Virginia Beach schools did not follow division policy when they included class rank on transcripts, which may affect how colleges view a student.
The division stopped the practice this month after parents raised concerns and discussions among staff and members of the School Board.
Superintendent Donald Robertson told the board via email on Dec. 8 that it happened because of a “misunderstanding” of state code and School Board policy. Going forward, he wrote, the division will remove class rank from transcripts but will calculate it when requested while not adding it to a transcript.
School Board Chairperson Kathleen Brown read part of the email during a meeting on Dec. 9, noting that she wanted to make sure students had this information while some are in the process of applying to colleges.
“I think that it's fair for the community to know exactly what it is that our division is going to be doing,” Brown said during a meeting earlier that day.
In 2018, Virginia Beach adopted a new Latin honors system, eliminated class rank reporting and did away with valedictorian and salutatorian titles. The system “emulates the way most colleges report academic success,” the division announced at the time.
Valedictorian and salutatorian were restored to the policy in 2023.
The schools were to provide class rank upon request by the student or parent or when required for academic or military applications.
School Board members were scheduled to discuss the policy during a meeting this month, but it was removed from the agenda. On Thursday, the board’s policy review committee agreed to table the discussion.
“We’re keeping it, as is, the original policy we adopted in 2023,” School Board Vice Chairperson Carolyn Weems, who leads the committee, said during an interview Thursday. “We’ll provide class rank only when requested.”
School Board Member Alveta Green, who oversaw transcripts and class rank while a division administrator, said removing class rank was meant to help students.
“There are students who have gone through the early college admissions process, and I hope that this miscommunication with class rank on the transcript does not negatively impact this group,” Green said.
Suzanne Saltisiak, a parent of a student who is looking at colleges, raised the issue in October of rank “automatically” appearing on high school transcripts.
It can “disadvantage students in college admissions where schools without ranking systems are viewed more favorably,” she wrote in an email to the board.
Intricacies related to the schools’ academies, advanced classes and how GPAs are determined can skew what rank means, she told WHRO.
“It’s not an accurate rank,” Saltisiak said. “It’s not an accurate portrayal of students, but when it’s on a transcript, it works against the majority of our Virginia Beach students.”
Virginia Beach City Public Schools is a member of the Hampton Roads Educational Telecommunications Association, which holds WHRO's license.