Two North Texas school districts explore getting rid of class rankings

Two large North Texas school districts are looking to do away with the class ranking system.

Frisco ISD voted to end the practice Monday night, while Plano ISD is taking a vote on Tuesday night. Both districts started to study the class rank issue two years ago after an admissions case against the University of Texas went all the way to the Supreme Court.

The case started the conversation that class rank was hurting students in highly competitive districts. Texas law requires districts to rank the top 10 percent of each graduating class. In response to this, under the new rating system, students outside of the top 10 percent would be listed at top 25 percent, top 50 percent, or top 75 percent instead.

It’s a system that some students find to be unfair.

“Top 11 percent, why would you group them in top 25 percent?” Frisco High senior Logan Rosenberg asked. “That's insane, and unfair."

But Frisco ISD insists that the move is good for students like Logan.

The district says colleges would no longer be able to cut off consideration for students who finish outside the top 11 or top 15, but would have to consider the student’s whole body of work.

“We have great students, great candidates for college, they were not getting in because of the rank even though they had a perfect GPA or high test scores," said Frisco ISD Director of Guidance and Counseling Stephanie Cook.

Highland Park, Coppell and Carroll ISD have already ended class rank outside of the top 10 percent and they have seen more admissions to state schools as a result.

Both Frisco ISD and Plano ISD did surveys that found that many students felt the ranking system was causing undue stress.

“Students were sleeping five hours or less because of their AP course load,” Cook said.

Plano ISD will hold its vote at 6 p.m. Tuesday.

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