Recently, you may have received information suggesting that North East ISD somehow changed its class rank policy without informing parents, and that this has negatively impacted current high school seniors. North East ISD strongly values community participation and open communication regarding the education of its students. We would like to take this opportunity to respond to the recent information sent to you about class rank.

One of the District’s main goals has always been to prepare its students for success in college. Many research studies, as well as universities themselves, have indicated that the strongest indicator of future college success is the intensity and rigor of the academic coursework completed by students while in high school. It is with this in mind that North East ISD created its cumulative rank policy, which rewards those students who take more courses in Math, Science, English, Social Studies and Foreign Language as well as more academically rigorous courses, such as AP and Pre-AP courses.

In the fall of 2006, Dr. Richard Middleton, Superintendent, formed a class rank policy review committee in response to community concerns about the cumulative ranking method. The committee, which was comprised of parents and campus personnel from throughout the NEISD community, met several nights a week over a period of three months to review all aspects of the class rank policy. After much hard work and intense deliberation, the committee recommended a number of revisions to the rank policy, which were approved by the Board of Trustees in the spring of 2007. A complete description of all of the revisions considered and approved by the committee is included here on the District’s Web site. One of the overall goals of the committee was not to deprive any students of the benefits from work they had completed prior to the revisions, which is why the committee decided against making the revisions retroactive for the students already in high school.
 
After the Board’s approval of the committee’s revisions, the District immediately committed to ensuring that all NEISD parents and students were informed of the revisions. Included in the information presented on the Web site regarding class rank is a set of various documents showing all efforts the District undertook to fully communicate the revisions to the policy, including customized letters that were mailed to students’ homes. This was to ensure that parents and students had enough opportunity to make any schedule changes they felt were necessary for their academic progress. Indeed, many students made adjustments to their schedules in response to the revisions. 

As far as current rankings for graduating seniors and juniors is concerned, please remember that current rankings are based on the cumulative rank points students have accrued through their prior coursework, and not their GPA. These rank points reflect the academic rigor that a particular student has taken, and those students who have accumulated higher rank points will have taken more courses in Math, Science, English, Social Studies and Foreign Language as well as more academically rigorous courses, such as AP and Pre-AP courses. You should also know that many colleges and universities actually have their own formulas for computing a student’s grade point average in connection with admission decisions, which do not take the District’s system into account at all. In addition, the District has informed colleges and universities about its particular cumulative rank policy.

Because many current graduating seniors, and even current juniors, have already begun or even completed the college admission process, making any substantive changes to the current class rank system for those students would result in wholesale changes to current ranks. Doing so would serve to effectively punish those students who have pursued their entire NEISD academic high school careers based on the cumulative rank policy, not to mention discounting the hard work put in by many parents who gave up much of their time to work with the rank review committee. Accordingly, the North East ISD cannot recommend any new changes to the class rank policy.

Thank you for your time, and please remember that NEISD wants nothing more than for all of its students to go on to succeed in college.

A listing of meeting dates and copies of the presentations are available through the links at the left. Parents who are seeking additional information about North East's rank policy can send an e-mail to rankfeedback@neisd.net.