Williamson Schools Kibosh Class Rank

FRANKLIN, TN — After surveys of students and staff found that traditional top-to-bottom class ranking increased stress and led to students from eschewing standard-level courses that might interest them in favor of AP and honors classes that didn't, Williamson County Schools is scrapping class ranks and beginning a transition to the Latin honors system used in many colleges.

The school board voted Monday to amend the class rank policy, ranking only the top 10 percent of graduates for the classes of 2018 and 2019 and fully transitioning to the Latin system — think cum laude, summa cum laude and magna cum laude — for the Class of 2020 and beyond.

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A district survey of 89 colleges showed that 87 percent do not consider class rank in admissions and even the 13 percent that do use "estimated class rank" for the increasing number of districts that have abandoned numerical ranking.

Under the revised system, valedictorians and salutatorians will be determined by a multi-prong system:

• Student must achieve a 4.25 GPA or higher.
• Student must take end-of-year exams for all their AP courses, earning a score of 3 or above on 75 percent of AP exams taken.
• Student must complete at least 20 hours of community service outside of service required by other organizations.
• The highest ACT composite score will serve as the tiebreaker.

Latin honors will be conferred with the following breakdown:

• Summa Cum Laude: 4.25 and above
• Magna Cum Laude: 4.00 - 4.24
• Cum Laude: 3.75-3.99

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