank than Krawitz. She finds class rank to be a motivator for her to do well in her classes, however she also sees it as something that causes her stress.

“I think it’s a good way to keep up with yourself and keep you motivated, but at the same time it’s kind of bad because if you don’t meet your expectation you feel bad about yourself,” Deng said. “Personally, I wouldn’t be as motivated if we dropped it.”

Senior Jessica Harmon agrees with Deng in that class rank serves as a tool to keep motivated. However, she said that looking back at her years at East, she doesn’t value it.

“It’s nice to know where you stand among your peers, but it’s not really necessary,” Harmon said. “It’s neither a positive nor negative thing, it’s just there.”

Some colleges use class rank as a requirement for admissions. University of Missouri Kansas City admissions officer Mary Adams says that UMKC uses a student’s ACT test score and the class rank to determine admissions.

“We have a sliding scale for admissions and the scale goes from if you have a 24 ACT, then we don’t look at your rank, but if you have a 23 on the ACT then you must be in the top half of your class and this scale continues all the way down to if you get a 17 on the ACT then you must be in the top five percent of your class,” Adams said.

“School is about preparing you for your future, whatever you choose to do,” Krawitz said. “I don’t think it is about putting students against one another to see where they fall in a class ranking as if that means that they are somehow less important. That’s not our purpose.”

Adams also said UMKC  will look at a student’s class rank before considering their grade point average. However, if the school does not give the class rank then they will evaluate you based on their formula of a core GPA.

“If the school does not provide the class rank, then we work up what we call a high school core GPA,” Adams said. “That is where we take the classes that UMKC requires you to have taken such as 4 English, 4 Math, 3 Science, etc. and we total all of the grades of those classes to create a GPA to go off of.”

According to Communications Associate Superintendent Leigh Anne Neal, class rank is not a district requirement nor a Board of Education policy. It is a common practice throughout the district. Therefore the decision to drop class rank is an individual school by school decision. However, Krawitz would like to get the other high schools on board as well as the Board of Education’s approval in order to create uniformity throughout the district.

“We have five high schools, all very different,” Krawitz said. “Some may not have problems with class rank. However, if East dropped it the district would have to explain why East is different from the rest. The district has been trying to promote uniformity, that is why we all switched to the common schedule.”

SM West uses the class rank system but unlike East, they have not seen any issues with the system. According to West’s principal Charles Mclean, ranking is a part of life and doesn’t think that the West student body would have an opinion on dropping class rank.

“Most students wouldn’t care one way or another,” Mclean said. “Ranking is simply a status symbol and of some use to colleges and universities. However, I don’t believe it is a true indicator of one’s future potential to make the world a better place.”

Krawitz agrees with Mclean in that class rank does not determines a person’s potential and believes that the system causes a competitive environment that can cause stress for students and sends the wrong message of what the purpose of school is.

“School is about preparing you for your future, whatever you choose to do,” Krawitz said. “I don’t think it is about putting students against one another to see where they fall in a class ranking as if that means that they are somehow less important. That’s not our purpose.”

Although Krawitz believes that class rank is harmful to students, he still thinks students should be recognized for academic success in some way. He is considering starting an academic signing day similar to the athletic signing day, where students who are signing with a school or for a scholarship are displayed and celebrated in the gym.

“When you start talking about what people get for their academic endeavors, people are sitting in the stands and saying ‘Wow, I can be there,’” Krawitz said. “Then you are recognizing the right thing and everyone has a chance at that recognition.”

Krawitz believes that the chances of getting class rank dropped by all schools may be slim but that he will be looking into dropping it at East alone.

“It’s an unnecessary system, it doesn’t define you as a person. The diploma you get and the diploma number 375 is going to look and read the exact same way,” Krawitz said. “Your class rank won’t matter.”