The topic of class ranks is widely debated among students, with some students believing it causes too much stress.  

The debate isn’t new as a decade ago, the National Association for College Admission Counseling said nearly 40 percent of high schools at that time had either stopped ranking students or at the very least, didn’t share those numbers with colleges.

Now, Frisco ISD is one of those school districts that has changed its system.

In June, district leaders announced a new system after consulting with student leaders.

“Well that was one of the big issues with my student advisory committee. I had 27 students in my student advisory committee and one of the overriding issues they wanted to deal with was rank and GPA. They shared numerous personal stories of friends and classmates about the stress that was caused with the rank and GPA system,” superintendent Mike Waldrip said. “We spent all of last year working with that group, teachers counselors and administrations on how to revamp and reshape the rank and GPA system. We took a lot of the suggestions from the student group and put them in place. So I think it will help alleviate a lot of stress for our students this year and moving forward.”

The district said the reason for this change is so colleges will consider students based on their entire resume rather than just class rank.

Starting this year, the district will stop publishing class rank beyond the top 10 percent of each graduating class.

For more information on the new rank system, check out the Frisco ISD website.