Decile System Appeal Fails

The decile system is still out in Souhegan, but the School Board is hoping to have a proposal next month that will offer a temporary alternative for this year’s senior class.

The main concern discussed at Thursday’s meeting was ensuring that this year’s students had enough information available to remain eligible for scholarships.

Director of Guidance Karen Chininis will help put together a proposal to meet most of these scholarship guidelines by the board’s next meeting in October. It will then be presented to Community Council and administration for review.

Chininis suggested at last night’s meeting that the students have an in-depth school profile included with their transcripts in lieu of decile ranking. This would allow academic institutions and scholarship providers the information needed to consider their students.

Community Council voted to remove the student ranking system in May, as suggested in a proposal from students Alexander Kempf, Bobby Graham, Scott Doyle and Jacob Rettig.

The four students - now seniors - were present to support their proposal to remove the system, which they believe is becoming increasingly irrelevant and can be harmful for students.

Souhegan’s student ranking system was based on GPA in ten deciles, or groups of 10%. The first decile is the top 10% of the grade, the second decile is from 20% to 11%, ect.

According to the four students who crafted the proposal, many students feel that this system generalizes the student body, even though they each take different classes with varying degrees of difficulty. They believe there is an inconsistency in comparing GPAs within a student body against one another.

For example, a student taking a difficult AP or Honors class may end up in a lower decile because he is compared to another student who is taking easier classes, but scoring higher marks because of it.

“You are trying to compare the students when they really don’t have much in common in course work,” said Kempf. “A student can only control the GPA, lets take out the external factors and have colleges soley look at the GPA of a student.”

Doyle said that the majority of students agree with their proposal, with 370 students signing a petition in support in three days.

Chininis said that other schools that transitioned to an unranked system reported positive results, especially when it came to qualifying for scholarships. Sometimes students with a higher GPA would fall into a lower decile, which would disqualify them from receiving certain funds.

These beliefs lie in contrast to those held by many of the many parents in attendance at the meeting this week, who do not want to have the decile system removed this year.

Leading the charge against this removal is Souhegan boys basketball coach Mike Heaney, who brought forth the appeal to the School Board after one was voted down by Community Council in June.

Heany said the research done by the students who called for the decile system removal was “sparse” and did not show a true need for change. It also didn’t include an alternative system to be put in place.

“The proposal presented a call for change, but didn’t present a solution,” said Heany.

He also claimed the decision was made too hastily, with other schools taking up to four years to implement such a change in their student ranking. Heany said it was not fair to his daughter, who he said has worked hard to be included in the top decile.

His wife, Maria Heany, echoed her husbands comments and said that the majority of schools still use the decile system, which is contrary to the students’ claims that the percentage is decreasing.

She said removing the student ranking puts the school at a disadvantage, since she believes they are still a factor in decisions regarding college acceptance and scholarships.

“We are putting our students in the minority,” she said.

Other parents in attendance agreed with the Heanys.

“We don’t want our students not getting scholarships, we don’t want our students having a difficult time getting into good schools,” said Kim Gowell.

“I think the mistake that was made was that you shouldn’t eliminate something until you have something else in place,” said Frankie Straccia.

Most of the parents called for more involvement of parents in these decisions, which have long-lasting effects on their schools

Others called for weighted grading to be implemented in the schools, which would give more value to AP and Honos courses in student ranking.

“I would be for ranking system if we weighted our grades,” said Wendy Hunt. 

Chair Christine Janson said that the decile system was “broken” without the inclusion of weighted grades for students who opt to take on more difficult classes.

The next Souhegan Cooperative School Board meeting will take place on Thursday, Oct. 6.