CALIFORNIA DISTRICT TO STOP RANKING HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS.Byline: Associated Press The San Ramon Valley The San Ramon Valley is a region in Contra Costa County and Alameda County, California, east of Oakland. The cities of Danville, San Ramon, Alamo, and Walnut Creek are located in the valley. Links
The board voted unanimously last week to make the change. Reasons for the switch were threefold. Officials hope to ease the pressure on college-bound seniors and allow them the freedom to take non-honors electives instead of having to stick to courses worth more points to ratchet grade-point averages up a tenth of a point. The district also hopes to improve students' chances of getting into college by doing away with a ranking system that saw many students with GPAs of 4.0 or better not making the top 10 percent. That is the cutoff point Cutoff point The lowest rate of return acceptable on investments. for some universities. ``In a way, we're forcing colleges to read all of the applications,'' said Monte Vista High School Monte Vista High School can refer to several high schools in California:
In addition to eliminating class rankings, the new system will slash the weighted grades on some honors classes, including advanced music classes and freshman and sophomore English and math. Ritts said the change will bring district schools closer to the grading systems used by admissions officials at the University of California The University of California has a combined student body of more than 191,000 students, over 1,340,000 living alumni, and a combined systemwide and campus endowment of just over $7.3 billion (8th largest in the United States). and California State University systems. Although most school districts still have class rankings, with the traditional valedictorian and salutatorian sa·lu·ta·to·ri·an n. The student with the second highest academic rank in a class who delivers the salutatory at graduation exercises. Noun 1. taking the No. 1 and 2 spots, the system has become less popular in recent years. A 1993 survey of 2,175 public and private high schools found that 159 did not calculate rank in class for college admissions, although about half of that group did use rankings for other purposes, such as picking a valedictorian. That survey, by the National Association of Secondary School Principals The National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) is a United States educational advocacy organization consisting of secondary school principals. To promote excellence among middle school and high school students, NASSP founded and still sponsors the National Honor , found that 794 schools were considering dropping class rankings. ``Rank in class is not going to disappear, there are some advantages to looking at a student body with a ranking system,'' said Robert Mahaffey, director of communications Director of Communications is a position in the private and public sectors. The Director of Communications is responsible for managing and directing an organization's internal and external communications. for the group. ``But it is viewed in a number of circles as a system that has not served the students' needs across the board.'' |
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