For the past six years college and career specialists in the TUHSD have been working to eliminate class ranks based on grade point averages. District leaders feel that class ranks could “[put] students at a disadvantage if admissions officers at their college of choice use class rank as a screening tool,” according to an official statement on the district website. The “absence of class rank…forces [admissions departments] to take a closer, more holistic look at the students.”
According to head counselor Grace Aviles, the TUHSD schools have been discussing the change over the past five years and hope that the 2017 graduating class will be the last to have the system in use. The way to reach this goal is through “an agreement from the community about [the] best practice and what is best for the students,” said Aviles.