VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – Class ranks, including the designations of valedictorian and salutatorian, would become a thing of the past if a proposed policy is approved by the Virginia Beach School Board.
In the policy, presented to school board members on March 27, numerical class ranks will no longer be calculated. Instead, the school system will move to a Latin Honors system widely seen in colleges and universities.
That system would designate students with a 3.5-3.75 cumulative grade point average as Cum Laude (with honors), students with a 3.76-3.99 cumulative GPA as Magna Cum Laude (with high honors) and students with a 4.0 and above as Summa Cum Laude (with highest honors).
Any student with a GPA above 3.0 would be considered an honor graduate.
Additionally, class ranks won’t be reported to colleges, universities, scholarships or military applications that request the information. Instead, a percentile rating will be given, along with an explanation of the Latin Honors system.
The changes would begin with the current class of 8th graders expected to graduated in 2022.
