November 19, 2014 at 5:35 p.m.
RHS principal looking at eliminating ranking system
Ditzler says new system would recognize all high-achieving students
RHS principal looking at eliminating ranking system
Principal David Ditzler has offered an alternate proposal that he says would allow the school district to recognize all high-achieving students.
Ditzler told the River News he is investigating the feasibility of eliminating the ranking system and is seeking input from students, staff and the community at large.
The current system is broken, Ditzler said, adding that a new system could be created that would allow for more students to be recognized, while still encouraging students to push themselves to learn all they can while inside the walls of RHS.
"My personal convictions about recognizing just one or two students out of a group of 200 or 300, when I know that 20, 30, 50, 60 kids have worked hard and achieved things that deserve some manner of recognition, is that needs to be looked at," he said.
"Also, and this goes back years and years, is my watching small groups of kids play a game. I know some people will get bent out of shape by my calling it a game, but it's becoming something where students will do what it takes to get the number one GPA versus taking classes that interest them and working as hard as possible because they want to learn."
Ditzler said students are paying too much attention to their ranking and not doing enough to prepare themselves for life after high school.
"What has happened, and this even goes back to when I was a teacher in the 1990s, is that kids will pick and choose courses - or not choose courses - in such a way that they meet graduation requirements and then their GPA is the highest, but when you look at the courses that the student took, you know perhaps there was a little bit of a game that was played," he said.
On the flip side, Ditzler said the current ranking system can result in kids pushing themselves too hard.
"I've seen students challenging themselves in ways that seem a little over the top," he said. "They would have a full set of classes and then they would take additional AP coursework - and not just one or two, but sometimes four or five additional AP classes outside of the normal school day. You see kids that are dragging themselves into school some mornings and you know that they're only getting a couple of hours of sleep because they're trying to fit five or six classes here in the building, and then they're working on this handful of other classes. And when you ask them why they're doing this, they want to make their college application really good."
Ditzler said a new system should be created to highlight the achievements of all of the top students at RHS.
"There is no one student that comes to mind that would be the reason why I would want to do this," he said. "We've got kids going home frustrated because they're trying to be number one and so-and-so took that extra AP class and now there's no chance for them to be number one. To that, I'd say, you know what? You're working hard and you're achieving your very best and I'm proud of you. It's OK if you're third or fourth."
"They want to be number one, but where does that come from?" he added. "Really, if our purpose is that we ensure high levels of learning every day, is there a number one that comes out of that purpose? I don't think so, and that's where I would rather establish standards of high merit and say to our community, look how many kids rose to the challenge and achieved this level of merit."
To be able to recognize all of the district's top achievers, Ditzler said he would like to create a cum laude system similar to the system used by many universities. Cum laude is Latin for "with praise." It is a term reserved for students of distinction at colleges and universities.
"Colleges, for a long time, they've had a valedictorian and they've had the cum laude system, and I just say why don't we just have a cum laude system where kids that rise to a level of high, high merit, let's recognize - whether it's two or five or 12 kids - let's say these kids, they've done a fabulous job and they've achieved what we consider the highest level of merit," he said. "Then, right below that, here's 24 more that were nipping at their heals. And we can have one more layer underneath that where a cum laude system would say look, community of Rhinelander, here's 60-some kids that have pushed themselves and challenged themselves to what we as a school district consider high levels of achievement. I think that is far better at a graduation ceremony than to say here's the one that did the best."
Ditzler said he has been asking for feedback from students, staff and the community. The reaction has been mixed, he said.
"I've talked with two or three parents, I've talked with my department heads and I talked with a group of students (two weeks ago). I simply said, where do you guys see yourselves in all of this? Is this something you could support?" he said.
"The couple parents that I talked to said they thought it was a pretty good idea. The teachers, I don't really have strong feedback yet. A couple really like the valedictorian system. Others have said if we're going to change it, we better not change it capriciously, that we better do a good job with this. They want us to take our time with it, to which I said we are going to take our time with it."
Part of the input-gathering process will be a survey sent to parents.
"What I would like to do is develop a survey and then get that out to all of the parents through our school district website," Ditzler said. "But, honestly, I don't even know if I'm going to do any of this because I'm waiting for the student and teacher feedback to see if this is something I need to go to the parents to get their input."
Ditzler's first discussion was with members of the student council. One of the students he spoke with was Student Council President Logan Sackett. Sackett, a senior, said she is in favor of eliminating the ranking system.
"I like the idea," she said. "As a senior, I've seen my class compete against each other for the number one spot for four years, and it can get ugly. I've seen other classes do it, as well, so if we can get rid of that but still reward for doing well in school, I think it'd be good."
Sackett said she's heard other students talking about the proposal, but doesn't have a clear sense as to whether the majority like the idea of eliminating the ranking system or not.
"There's been other kids around me when I talk about it, but I haven't had someone come up and ask me about it yet," she said. "They just ask me what the latest is, and there really isn't anything. We haven't decided anything. It's just an idea. There's going to be positive and there's going to be negative (feelings toward the idea), but there's really no one way or the other that stands out to me."
One student who is not in favor of the proposal is senior Kylie Hunter, student council liaison to the school board.
"I was appalled," she said of her reaction to Ditzler's proposal. "I don't agree with it at all. I don't think it's a good idea for the school. I think it's outrageous. I think that we need competition, especially in our school here in Rhinelander, to work hard for something. If kids don't have something to work hard for, why work at all? I think that the class rank is a good thing. If you're going to have a student who works hard and takes time out of their schedule to get ahead, then so be it. They're just bettering themselves and, ultimately, the school as a whole."
Any change to the school ranking system would have to be made by the school board.
There is no timetable for when, or if, Ditzler's proposal will be considered by that body.
Marcus Nesemann may be reached at [email protected].
Comments:
You must login to comment.