JANICA STOCKING
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Weighted GPA Scale (left) v. Unweighted GPA Scale (right)
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All throughout high school, we as students are ranked against all other students in our grade. This is called class rank. Most high schools do this, but there are many different ways high schools rank their students. Ranks are assigned according to a student’s GPA compared to the rest of their grade’s. The most common ways students are ranked are decile, quintile, and quartile. Decile ranking systems rank students by percentile in increments of 10 (ex. 10th percentile, 20th percentile, etc.). Quintile ranking systems rank students by percentile in increments of 20 (ex. 20th percentile, 40th percentile, etc.). Quartile ranking systems rank students by percentile in increments of 25 (ex. 25th percentile, 50th percentile, etc.). Exact ranking systems simply give students a “place” or a number based on GPA. Ranks can also be unweighted and weighted. Weighted ranks take rigorous classes into account while unweighted ranks are based solely on your raw GPA. Our school uses exact ranking and it is unweighted.
While an exact ranking system can make class ranks easy to determine, it also has a lot of downsides. Exact ranking assigns all students with a 4.0 GPA (on the unweighted 4.0 scale) a rank of 1. The person(s) with the second highest GPA after everyone with a 4.0 GPA are then ranked the number after the total number of people that got a 4.0 GPA. For example, if there are 36 people who got a 4.0 GPA, the person with the next highest GPA would be ranked at 37th. Despite receiving the 2nd highest GPA, this person would be ranked 35 ranks below their actual GPA’s position on a linear scale. Because of the importance class rank for college applications, scholarships, and other academic recognitions, many students find this system unfair. Many schools now implement percentile-based GPA ranking systems to allow for more students to be better recognized for their achievements. |
Another issue with our school’s ranking system is that GPA is not weighted. Weighted GPAs can help make rankings more fair by incorporating course difficulty level as a part of a GPA’s calculation. Advanced Placement and Concurrent Enrollment courses are given extra consideration and points, therefore increasing the GPA of a student who is taking a lot of rigorous courses. It continues to recognize the achievements of students that aren’t taking as much rigor, but incentivizes students to take more advanced courses (students can often be deterred from challenging themselves because they are worried about their GPA dipping) and rewarding those who already take more advanced courses. So, should our school reconsider the way we assign class ranks? Will transferring to a percentile-based GPA ranking system make rankings fairer for students? Fill out the form to the side of this article and find out how many people agree with you!
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