(October 5, 2007) — A proposal made last year at a district principals’ meeting could eliminate the class ranking system from all GUSD high schools. Although there is still disagreement on the issue in the Glendale district, neighboring Pasadena Unified School District has discontinued the use of class rank, while Burbank Unified School District still uses the ranking system. Although the decision is still not final in Glendale, counselor Linda Doll belives that it will probably be enforced soon. According to district offi cials, high school has become an intense competition as to who will get higher grades in their loads of AP courses over the years, and essentially, who will have the highest ranking. Hence, the district decided that the elimination of rank on students’ transcripts would allow students to be less worried about GPA competition and more focused on taking classes they could enjoy, and still get good grades in. Doll, a counselor at Clark since the school first opened, is a self proclaimed “advocate for the students,” who disagrees with the proposal. She believes that the elimination of the class rank will potentially jeopardize students from getting into their college of choice. Students applying to private schools will be disadvantaged because they will not be able to provide schools with a number that sums up a student’s position in their school after four years of work. “Students that are in the top 25 percentile of their class usually apply to private colleges,” Doll said. Counselor Karen Carlson said that class rank is a tool that she’d hate to lose. She believes that when students apply to colleges, their GPAs are so close that the class rank is an important number that allows colleges to see where the student lies in their class. Michael Seaton, the director of instructional support for the GUSD, believes that there is good reasoning behind the removal of the class ranking system. He says that if a school has many students with a GPA, students with ranks in the 30’s and 40’s will not look so great, even though they have work just as hard for a high GPA.