DISD changes to ranking system for high schools frustrates students, parents
By Emma Lloyd, 11th grade, Woodrow Wilson High School
School may not have been in session over the summer, but students at Woodrow Wilson High School in Dallas were still getting lessons in how to stand up for themselves. This past April, Dallas Independent School District (DISD) implemented a change that drastically affected the class rank of students, including a class of seniors who would graduate in a few short weeks.
Woodrow students rallied against DISD all summer long, and finally saw the fruits of their labor in late June, when rank returned to the system they had operated under for the entirety of their high school careers. But it seems the fight is not over.
A new system was recently announced, with changes to the four-year strong system of class rank calculation.
According to DISD’s website, “Under the old ranking system, a student’s rank calculation was based on a student’s top 24 course credits, no matter the subject. Under the new ranking system, rank calculation is based on a student’s top 15 eligible core courses that are also part of a student’s graduation requirement.” The classes that will count toward rank moving forward are in subjects like science and math, removing subjects like art or language. The goal, it seems, would be to level the playing field across the district, but at schools like Woodrow, the changes threaten the overall educational experience.
Woodrow seniors are spared this time around, but junior, sophomore, and freshmen students would see their advanced coursework, taken largely to better class rank, basically erased from all class rank calculations. Woodrow students are again taking up the fight against the district for the ranks they have rightfully earned.
“It’s as if the rules of the game were changed in the third quarter,” said Harper Jones, Woodrow Junior. She’s not the only one who thinks this way.
“All the work I’ve done in the past two years, all my [Advanced Placement] elective classes, don’t count anymore,” says Nithya Gehani, another Woodrow junior among the many impacted in her class. “It’s not fair for DISD to tell us, when we’re more than halfway done with high school, that they’re changing the rank system.”
The changes to rank calculation also anger many DISD teachers who will see their subjects disincentivized, including higher-level art, language, and dance. The “eligible core courses” counted by DISD include only basic “courses in mathematics, ELA, science, and social studies,’’ according to DISD’s website.
“Students will be discouraged from taking these [classes]…I think they are devaluing students’ education [in these electives],” asserted Teresita Romero-Gonzalez, an International Baccalaureate (IB) Spanish teacher at Woodrow.
Other teachers, including AP Art History teacher Miranda Korschun, agreed they will be affected by this change. She says students will “be torn between focusing on the four core-classes that affect rank, and their passion subjects like the visual arts, music, and other, more specific areas of study in the AP and IB programs. This change is a very disappointing turn away from a culture of academic rigor.”
DISD’s Chief Academic Officer Ivonne Durant said the goal of the changes is to level the playing field for students throughout the district.
“The new class rank system will level the playing field and provide equal opportunity for all students to succeed,” Durant said. “ I am satisfied with what we created and remain committed to the new system as a way to ensure equity for all students.”
Durants said students at schools like Woodrow will eventually see the advantages of the system.
Students and parents at DISD schools across the district want to make sure they never operate under that new system in the first place, and are preparing to rally against the district for their cause.
“This is more than a fight for class rank. It’s a fight for fairness,” says Jones.
To find more information, visit the Dallas ISD Counseling Services website at www.dallasisd.org/counselingservices.
