Should High School Freshmen Know Their Class Rank?

Should class rank be included on freshman report cards at East Hampton High School?

That was the question raised at last week’s board of education meeting. Currently, class rank is included on the final report card of the school year for the top 50 percent of sophomores and juniors and 100 percent for seniors.

“It is my opinion the class rank should go on at the end of the freshman year,” board member Don Coolican said.

Coolican’s reason? Grade inflation.

According to Coolican, 60 percent of ninth graders made honors or high honors last June, 65 percent of 10th graders and 55 percent in grades 11 and 12.

“If you’re a parent and your child is on the honor roll, you’re probably thinking that they’re doing pretty well, and they are doing pretty well,” Coolican said, “but maybe not as well as you think, because if they’re taking relatively easy courses, that’s going to be reflected on their class rank.”

By alerting parents quicker as to their child’s class rank, it gives them more time to respond and help improve the class standing, which Coolican believes is more important than grade-point average.

“We need to alert the parents as soon as possible. I see no harm. There’s no reason not to have it there as early as possible,” Coolican said. “If that parent isn’t alerted about it until the end of the sophomore year, you really can’t do anything about it until the child’s junior year. Class rank is key, much more so than grade-point average, class rank is key for college acceptance.”

One way to improve class rank is to take more difficult courses. For example, an A in an Honors course gets a 4.67, Level 1 gets a 4.33 and Level 2 gets a 4.0.

“If a parent is alerted that their child is on the honor roll but barely in the top half of the class, they might want to push their child into taking higher-level courses,” said Coolican, who was fine with just listing the top 50 percent.

Joanne Barmasse agreed with Coolican on one point. That too many make the honor roll.

“The percentage is way to high and it’s been that way for years,” she said. “I think it diminishes the meaning of being on the honor roll or high honor roll."

Barmasse, however, disagreed as to just how important class rank is. She said when the issue came up previously she called colleges and universities and asked how they used class rank in their selection process. Most said it was a very small factor, in part because every high school is different.

“It does have its place,” Barmasse said. “It’s one thing that they look at but it’s a piece of the pie.”

The regulation concerning class rank was set by the curriculum committee, which agreed with the recommendation of Dr. Linda Berry, the former high school principal.

According to School Superintendent Dr. Judith Golden, among Dr. Berry’s reasons at the time was that “freshmen often did not afford themselves the opportunity in trying different things at the high school because they had this pressure, from home and on themselves, to pay such close attention to class rank rather than look at other opportunities they could have. Also, if a student is in the lower part of the class ranking, and they are only a freshman, it can be quite discouraging. She said the same can be said for 10th graders.”

As a result, the regulation was changed to what it currently is.

Coolican would like the entire board to consider including class rank on freshman report cards rather than have the curriculum committee decide, which is normally how it works for regulation changes. For now, however, the committee is expected to take up the matter.

“Is the curriculum committee going to have the final say on this?” Coolican asked.

“That’s up to the board,” Dr. Golden said.