CONNELLSVILLE, Pa. — The decision to eliminate class rank at Connellsville Area Senior High School was made two years ago. It goes into effect with this year’s graduating class of 2026.
But those incoming seniors don’t want to lose the class rank system and are urging the board to change its mind.
Benjamin Metzger just graduated from Connellsville this year. He was 12th in his class of 306.
“It’s a reward,” Metzger said. “There’s not many academic rewards anymore. It’s mostly athletic, and with this being taken away, there’s even fewer academic rewards.”
This year’s seniors said the decision to forego class rank will hurt academics for all students.
“I feel like this will stop students from taking AP [Advanced Placement] classes, because they won’t feel the need to strive for first place,” said Morgan Nicholson, a senior.
“My senior year, I took six AP courses. My junior year, I took three,” Metzger said. “I don’t think I would have taken as many.”
The district said the decision was made in 2023 after a full year of research and public input.
Superintendent Rich Evans said the board found eliminating class rank wouldn’t hurt college admissions, awards or scholarships.
“The decision to remove class rank was made in 2023 as a result of a culmination of research and discussion spanning over a year’s time,” Evans said in a statement. “The research and debate included the former superintendent, school board, high school principals, guidance counselors, and various student groups. Because the students in 10th and 11th grade at that point had already scheduled their classes under the old system, the decision was made to eliminate class rank effective with the class of 2026. At that time the group took a look at what other area high schools were doing as well as what impact class rank had on college admissions, awards, and scholarships. In the end, it was found that eliminating class rank would not have an adverse effect on those things.
“Many colleges and universities expressed pursuing a student who was well-rounded, was involved in service groups, extracurriculars, etc. over the number of honors or AP classes someone had on their transcript,” Evans said. “Class rank is not a standard, equitable comparison if you are looking at a high school that graduates 600 students versus a high school that grades 100 students as well as those districts offering a wide-range of differing courses that can not always be compared to across district lines. Further, it was found that in some cases students were feeling forced to load their classes with weighted, honors, or advanced-placement courses instead of taking classes that may be a passion for them or make them more well-rounded such as band, chorus, art, technology, and other elective courses. Some students were requesting to skip their lunch period in order to schedule an additional weighted course. Another one of the concerns that were voiced was the difference in quality and rigor of online advanced placement courses versus in-person advanced placement classes. In some extreme situations, there was academic impropriety alleged or found among some students vying for top spots. In the end, it was the collective decision of the district to eliminate class rank, allow students to feel free to expose themselves to a wide-range of curriculum, be more well-rounded, pursue their passions, while still allowing highly-motivated, driven students to challenge themselves with as many high-level, rigorous, advanced placement courses that they would choose to take.”
“They don’t feel the need to have a competition on academics anymore,” Nicholson said.
Instead of class rank, the district has moved to a cum laude system to honor more than just the top 10.
The cum laude title requires a 3.8 GPA. Magna cum laude requires a 4.0 with at least two AP classes, and summa cum laude requires a 4.15 GPA with four AP classes.
To fight back, seniors started a petition in hopes that the school board would reconsider. Right now, it has more than 1,000 signatures.
Board member Robert Renzi responded to that petition.
“Two years ago we did a study of local high schools and colleges on the value of class rank within our district,” he said in a statement.
“On the recommendation of our high school principal and superintendent, it was concluded that there were better ways to recognize larger groups of students who had high achievement levels during high school based on GPA’s. Colleges look at GPA’s first, student activities, SAT scores and community involvement as more valuable indicators of a student’s character and academic achievement.
“Class rank was considered by some but not one of the top determining factors.
“The inequity of class rank lies in the inability to compare competing student achievement when you have many schools graduating 500 plus students and many graduating less than 100 students.
“Also, some students were faced with the pressure of taking every AP and weighted class available and ignoring many non-weighted classes such as the Arts, Fitness class, digital media and other technology classes. They were also forced to take some online cyber class to help their averages. Our counselors have no way of monitoring on who is actually doing the work in these online cyber classes.
“I did not receive one complaint 2 years ago when these changes were published in the local newspaper. We let the sophomores and juniors finish high school under the old format of using class rank and having valedictorian. 2025 was the last year for students having a class rank. If necessary we could give colleges a very close idea of where students would rank under our new format.
“If our board would decide to reinstate class rankings, it could only begin with this incoming freshmen class and we wouldn’t have another valedictorian until 2029.
“I hope this explains a little about why we changed our student achievement awards. But our board will discuss the changes requested.”
“It makes the students feel they’re not supported by the school board,” said senior Julian Smith. “The board is supposed to be the people who support the students and do what’s best for them, but we don’t feel supported when we heard it was being taken away.”
“We’re going to fight for what we see as right for our school district and for the future classes of Connellsville Area High School,” Nicholson added.
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