Westhampton Beach Board Of Education Unanimously Votes To Get Rid Of Class Rank

The Westhampton Beach Board of Education voted unanimously on Monday to eliminate class rankings, starting with this year’s junior class, though a class valedictorian and salutatorian will continue to be chosen based on their weighted grade point averages.The board initially considered the policy change after receiving input from the Guidance Advisory Board, a mix of faculty, guidance counselors, administrators and parents, which meets three times a year to discuss new ideas to enhance the guidance program for students.The topic of the class rank system was originally brought up during the 2016-17 school year, and since then the group has sat in on presentations by Dr. Robert Finn, Westhampton Beach’s director of guidance and data management, and Dr. Christopher Herr, principal of Westhampton Beach High School, who were pushing for the changes.Three parents—Cynthia McNamara, John Kern and Clint Greenbaum—who had attended many recent meetings to voice their support of keeping the system, made a last-ditch effort during Monday night’s board meeting to argue their side before members made their decision to ditch the student-ranking system.Mr. Greenbaum took on the board’s argument that the system hurts all the students who miss the top spots. “Striving for a higher class rank—which starts in eighth grade—helps everyone,” he said. “If the lower-performing students work harder to improve their rank, those ahead of them will work harder to stay ahead.”Mr. Kern spoke up for the high-achieving students, worrying that losing the distinction of a top rank could hurt them in their college admission process. He reeled off a list of elite universities—including Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania and Yale University—that either take rank into consideration during the application process, or have an undergraduate body made up of a majority of students who were ranked in high school.Ms. McNamara recounted a conversation she’d had with her sophomore daughter who fretted that her good grades wouldn’t mean anything to colleges without a comparison to her peers’ performances. “You run a race and you have your time—but how do you put that time into context?” she relayed her daughter asking. “How do I know if I’ve won the race or if I’m 25th?”Though no parents who attended Monday’s meeting spoke in favor of getting rid of the ranking system, the board had already made up its mind. Over their past few meetings, board members consistently reiterated their position that omitting rank on college applications forces admissions officers to look at a holistic picture of the student, including their GPAs, extracurricular activities and other school contributions. They argued that this would work in favor of students on both ends of the ranking scale: for students who would have been highly ranked, their other achievements will make it clear that they belong on top; for students who would have had a low rank, getting rid of the number makes it harder for admissions officials to disregard them so quickly.They also often brought up Dr. Finn’s research, which stated that, most times, only a few percentage points separate the top-ranked student from the one finishing 20th overall. Such a system, he’s argued, inadvertently puts the lower-ranked student at a distinct disadvantage. “The board considered carefully all the information that was shared with them by Dr. Finn, Dr. Herr, and the parents who spoke at the Board of Education meetings,” Westhampton Beach Schools Superintendent Michael Radday said on Wednesday. “After evaluating all of the information, the board concluded that eliminating class rank was in the best interests of our students.”At Monday’s meeting, the approval of the policy to eliminate class rank was motioned by board member James Hulme and seconded by Joyce Donneson. The updated policy, which notes that a class valedictorian and salutatorian will continue to be selected annually based on the weighted GPAs of students, can be found on the Westhampton Beach School District website, www.westhamptonbeach.k12.ny.us.