The Board of Education of Anne Arundel County will begin discussing a change in the grading policy that would eliminate class rank for high school students at its next meeting, scheduled for April 3, 2019.
The change comes before the Board at the suggestion of Vice President and student Board Member Josie Urrea and after review by the Board’s Policy Committee. Elimination of class rank would also bring an end to valedictorian and salutatorian status for high school seniors. The changes being proposed would be effective with students entering Grade 9 in the 2021-2022 school year.
The Board last considered removing class rank along with the valedictorian and salutatorian honors when the cum laude honors system, which recognizes a wider array of students for outstanding academic work, was instituted in 2017.
At that time, the Board decided against Superintendent George Arlotto’s recommendation to make the change. Dr. Arlotto’s recommendation was based in part on the cum laude system, but was also aimed at reducing stressors for students who tailor their schedules almost exclusively in an effort to achieve valedictorian or salutatorian status.
This will be the first of at least three reviews of the policy before the Board. Board policy calls for a 30-day comment period after the first review of the policy, followed by two subsequent readings at public meetings.
The Board will meet in a public session at 8:30 a.m. for the sole purpose of voting to immediately go into closed session, during which time it will discuss confidential matters as permitted by the Maryland Open Meetings Act including, but not limited to, legal advice, personnel, and negotiations. Closed session is not open to the public. The public session of the meeting will resume at 10 a.m.
A complete agenda for the meeting accompanies this news release. More information on agenda items will be posted on the AACPS website in the Board Docs section under the Board of Education tab.
The general session of Wednesday’s Board meeting will be broadcast live on AACPS-TV, which can be found on Channel 96 on Comcast and Broadstripe, and Channel 36 on Verizon. High definition broadcasts can be seen on Channel 996 on Comcast, Channel 496 on Broadstripe, and Channel 1961 on Verizon. Rebroadcasts are scheduled for 7:00 p.m. the day after the meeting and 2:00 p.m. on subsequent Sundays.
The meeting can also be viewed live on the Internet here.