JACKSON TWP — Seneca Valley is changing the way it calculates class rank and quality point average, or QPA, for students.

Beginning next school year, class rank will be kept internally but not disclosed to students. A valedictorian and salutatorian will still be selected in the third nine weeks.

Matt McKinley, assistant superintendent of secondary instruction, presented the potential changes at the June 5 school board meeting. The changes will be made within an existing policy that the board will vote to revise at its next meeting on Monday.

Seneca Valley is following other area school districts like Pine-Richland, Hampton Township, North Allegheny, Mount Lebanon, Upper St. Clair and Fox Chapel that no longer rank students, McKinley said.

The goal is to emphasize learning, challenge and the whole student, McKinley said.

Also beginning with the class of 2018, the valedictorian and salutatorian will need to be enrolled in the school district for at least three out of the four high school years.

The changes came out of a committee made up of students, parents, teachers, school counselors and administrators. Superintendent Tracy Vitale said they've been studying the issue for almost two years.

“As an administrator, we've been exploring a lot of topics about the system of public education,” Vitale said. “Systematically why are things done, how do they benefit children and do they still benefit children.”

As the options for learning have grown through Seneca Valley's cyber program and summer school offerings, McKinley said they wanted to update their QPA and class rank system to match the new system.

When the district developed its current class rank and QPA-calculation system, they had seven advanced placement courses. Now there are 23 advanced placement courses available for students.

Overall there's 476 course offerings for high school students at Seneca Valley, McKinley said, and some students take up to 12 credits a year over the eight students traditionally take.

QPA will be calculated differently beginning with the class of 2022, or incoming eighth-graders.

A student's QPA will only be based on final quarterly grades, not on midterms or finals. The added-on weight of advance placement, college in high school and honors courses was adjusted and the weight obtained each year will be limited.

Under the current system, some students would stack their schedule with weighted courses to pad their QPA and class rank, sometimes forgoing non-weighted courses that might have interested or benefited them more.

“This allows students to take courses that are not weighted and maybe get more enjoyment out of their junior and senior years,” McKinley said.

McKinley said the new system for evaluating QPA should not have an impact on students applying for colleges as class rank and QPA is low on the list of considerations from college admissions counselors.

School directors seemed to like the new system, saying it leveled the playing field for students and took the pressure off those obsessed with class rank.