Class Rank At York? Official Notes Old Controversy

ELMHURST, IL — An Elmhurst School District 205 board member recently recalled the blowback that the district received years ago when it ended its class rankings of York High School students.

"The class rank at York was eliminated about 12 years ago to great public controversy," board member Jim Collins said at last week's policy committee meeting.

He said he was not advocating the district bring back class rankings, but he said a review of the issue may benefit students.

Assistant Superintendent Kevin Rubenstein said the district can come up with a student's class ranking in the "very, very rare" situation that it is needed. He said he did not know of any colleges that ask for rankings.

Collins said some parents have complained that their children with 4.0 grade point averages can't get into the state's flagship academic institution, the University of Illinois. And those parents believe that class rankings may have helped, he said.

"I don't know if class rank would help those kids or not, but it might be worth talking to some colleges and just doing a brief survey of other public high schools in northern Illinois. Is it a rarity or are there a lot of public schools that do class rank?" Collins said.

Superintendent Keisha Campbell reiterated Rubenstein's point that if class rankings could help a student in any way, the district would provide the information to the family.