Class-rank system to be tossed, starting with class of 2028

by Melissa Martin

June 26 school board meeting

Brecksville-Broadview Heights City Schools Superintendent Jeffrey Harrison announced that the district plans to replace the high school class-rank model with the Latin-based cum laude system this fall with its incoming freshman class.

Harrison explained that several other high schools throughout Northeast Ohio have already made the switch to minimize competition between students and encourage them to take a wider variety of classes.

“The class rank system has really gone by the wayside because of the College-Credit-Plus program,” Harrison said. “When a student takes a course on a college-level class, either on a college campus or through our own staff, those courses are weighted on a five-point scale. That means I could take a physical education class at Tri-C and get a 5-point A. Some students will take CCP courses to inflate their GPA, so it really has made class rank and ranking your own students against one another somewhat of an archaic system.”

By moving toward the Latin system, Harrison said the district will be able to recognize more of its students for achieving academic excellence.

“Instead of just recognizing the top-10 students in a class, we will be able to recognize a larger group of students,” he said.

Under the new policy, cum laude, magna cum laude or summa cum laude status will be decided not only using a student’s grade-point average, but also SAT/ACT scores and involvement in the school community.

According to the proposed policy change – which the school board plans to approve during is July regular meeting – to achieve summa cum laude status, students must have a minimum GPA of 4.2 and an SAT score of 1360 or ACT score of 30, participate in four or more extracurricular school activities and take four Advanced Placement or dual-credit or honors courses or be enrolled in a career technical education program.

Magna cum laude status require a 3.7-4.10 cumulative GPA, a 1200 SAT score or 25 ACT score, involvement in three extracurricular school activities and enrollment in three AP/dual-credit or honors course or a career technical education program.

Cum laude status requires a 3.5-3.69 cumulative GPA, a 1060 SAT score or ACT score of 21, involvement in two extracurricular school activities, and participation in two AP, dual-credit or honors courses or enrollment in a career technical education program.

Harrison said High School Principal Kevin Jakub and the high school’s administrative team have been working out the intricacies of the policy for the past several years and have met with several parent groups during that time to explain why the district has elected to change the class rank system.

“They’ve even brought in college and university professionals to talk to parents about the importance of class rank – or lack thereof – in the admittance process,” he said. “This does not harm our students in any way, shape or form. … It is just a change from the way schools have ranked students in the past.”

As part of the new system, he said students achieving cum laude, magna cum laude and summa cum laude status will be recognized at graduation with a colored cord designating the honor.

“Aside from that, instead of recognizing just 10 students from a graduating class, we will be recognizing many more of our students who achieve academic excellence in the classroom,” Harrison said, noting that in this year’s graduation ceremony, just 10 of 313 students were recognized for achievement.

GPAs will continue to be calculated based on the weight of the course and the grade, Harrison said. Because an individual student’s class rank might be needed for a scholarship application or other reasons, it will be possible to generate that information; however, it will be not long publicized or published on a student’s transcript anymore.

“Our top students right now are in the 4.6-4.7 range,” Harrison said. “And it gets cut-throat. And here’s the other part. Students will not take courses that will benefit them in the long-run because it’s not a weighted grade. … For example, a lot of them will audit music classes because music isn’t a weighted class, but they should be involved in those [courses.] That’s where class rank hurts students.”

In other news, Harrison announced that the district has completed its study of the former Hilton Elementary School property.

“The district has been hesitant to do anything with Hilton because of enrollment at the new consolidated elementary school,” Harrison said, noting the district considered the possibility of reopening the former school if and when enrollment projections exceeded expectations.

Harrison said that is no longer a viable option.

“To bring Hilton back up to industry standards and reopen it would be upwards of $5 million. That’s not counting personnel costs,” he said. “That’s just construction costs and updating costs. That means Hilton elementary will not be coming back online as it is not fiscally responsible.”

Harrison said district administrators plan to move forward with demolition. That move will require school board approval.

“Once that building goes offline, we next have to determine what to do with that land,” Harrison said. “We want to keep it – it’s an asset – but we need to plan our campus as to where things are going to fall.”

Harrison said the district has assembled a steering committee consisting of approximately 34 members who are reviewing four different options for the space as part of the district’s campus master plan project currently underway.

“All of those options being considered hinge on one thing: What do we do with the middle school,” he said. “That’s not a decision we need to make in the next year, two or three. … We are thinking 10, 15, 20 years down the road. We’re [also] not at the stage of talking about how we’re going to pay for it, we’re just at the stage where we’re thinking about what we can do.” ∞