Waterford’s class ranking system is costing students upwards of $80,000.
The system, built upon weighted GPA, is determined “by ordering the members of a class by Quality Point Average in all academic classes. The five academic areas are comprised of courses in English, Mathematics, History, Science, and World Language,” according the school’s Program of Studies.
The deal breaker is World Language.
Freshman year students have four options: French II advanced, Latin II advanced, American Sign Language (ASL) advanced, or Spanish II honors/advanced.
The problem is the honors credit students taking Spanish are able to receive.
According to that same Program of Studies, at the end of the semester, students who maintain an A+ ranking (97% or above) in an honors class will receive 21 points, students who maintain an A ranking will receive 20 points, and students who maintain an A- ranking will receive 19 points. The trend continues the lower the grade.
In advanced classes, however, students who maintain an A+ ranking throughout the semester will receive 18 points, then 17, 16, and so on depending upon the grade.
Best case scenario, students who manage to obtain an A+ at the end of the semester in advanced courses will still be an entire three points behind those who managed to do so in an honors class. This isn’t even to mention that there are two semesters in the school year, meaning that students taking an honors class will actually be an entire six points behind.
How does this correlate to the 80 grand?
The University of Connecticut offers its Presidential Scholarship Award to those students ranked one or two in their class—Valedictorian or Salutatorian. The award provides free tuition to students, saving them that $80,000.
At the top of class rank, those six points lost to circumstances a French, Latin, or ASL student can’t control isn’t fair.
Some of the brightest and most studious are in these classes. To rank them lower for something they have no say in isn’t right—it’s not equitable.
Everyone in education deserves equality of opportunity.
In the past three years, only two graduating non-Spanish students have been Valedictorian or Salutatorian.
However, it turns out that the sole French student to receive the title of Valedictorian was given the extra credit opportunity his freshman year to do extra assignments and subsequently present them to the Board of Education to be considered for the honors credit, which he did end up receiving.
Therefore, the outlier excluded, the highest rank a French student has been able to achieve since the change to only offering an advanced class is Salutatorian.
When I went to the Board of Education meeting on October 31 to speak on this issue, I was met with mixed responses. Some members seemed receptive to my complaints while others seemed to write it off as none other than an annoyance.
I’m left to wonder who has the best interests of their students at heart. It amazes me how long they’ve let such an issue fester when the school, in recent years, has been so demanding from its teachers and administration on equity training—equality of opportunity.
Despite what it may seem, I’m not merely here to complain that one advanced class ruined my high school career or is leaving me with massive college debt. I don’t want to come across as narcissistic, though I’m sure some will still come to such a conclusion.
What I am here to do, however, is tell the truth.
And the truth is that this whole thing sucks. That’s the brutal, honest truth.
Myself put aside, a number of kids the past three years have lost the opportunity of receiving the honor of Valedictorian or Salutatorian all because of the system’s inequity.
Something needs to change, and I see three viable solutions:
First, the French II, Latin II, and ASL classes are revised to offer the honors credit.
Second, the Spanish II class is lowered to only having the advanced credit, leveling the playing field.
Or third, the Board of Education reinstates the precedent they set four years ago when they offered the extra credit opportunity for the advanced world language classes to be bumped up to an honors credit.
The last option seems the most logical, but what do I know? I’m just a kid that took French II advanced his freshman year of high school, not knowing the consequences that one stupid advanced credit would take on my chances at saving my mom and dad with three younger siblings behind me an entire eighty thousand dollars.
I’ve tried my best to change not only for my own sake, but for the sake of integrity in academics.
For the sake of the hundreds of French and Latin and ASL students that deserve better.
