On all Jackson-Reed transcripts your class rank can be found staring back at you in the top right corner. When you go to your annual counselor meeting to review your transcript, this can easily become a point of contention. Students often ask each other what their rank is, only to find that they are 50 spaces higher than their friend because of a B they got in freshman biology. Although most colleges ask for a student’s rank, and it can help some, this ranking is not beneficial at a school like Jackson-Reed.
At JR, there are certain classes that are required for all students to take, including our core and language classes. Because so many students take these classes, each has around five different teachers. Yet, with the variety of different teachers comes a wide range of difficulty and expectations. While some may get a teacher who is an extremely harsh grader with their revision policies following DCPS guidelines to a T, another may have a teacher who is an easier grader, allowing revisions up to 100%. It is absurd to assume that a student in each of these classes would have an equal chance at receiving an A. To be clear, there is nothing wrong with each teacher taking on a different style of teaching, but ranking children who had different teachers for the same class is unfair to those who were under different rules and expectations.
Class rank can create a very competitive and toxic environment that emphasizes a need for perfectionism at the detriment of students’ mental health. Getting one A- will set you out of the running for a top rank, and the GPA of two people who are fifty places away from each other may only vary by a tenth of a point. This causes students to compete for their ranking and compare with other students in unhealthy ways. Additionally, the class rank is weighted, meaning that the more AP classes a student takes and receives A’s in, the better their ranking will be. This encourages students to take an unprecedented number of AP classes, causing them to take on a class load that is extremely difficult to handle. Furthermore, students who receive straight A’s, but take fewer AP classes are not celebrated the same, diminishing many students’ accomplishments.
Finally, class rank is very unforgiving. Grades from freshman and sophomore year contribute to overall class rank, putting students who had a harsh transition to a high school environment at a disadvantage, especially one as chaotic as JR’s.
Although having a high ranking can be a beneficial aspect of one’s college applications, its negative repercussions override this. Students are more than their rank and should not be defined by their GPA. From extracurriculars to community service, there are so many ways to be successful in your high school experience beyond just your grades. •
