Des Moines Register
11-13-06
Drop 50-percent rule for college admissions
Emphasize rigor, not class rank.
REGISTER EDITORIAL BOARD
Iowa high school students who want to attend one of the state universities
fixate on one question: What's my class rank?
That's because state law requires the universities to admit freshmen from Iowa
who graduate in the top 50 percent of their high school graduating class and
complete required course work. Make it to the top half, and you're home free.
ACT scores don't matter. Neither does taking Advanced Placement courses.
What matters is where students fall in relation to their classmates.
This so-called 50-percent rule likely discourages students from taking more
difficult classes — the very classes they need to prepare for college work. Why
struggle through a tough course when your classmate is breezing through an
easy course and earning an A? It's also a disadvantage for students at more
challenging schools when compared with their peers in schools offering fewer
core classes. Some students with relatively good grades at larger high schools
were having trouble with college admissions, which led Valley High in West Des
Moines and other schools to eliminate class rank.
Iowa lawmakers recognized the state should take another look at this 50-year-old
college admission rule. Last year, they ordered creation of a study team to
examine it.
The team has recommended that the Iowa Board of Regents replace the 50percent rule with an index that considers a student's ACT score, high school
rank, grade-point average and number of core subject courses completed. The
index is designed to give a more complete picture of a student's high school
achievement and college potential. The score a student would need for automatic
admission hasn't been determined yet.
The Board of Regents will consider the proposed index at its December meeting.
It should vote to end the 50-percent rule. Ideally, the new index should grant
additional points for students who take AP courses, and class rank should be
dropped from the formula altogether. The cutoff score to determine admission
should be the same at all three universities.
Although new admissions criteria might not change how many students are
admitted to Iowa universities, it will send an essential message to high school
students: It's important to take as many core classes as possible, study for the
ACT and earn a good grade-point average.
The goal shouldn't be to achieve a rank in the top half of your graduating class. It
should be to prepare yourself for college — something Iowa high schools should
help students do by offering a challenging curriculum and an array of collegeprep classes.
How new index would work
The proposed Regent Enterprise Admission Index uses the following equation:
(2 x ACT composite score) + (1 x high school rank) + (20 x high school gradepoint average) + (5 x number of core-subject-area courses completed in high
school).
An example student: earned an ACT score of 24 (48) + ranked 75th in their class
(75) + earned a 3.5 grade point average (70) + completed 18 core courses (90).
The student's "score" would be 283 points.
If the policy is approved, Iowa's public universities and the regents will have a
calculator on their Web sites for prospective students and parents to use in
figuring the index.
What's next
The study team will finalize the report to the Legislature for the December Board
of Regents meeting. The board will be asked to consider approving the new
admission standards.
See a copy of the Admissions Study Team Status Report on the Board of
Regent's Web site.