The school’s system for calculating class rank is broken.
There was a shift about a decade ago that moved the cut-off to finalize class rank from after the 5th six weeks to after the 3rd six weeks.
Senioritis is a contagion affecting most seniors making education and learning an uphill battle already.
With the shift to class rank being finalized after the end of the first semester, seniors adopt the perspective that the second semester does not matter and they blow it off.
This creates frustration on several levels as many students still need to prepare for both IB and AP tests, but they are already checked out.
If class rank was still up for grabs through the 5th six weeks, that would at least motivate students to keep working and paying attention…at least a little bit.
It would also help them prepare for the IB and AP tests as many of those tests begin at the beginning of May and the 6th six weeks is more about maintenance and perseverance while the proverbial light can be seen at the end of the tunnel.
The argument for the change was to make things easier for certification, but that process does not take long as it is done through a computer program with relative ease.
It is understandable that the cut-off has to be prior to the completion of the 6th six weeks to give the graduation speakers the opportunity to prepare and give time to create the program for graduation, but the end of the first semester seems premature.
When the class rank continues to change after the first semester many students may feel slighted that they are not recognized at graduation with the appropriate honors.
After putting in so much hard work for the past 13 years, many seniors need extrinsic motivation to make it through the final push.
COVID and the Texas Snowpocolipse did not do seniors any favors either. What has been the norm in the past for senioritis and apathy has been magnified by both events.
Seniors need the motivation and teachers deserve for them to pay attention through the entirety of their senior year.