Two years ago, the UC High Site Governance Team (SGT) voted to implement a new system that eliminates public class rankings in order to reduce competition and improve students’ mental health, so there will no longer be Valedictorians or Salutatorians.
According to the San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) website, “San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) is moving away from traditional grading, including class rank, to adopt a standards-based grading system that focuses on mastery of material rather than averages” (sandiegounifed.org).
According to an article about class ranking, “Class rank is a way to see how your academic achievements measure up to those of your classmates. Your class rank is determined by comparing your GPA to the GPA of people in the same grade as you” (prepscholar.com).
Associate Principal Janelle Aleksic said, “Getting rid of class rankings was voted on by the SGT two years ago. I believe that this is more beneficial for the mental health of students, especially when students start to worry about, am I number three, am I number five, or am I number twelve? It takes the pressure off when you don’t know your ranking, and you can just focus on what students need to do to succeed in terms of grades and what they’re doing in their classes. As a parent and an educator, I think it’s better for students’ mental health.”
“I do mostly think class ranking is bad, because it’s like a direct comparison. I think it’s good to know if you’re top one percent, top ten percent, even top twenty percent, but saying things like, ‘Oh, you’re ranked one, two, three, four, or five…’ I don’t think that that’s good for people’s mental health, because it puts you in a rank order from best to worst,” said Senior Sadie Wheeler.
“It would just really suck to be at the bottom of the ranking, and even if you’re in the top, there’s so much pressure to be number one even though being number ten or number 16 is really good,” said Wheeler.
According to CBS news, “This system will reward students for genuine academic success based on their academic accomplishments. This will help reduce the overall competitive culture at high schools to allow students to focus on exploring learning opportunities that are of interest to them” (cbsnews.com).
“We have so many students that have high GPAs. Sometimes their rankings don’t really reflect the rigor of the courses that they’re taking. The absence of public ranking allows us to focus more on the student’s achievement in tough courses and less on the number associated with their ranking,” said Principal Mike Paredes.
“A strictly numerical ranking might not be good for students’ mental health as it causes them to compare themselves to others and maybe feel ‘lesser’ if they’re not a higher rank,” said Junior William McArthur.