Obviously, they won’t do it at such highschools.
The goal would be to have a higher rank and possible valedictorian-ship within the high school
Unlikely. Colleges would need to recalculate GPA of the entire class of the high school to re-rank the student.
Yes, some do.
For example, there was a recent post here from a very upset parent; her child took uninteresting and unhelpful courses to game for the higher GPA to get the valedictorian. The school made a small policy change in the child’s senior year and the child was going to loose the prize after all the sacrifices. They played the game and lost the bet. Personally I think it was very unwise as the cost was too great and couldn’t be justified even if the child won the valedictorian-ship.
Personally I agree.