Class rank...an example of higher education adapting to K-12 policies and practices.
Myth: High schools must adapt to the way higher education operates.
Reality: When high schools change the information they're willing to provide about their graduates, higher education will eventually adapt.
Case in point:
Applicants to University of Iowa, Iowa State University, and University of Northern Iowa who graduate from high schools that do track class rank will continue to be assessed under the original formula. Only those students without class rank will assessed using the new model.
But that number is growing. About 31.6 percent of freshmen across the three regent schools in fall 2013 didn’t have a class rank.
The board charged its staff to create a standard alternate admission calculation for those without class rank because each university has developed a different approach for assessing those applicants
What would happen if high schools stopped calculating grade point average or issuing letter grades?