Class
rank system is getting a hard look
Some districts believe it
represents students unfairly and are dropping it
Monday, December 05, 2005 • BY JENNIFER WEISS •
Star-Ledger Staff
Mark Hoffer is a solid B-plus student and
a star football player.
But with a less-than-stellar class rank
on his record, the Hillsborough High School senior, his
parents and his coach worry that top schools may not
bite.
So they are campaigning to have his class
rank -- Mark Hoffer said he was somewhere in the top third
of his class of more than 600 -- removed from his
record.
"We move to areas like this because of
the education, and you figure that would help a kid's
future, not hinder it. And now, all of a sudden, it's sort
of playing against you," said his mother, Sandra
Baumel.
She and Mark's dad, John Hoffer, have a
hearing before the Hillsborough school board
tonight.
While most New Jersey high schools still
rank students, some have stopped, said Frank Belluscio, a
spokesman for the New Jersey School Boards
Association.
"The feeling is by ranking the students,
it would put some at a disadvantage and actually present a
misperception of their actual academic achievement," said
Belluscio. The School Boards Association itself does not
have a position on the issue, he said.
The New Jersey Department of Education
does not collect data on class rank, and therefore is not
aware how many of the state's 642 schools use rankings, a
spokeswoman said.
The board of the high-performing
Hillsborough Township School District has considered the
question before, and formed a committee to study the current
policy.
While the committee has met several times
since September, it is still collecting information from 35
schools that do not rank students. The chairman of the
committee, Ed McNeil, who is also the director of guidance
at Hillsborough High, said a decision on the policy may be
made by February.
Rick Mantz, the head coach of Hoffer's
football team, said the issue is a "bureaucratic nightmare"
since he first brought it up to the high school's guidance
office a decade ago.
"These kids right now are going to be
denied admission to schools because we can't get ourselves
squared away," Mantz said. "I'm extremely disappointed and I
don't think we're doing our job. Mark Hoffer is a heck of a
football player. He's an outstanding student."
Mantz said a recruiter for the University
of Pennsylvania recently told him Hoffer -- a defensive end
and offensive tackle with SAT scores of 1100 -- would have a
great shot at admission if his class rank did not appear on
his transcript.
"It's that cut and dry," Mantz
said.
The university's dean of admissions was
not available for comment due to approaching early-decision
deadlines.
Several schools in the Hillsborough area
do not rank students, including Bridgewater-Raritan,
Hunterdon Central, West Windsor-Plainsboro, Watchung Hills
and Montgomery Township.
Montgomery High School stopped ranking
students some 10 years ago, said Hillary Charney, the
school's supervisor of guidance.
"We didn't feel it was a good thing for
the kids, because the school is so competitive that someone
with an average in the A-minus, B-plus range would not even
be in the top part of the class," Charney said. "So, we just
didn't feel it was showing our students in the best
light."
Not ranking students has not hurt any
student and has helped the middle portion of the class,
Charney said.
Karen Lake, the superintendent of the
Hillsborough district, said class rank must remain on the
transcripts of Hoffer and other students unless the policy
is modified.
"There's one thought that if you work as
hard as you can and you make 'one' or 'two' in your class
you should have the right to network that to whomever you
wish and that should be on your college transcript," Lake
said.
Hoffer and his parents are hoping a
change comes quickly because college application deadlines
are looming.
But any change would come too late for
Matt Donahue.
Donahue, a good football player who
belonged to multiple honor societies and scored a 1530 (out
of 1600) on his SATs while at Hillsborough, was denied
admission to several Ivy League schools because his class
rank appeared on his transcript, his parents
said.
"If I'd have known the full impact of it
at the time, I would have sued," said Donahue's father, Pat.
"I would have been one of those parents up there like, 'My
kid didn't get the part in a play.' Except this is a lot
more serious than a part in a play."
Donahue believes class rank affected both
of his sons -- Matt, who is a freshman at Fordham University
and Ryan, who is studying at the Rochester Institute of
Technology on a fast track for an MBA.
While both received an excellent
education at Hillsborough and are happy at their respective
colleges, there is no way class rank can be determined
fairly when some teachers don't teach as well as others, Pat
Donahue said.
"Yes, they got a very good education,"
Donahue said. "But was it more or less than anyone else's
education?"
Jennifer Weiss works in the Hunterdon County bureau. She
may be reached at jweiss@starledger.com or (908) 782-8326.
© 2005 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with
permission.
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