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From the Southern Illinoisan [Carbondale, IL], Monday, September 20, 2004, p. 4A.
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Schools seek to make class rank obsolete

Lincolnshire (AP) -- Jessi Gangware worries a lot about numbers these days. There's her grade point average, her ACT and SAT scores, the days until she graduates.

One number the Stevenson High School senior doesn't need to sweat so much is her class rank.

Following a trend in many affluent, competitive high schools across the country, Stevenson is working to downplay the difference between being No. 1 and No. 101. The high schools ended the tradition of naming a valedictorian and salutatorian last year and is asking some colleges to accept applications without a student's rank.

"I think you're going to see rank gone by the end of the decade at many schools," said Sue Biemeret, Stevenson's college consultant.

Officials at schools such as Stevenson, where 98 percent of the graduating class goes on to college, say rank can give university admissions staff the wrong impression. Stevenson has 1,035 students in its senior class, so the difference in rank sometimes is measured in hundredths of a percentage point.

Gangware, for example, gets mostly A's and B's, earning her a respectable 3.7 on a 4.0 scale. But since many students fill their schedules with Advanced Placement classes -- where an A is awarded a weighted 5.0 -- Gangware finds hundreds of classmates above her on the ranking list.

"I'm still smart, and I want to go to a good school, but I have a 3.7 and can't get into half the schools I want to," Gangware said. "It stinks because my class is really smart, and there's not much I can do."

Stevenson launched a pilot program this year with eight universities that take many of its students. Instead of getting a student's numerical rank, those schools will receive percentages.
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Sidebar and photo: Students change classes at Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire [IL]. Stevenson, like other high schools across the country, is asking some colleges to accept applications without a student's rank.
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Jerry P. Becker
Curriculum & Instruction
Southern Illinois University
Carbondale, IL 62901-4610
Phone: (618) 453-4241 [O]
(618) 457-8903 [H]
Fax: (618) 453-4244
E-mail: jbecker@siu.edu