Gold, Silver, Bronze. 1st, 2nd, 3rd. It’s human nature to put things in order. Every sporting event, academic competition, or challenge has winners and losers. Yet, when it comes to class rankings, North Allegheny keeps that relative information private. A student could reach out to the counseling office and find their ranking. But even after a class is graduated, North Allegheny refuses to name a valedictorian — being one of the only schools in the area to do so.

Whatever the reason for not releasing the rankings, I believe that the school should at the very least release the top three of the class. Many students work incredibly hard, and I feel that those at the very top of the grade scale should be recognized for the hard work they put in. The truth is, while there may be forty or so kids with a perfect 4.0 unweighted GPA, there is one singular kid with better grades than everyone else. He/she should be given the recognition they deserve for being number one, yet NA makes no mention of the valedictorian. So what possible reasons could there be for not releasing the data? Well, a number of arguments, both weak and strong, can be made for keeping class rankings a secret.

One of the first thoughts that come to mind when people see “valedictorian” is that the person likely didn’t participate in any sports, clubs, or other extracurricular activities. But no one is trying to take away Michael Phelps’ gold medals because he doesn’t spend much time on other pursuits. While diversifying your activities might lead to a more fulfilling life or well-rounded college application, just because someone dedicates themselves to a narrow horizon, it doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be recognized when they excel at their activity.

Another argument for not releasing class rankings is that it would increase stress and possibly cheating. While I do find some merit to this argument, there is no reason the top students couldn’t be recognized after graduation. I don’t think a speech is necessary, but having a line or two at the bottom of the graduation book that names the top three to five students wouldn’t add any stress to the student body. I do understand that releasing every student’s rankings while the school year is still in session could add to students’ stress. Last year, for around two days, the class of 2020’s rankings were accidentally released on Tyler, and by the end of those two days, I found myself stressed, thinking that my ranking wasn’t high enough. I imagine that if I were somewhere in the top 25 students and saw my rank start to slip, it would be incredibly discouraging.

The most compelling argument to me for why a valedictorian should not be named is just how many students have a 4.0. North Allegheny would then be forced to resort to total percentages, and to me, that seems unfair. Even if two students took all the same classes and scored the same on tests, if one of the students had a teacher that gave more homework points, they would be ranked higher, despite not being any more intelligent or hard working. Furthermore, if an incredibly bright student enrolls in easy classes, they could put in very little effort and have a higher class ranking than a student of similar intelligence who challenged themselves.

At the end of the day, while I see the reasoning behind not having a class ranking list easily available to all the students, I feel that North Allegheny should recognize the hard work of the most successful students. The school is more than happy to recognize WPIAL winners and the top students on the Debate Team, so I feel it is only fair to at least disclose the top students at graduation. I hope that when my class graduates, the school will name the valedictorian so that we can applaud the person who is truly the number one student in the class.