Todd Stanley 
Todd Stanley used the eight-way tie at the 2019 Scripps National Spelling Bee to argue that schools should end class rank and the single valedictorian in favor of honors tiers. A new section after the original text sets out both sides of the debate and what a school needs to check before changing its policy.
A couple of months ago eight participants at the Scripps National Spelling Bee were crowned co-champions. There had been ties before, but never eight of them. These eight spellers went through 20 rounds without making a mistake. Eventually, the organizers of the competition admitted they no longer had any words that were going to challenge these amazing competitors and declared it an eight-way tie.
Is Winning Everything?
There is a valuable lesson in this. We live in a “best culture” where we recognize the best in everything, even things where it is difficult to determine this—such as the best picture or the best athlete in a team sport. We celebrate the best and by doing so, give short shrift to individuals who have worked hard to get to the levels they are at. Isn’t it a pretty big accomplishment to receive a bronze medal at the Olympics? Hasn’t a team had a lot of success if they make it to the playoffs but do not win? Does one have to be the best in order to have accomplished something amazing?
Recognizing All Participants
I am a big proponent for academic competitions and feel that everyone has their skills and strengths. Some of these are athletic in nature, some of them are academic. In a school environment where we are constantly acknowledging students for their athletic prowess with trophies in the entry hall, banners hanging in the gym, and even signs at the city limits when someone achieves state champions, why isn’t there more about academic achievements? The morning announcements are rife with sporting accomplishments and yet you do not hear as many of these referring to academics, the thing schools should be touting the most. After all, that is their major purpose for existing.
Honoring All Competitors
As much as possible I try to take students to academic competitions. Model United Nations, MATHCOUNTS, Invention Convention, Destination Imagination, Word Masters, and a slew of others. I want students to recognize that they have academic strengths by displaying them in a public forum and be honored for them. The thing that I always struggle with however is that at these competitions we must crown a single champion. There were times I would be sitting in the stands, beaming with pride at the awesome skit my Destination Imagination Team had produced, only to watch their excitement be crushed when they weren’t deemed 1st place finishers. I often thought, why do we need to narrow it down to one? Why can’t we honor all of those who did an excellent job? Same with the spelling bees I have judged. There are many worthy spellers, but due to a combination of luck and chance, only one wins.
This is what we teach our students though when we partake in class rankings and award a single valedictorian who had the highest GPA. It creates an unhealthy competition that pits students against one another rather than having them challenge themselves. I think class rankings are an outdated practice especially given that not all GPAs are created the same. It rewards people for taking those classes where they might get an easy A and punishes those students who take a more challenging class and might not receive highest marks. It’s a game that we have taught our children to play. They can hardly be held at fault for playing by the rules that schools have set out.
Defining Academic Excellence
My suggestion is not to get rid of the competition, but rather to have people compete against themselves, not others. By no means am I suggesting that everyone gets a trophy, the opposite extreme of what our society has become. I am suggesting that you honor students for producing great academic work. When students graduate instead of singling out a single student or even having a top ten, have a recognition system for various levels of academic excellence. It would look something like this:
• Cum Laude – awarded to students with grade point average of 3.75 – 3.99 (Usually about 10% of seniors)
• Magna Cum Laude – awarded to students with grade point average of 4.00 – 4.19 (Usually about 9% of seniors)
• Summa Cum Laude – awarded to students with grade point average of 4.20 or higher (Usually about 9% of seniors)
This honors roughly the top 30% of students, students who worked hard and deserve recognition for this achievement. Because the criteria is made public before the school year even begins, it allows students to push themselves to achieve the needed GPA rather than trying to be higher than fellow students.
Abolishing Class Rank
There are many districts across the United States that are abolishing the practice of class rankings because it has little if any practical benefit. It does not have much significance to college admissions offices. The use of an extrinsic motivation such as grades promotes a more superficial approach to learning, becoming more about the grade. This then diminishes student engagement. Research by educational psychologists also suggests that it leads students to prefer less-challenging tasks. The most important reason that class rank should be gotten rid of is because it isn’t a direct measure of student achievement.
Recognizing Academic Success
The people running the spelling bee could have made the children continue another 20 rounds until a single champion was crowned. By doing this they would have been diminishing the accomplishments of those who had already made it through 20 rounds. Instead they chose to recognize the great achievement of these students. Schools need to take a page from this and begin to recognize students for their academic accomplishments rather than where they stack up against fellow students. Class rankings should be E-L-I-M-I-N-A-T-E-D.
Read more from Todd Stanley at edCircuit and The Gifted Guy.
Should schools abolish class rank? What the debate covers and what to check first
Todd Stanley’s 2019 article uses an unusual spelling bee result to argue that schools should abolish class rank and replace the single valedictorian with public tiers of academic honors. Stanley is not alone in this view, and the debate is older than the article. This section looks at the main arguments on each side, what one major education journal reported, and what a school should check before it changes a policy that affects graduating students.
The case for ending rank
Stanley’s argument has three parts. Rank pits students against one another and not against their own earlier work, GPAs are not equal across schools or courses, and rank does little for college admissions. An article by Sarah McKibben in Educational Leadership in September 2017 reported similar concerns. According to the article, rank can encourage unhealthy competition and gaming of the system. McKibben cited a Pennsylvania district where students were reportedly bullied over rankings and an Omaha district where students chose courses to raise their GPAs, and counselors in Omaha reported that students chose courses based on interest after rank was dropped. The article also noted that rank can disadvantage capable students who sit in the middle of a strong class.
Admissions officers also appear to give rank less weight. McKibben reported that the share of admissions officers calling rank of considerable importance fell from 26 percent in 2006 to 14 percent in 2014, and that a 2016 analysis from the National Association for College Admission Counseling found that fewer than half of American high schools still reported it. These are 2017 figures. More recent data from the National Association for College Admission Counseling’s Factors in the Admission Decision report show that in fall 2023, 5.5 percent of the 183 colleges responding rated class rank of considerable importance, 22.4 percent moderate, 43.2 percent limited and 29.0 percent no importance. That compares with about 14 percent rating it considerably important in 2014.
The case for keeping it, and what rank still touches
The same article described reasons some schools keep rank. In 2017, according to McKibben, states including Texas and Florida used rank for guaranteed admission or scholarships, and military academies required it. These rules differ by state and have changed over time, so a school cannot assume they still apply and should confirm them with its state education agency and the colleges its students most often attend. Supporters of rank also argue that it gives students a clear and familiar standard and rewards sustained effort, a view that deserves a fair hearing even though the evidence in McKibben’s article leans toward ending it.
Stanley’s proposal also invites questions. Stanley’s tiers of Cum Laude, Magna Cum Laude and Summa Cum Laude, set at fixed GPA bands, still depend on how GPAs are calculated, which Stanley describes as uneven across courses. The percentages Stanley gives for how many seniors usually earn each tier are Stanley’s own and are not sourced in the article. A fixed GPA cut-off also leaves students just below it with the same feeling that a rank produces.
A short checklist for a school
- Find out which state programs, scholarships and universities rely on rank, and whether they accept an alternative such as a GPA range or a decile.
- Decide how courses are weighted, because tiers inherit the problems of the GPA underneath them.
- Announce criteria well before the school year, as Stanley recommends, so that students know the standard they are working toward.
- Consider the valedictorian question separately from the ranking question. A school can end ranking and still choose how it honors top academic performance, including recognizing several students.
- Involve students, parents and counselors in the decision, and give families time to ask questions before the first graduating class is affected.
Stanley’s spelling bee example comes from 2019, and readers should treat it as an illustration and not as evidence about schools. The wider evidence in this section comes from a 2017 magazine article that gathers examples and surveys, and it does not amount to a controlled study of what happens to students when rank is dropped. Leaders who read both sources will see that the argument rests on reasonable concerns about competition and fairness, and also that the practical details of state rules, college practice and the GPA itself decide whether a change helps students.
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