Mary Weille spoke out at the Board of Ed meeting on April 28 and asked that the board consider reversing the district's current policy on reporting class rank to colleges while sending a student's transcripts. She argued that in a district such as Garden City, where the number of students with a GPA over 90 (as evidenced by the number of scholar athletes awarded at that very meeting) is so incredibly high, a student with an average of a 92 could find themselves ranked below the top 10 percent. By providing the standing of the students, Weille, followed by numerous other parents in attendance, argued that colleges seeking to be able to boast recruiting students from the top 10 percent of their high schools will overlook students with excellent academic records from GCHS.

I must agree with Weille and her fellow parents. Multiple students at the awards ceremony had achieved a GPA of 100. How would one determine class rank fairly with multiple perfect GPAs? At my high school the classes were often unweighted and when weighted, certainly insufficiently. Students with a B+ average who had taken multiple advanced placement courses found themselves ranked below students who had an A average in less academic courses. Many schools have eliminated class rank altogether and even those that keep this ritual of lining up the student body no longer report the numbers to colleges.

It would be, in my opinion, beneficial for schools across Long Island to re-evaluate how students are tested and their grades processed. The current system does not adequately measure a student's abilities. As families spend hundreds of dollars on test prep schools and tutors, the socio-economic factors measured seem to consistently outweigh actual intelligence and ability.

"...because there's a system in place gentlemen --one that constantly evaluates our youths and our lives with no application or relativity. A 4.0 will succeed, a 2.5 will not. Below a 750 on the SATs and certain doors will close; not quality of person, sense of humor, heart, these are not on any application. It's all about your numbers and although, yes, definitely Landon Brice had 'it,' that intangibility of soul that kept him in school, that could allow him to effect the quality of our lives for the better, that could lead people to where they wished to go, Landon Brice couldn't pass through the numbers. The numbers that tell a young person at 18 'you're through...'" Mrs. Doe, Millenium

And so, I commend Mary Weille and her fellow parents for confronting the status quo and asking that things be looked at from a fresh perspective for the possible betterment of the students of the Garden City School District.