Glenbard eliminates class rank for 2015 grads

Class rank no longer will be used to measure students' success in Glenbard High School District 87.

In its place, the district will provide colleges only with the highest weighted and unweighted grade-point average of each graduating class, officials said.

The new policy, approved Monday by the school board, will take effect with the graduating class of 2015.

Supporters said the revised policy will allow more students to take courses that interest them and force colleges to evaluate them in a more holistic way.

It also will help prevent students from stressing out over a rank they cannot entirely control, supporters said.

Many other suburban districts already have eliminated class rank, including Naperville Unit District 203 and Wheaton Warrenville Unit District 200.

Before Monday's vote, Shannon Burgess and her daughter, Abbey, spoke against some components of the new policy.

Abbey will be a senior this fall and said it's unfair the policy will start with her class.

“I don't think it's fair to all of a sudden change the expectations on students when they came in knowing that this was how it was going to be,” she said.

With the elimination of class rank, Assistant Superintendent for Educational Services Jeffrey Feucht said a committee is working to update school profiles to be more informative for colleges. The updated profiles are expected to be ready after the district gets student test data in late July.

Feucht said many surrounding districts give “percentile cutoffs,” but that can have a negative effect.

“There is broad consensus with all four of our guidance (department chairmen) and the people we spoke to that when you do that, colleges can basically develop their own estimated class rank and that hurts most of our students ...” he said.

Feucht said students in the Class of 2015 can have their guidance counselors write letters providing their junior year rank information if they want. The students won't have a senior class rank.