<p>Our school district has several selective academic magnet programs, each of which chooses students from either the entire county or half the county. The students who attend the magnets are among the very top students in the county. They represent a substantial fraction of the graduating class of the schools where the magnets are located.</p>
<p>Now consider the case of Johnny, who is not a magnet-caliber student but attends a school that contains a magnet, versus Susie, also not magnet-caliber, who attends a school that does not contain a magnet. Assuming that they take the same courses and get the same grades, Susie will have a much better class rank than Johnny. That’s because the ultra-top students in Susie’s neighborhood don’t go to the neighborhood school – they’re at the magnets. Thus, they don’t compete with Susie for class rank. Meanwhile, poor Johnny attends a school that imported many of those ultra-top students from other neighborhoods. Johnny has to compete not only with the best students from his own neighborhood but with these other top students bused in from many miles away. </p>
<p>Is this artificially induced difference in class rank fair to either Susie or Johnny? Of course not. That’s one of the reasons why our district doesn’t rank.</p>