Panther Creek High School is an extremely competitive school in which many students try to get a leg up on one another to earn a better grade, rank, and GPA.

While many people believe competitiveness is a core part of our learning system and motivates students to do better, others think that this competition can end up having the opposite effect: discouraging students. Due to this conflict, PCHS is taking a new approach to class rank and the valedictorian.

PC has decided that instead of giving students a rank that tells them how they compare to other students in their grade they will instead separate students into what is essentially GPA ‘tiers.’ The new system will recognize students with a weighted GPA of 4.25 or higher distinction of summa cum laude. Students with a weighted GPA of 4.0 to 4.249 would receive the distinction of magna cum laude. Students with a weighted GPA of 3.75 to 3.99 could receive the designation of cum laude.

There are many people that both agree and disagree with replacing the old policy. One of the arguments made that support the new system is that people were no longer making decisions based on what they wanted to do with their future but rather they were focused on how they could get ahead. People against the system point out that students work to receive recognition for their hard work and large workload, as Caroline Zuber says, “I feel like it discredits the people who worked so hard to get there.” Students chose to prove themselves by taking these harder classes and taking that recognition away is unfair to them.