Eaglecrest High School in Aurora, Colorado, had 18 valedictorians this year. Vestavia High School near Birmingham, Alabama, typically allows 5 percent of the graduating class to claim the number one ranking. But in these litigious days, no solution is safe. Last year, an Oklahoma teenager sued to prevent two other students from sharing the title with her. The problem does not end with the top students.
Some schools object to ranking any students.
College admissions officers cited in the story estimate that half or more of the applications they receive do not have a class rank for the student. Perhaps they all have straight-A averages. Admissions officials who cannot use class standing as a way of differentiating students are likely to put more weight on standardized test scores, but they are also under attack. One problem is that the tests are a useful but far from perfect indicator of who will succeed in school. Another is that African American and Latino students on average receive lower scores than do their white and Asian counterparts.