In places where class rank is important (e.g. Texas and other places where class rank is heavily weighed for admission and scholarships), can high schools report class rank the following way to reduce rank grubbing?
(A) For class of Y finishing 11th grade, record GPAs for each percentile threshold (top 1% / 99th percentile, top 2% / 98th percentile, ...).
(B) For class of Y+1 finishing 11th grade (a year after class of Y), give each student a percentile rank based on the threshold calculated in (A) above.
I.e. students in the class of Y+1 do not have to engage in rank-grubbing or cutthroat competition against each other, but are only trying to meet the GPA thresholds set by the previous class of Y. Yes, there could be grade-grubbing, but grade-grubbing happens no matter what.
Not sure how to handle scholarships where valedictorian status is required for eligibility or heavily weighted. Perhaps the following:
(C) After the class of Y+1 percentile ranks have been determined, a class of Y+1 student applying for a scholarship which requires or heavily weights valedictorian status may ask his/her counselor whether s/he has valedictorian status. Valedictorian status is not announced or used by the school otherwise.
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