BY RYAN O’CONNOR

Students attending Bow High School have recently experienced a rather drastic change in class rank policy.

In fact, the school has eliminated the concept all together.

Gay Longnecker, assistant principal at Bow High School, said the district had a committee – made up of various members of faculty, staff, parents and students to study the value of class rank, including speaking with various colleges.

“One reason, in my mind, is that we don’t want students necessarily competing against one another, but we want them to have an internal sense of challenging themselves,” she said. “Also, the students in Bow are very academically focused and do really well. Some kids may have a terrific GPA of 3.8 or even approaching 4.0, but because we have so many academically strong students, a student with a 3.9 GPA may be ranked 20th out of 160, which doesn’t look that great, so the feedback we were getting is class rank can actually hurt kids with good GPAs.”

In addition, there will be no valedictorian or salutatorian at graduation.

Bow will run a screening process of those interested in giving a speech at graduation, who will write letters of intent and present their material to a committee.

“I think the transition has really been seamless,” said Longnecker, referring to the new policy. “Many of the things we were doing we’re continuing to do. I don’t think there has been a huge shift in or change in philosophy or the school’s mission or how we treat or handle kids.”

Moreover, Hopkinton is considering a similar change in policy.

Steve Chamberlin, principal at Hopkinton Middle High School, said he is in the process of presenting his ideas to the school board.

“The recommendation is to significantly change class rank,” said Chamberlin. “What we’ve found this year, in studying and talking to colleges, is that a really strong academic grade and a low class rank because of a very talented or competitive class, can in fact hurt a youngster’s chances.”

“We’re trying to eliminate the disadvantage,” he continued. “We would like colleges to look at the whole picture as opposed to just a number.”

Still, Chamberlin acknowledged that he and district officials are handling a difficult balancing act because a top class ranking has proven to help students, and some feel it would be unfair to take that away from the No. 1 student or others near the top of the class.

“The question is, ‘how do you help all kids while minimizing the disadvantage for all?’” he said.

One possible scenario, said Chamberlin, is establishing a class rank policy for seniors only, and only for scholarship purposes for the top 10 students.

Though, like Bow, Chamberlin said the district considered eliminating valedictorian and salutatorian, the most recent recommendation to the school board includes the distinctions.

“There is something powerful about being at graduation and having the two strongest academic students speak to the community about what they’ve learned and what they believe is important,” said Chamberlin. “That, to me, is a stronger message than the alternative.”