The superintendent of Chapel Hill/Carrboro schools is seeking a legislator to sponsor a bill to let districts opt out of the state requirement that class ranking be listed on transcripts.
Superintendent Tom Forcella said the district no longer wants to include it on local transcripts because students are putting too much emphasis on achieving the highest rank.
“What came to our attention from students and parents were students were being negatively impacted by class rank,” Forcella said. “They were taking courses just to raise their class rank.”
He said instead of these students following their passion, whether it be music or sports, some were taking extra Advanced Placement courses in order to boost their GPAs.
What a shame that the superintendent is seeking to discourage those students who are striving to be the very best they can be. An 11th-grader, Alexis Parvey, disagrees with the superintendent.
“It pushes you to work harder,” Parvey said. “If you don’t want to be a part of class rank you don’t want to try as hard, but for the students who work their butts off all school year long, all four years of high school, they deserve to be high up on the class rank.”
It takes a high school student to explain to the superintendent the value of competition.
