<p>Any form of ranking puts some students at a disadvantage. The only question is whose interests come first.</p>
<p>My daughter attends a small charter school within a large public school district, which permits her to take individual classes on her own schedule She is a junior in a class of about 200 kids, though she has never even met any of the others. Most of the kids are homeschooled by their parents— the parents make up the curriculum, and give the grades. Most are not on college bound. My daughter is an exceptional athlete in an individual sport. Like many such athletes these days, she takes distance learning classes in order to permit her the blocks of time time and the scheduling freedom she needs to pursue her sport at the highest level (she is top-ranked in the country for her age). These distance learning classes (we pick and choose among the various schools for different courses) are generally very difficult and thorough (eg Univ of Nebraska, Univ of North dakota, Univ of Missouri), and have been around since long before the influx of “internet courses”. The schools give her the grades which are then transferred to our local charter school. The problem is her transcript from our charter school lists her class rank as something like 81 out of 201, even though her GPA is about 3.9, because the other kids in the school are not only NOT on a college prep track, in many cases their curriculum is not even close to a traditional high school tract. Thus, the other kids among whom she is ranked are truly “home-schooled” in the sense their moms do evey aspect of the schooling (The moms I’ve met who do this alawys give their kids "A"s), where as my D is home-schooled in the sense she is doing distance learning. She is applying to Ivies, and has good reactions from coaches (duh–she is #1). But reading about the AI, and the importance of class rank, I fear she is doomed by the company she keeps (or doesn’t) in this charter school and its ranking system… HELP!!!</p>
<p>2924SW-
She will be able to tell her unique story with her essays, her list of ECs, the transcript of college sponsored courses she has taken, and the recommendations from her coaches and others. If she also tests well, I think she will have many wonderful opportunities.</p>
<p>Does the charter school have a “school profile” that explains the structure and “grading” system? If not, I suggest you spearhead an effort to develop one.</p>
<p>2924SW -
If there already is a profile, I think it would be good if you could find a way to add a component to the “high school profile” for this charter school - the profile could include a histogram showing the distribution of the GPA. Seriously. Display the range of GPA graphically with fine increments so you can see how many >3.7 and less than or equal to 3.9;how many >3.8 and less than or equal to 3.9; how many > 3.9 and less than or equal to 4.0. Histogram of GPA is often seen as part of a high school’s profile and in this case, the fact that 40% of the class has a GPA in the > 3.9 and less than or equal to 4.0 would be useful for colleges to see I think.</p>