<p>As someone said earlier- squishy.
I remember years ago when my old high school did rank students, and was on 4.0 scale results alone. A few people in special ed. taking 6th grade work rated higher class rank some A-B students who were taking college prep courses.
There was the expected bruhaha- Honors courses people, college prep people, general education people, everyone felt there should be a better system than only looking at final gpa. Is 3.7 with a couple Honors better than 4.0 of college prep but no honors? Is 3.6 college prep better than 4.0 of a general curriculum? So many degrees of difficulty…
School finally decided on no rankings.</p>