DALLAS, Texas — The Dallas Independent School District is now working with the State Board of Education and the Texas Education Agency to resolve a class ranking snafu at one of its most prestigious schools.
Days before graduation at Woodrow Wilson High School, a number of students were informed of new class rankings.
Graduating senior Jackson Hansen, who was salutatorian when the school released rankings in January, was told he went from number two to number six.
Hansen said that something seemed off.
"Six was almost impossible," Hansen said. "So we kind of looked into it more and saw there was an issue and went from there."
Kendyl Loper was also caught by surprise. She was in the top 10 of her class. But days before she walked the stage, she went from eight to 11.
"It was really an achievement that I've been working towards the past three years," Loper said. "I didn't know what to say at the time."
Both students didn't have to investigate long before learning other students had either made abrupt drops in class rankings or major jumps.
One student, WFAA was told, dropped 30 spots.
Another, like Sophia Woods, went from 38 in her class to number 24. Woods' mother, Jennifer, said that it was a surprise.
The 18-year-old had been accepted into the University of Arkansas. But based on her new rank in the top 6% of her class, she could be auto-admitted into the University of Texas.
UT is Woods' dream school.
"Huge shock," Jennifer Woods said. "She jumped 14 spots, so at least 14 other kids were impacted."
Same work, double the credit
So what happened?
Woodrow Wilson is the district's only International Baccalaureate school with graduating classes.
Before the school year started, the State Board of Education made a decision to double the credits for certain IB courses, like Biology.
Some of those courses had already been taken by a number of seniors at Woodrow Wilson and they only received one credit for completing it.
So, any senior who waited until this year to take a course that doubled in credit had an advantage or disadvantage based on their grade because it counted twice.
At DISD, class rank is determined by a student's top 24 courses.
Loper simplifies it best.
"Some people sat in the same classes and did the same work, but got more credit for it," she said.
This is where Woods benefitted, her mother said.
"My daughter took a class that was a two-year class and she ended up getting three credits for it because it counted twice this year," Woods said. "It should have been one credit from last year and one from this year."
Woods said she's upset things turned out this way, even though they were in her family's favor. She said it didn't seem fair.
"I've taught Sophia since she was little to be truthful and to own up to her mistakes. I would hope DISD would do the same thing," Woods said.
And this might be the biggest problem.
DISD never informed seniors at the school that some courses were now going to be counted double, and they didn't average rankings based on the state's new course codes until April.
This means the district never told students where they truly stood when it came to rankings until the last minute.
"We didn't have the communication," Stephanie Elizalde, chief of school leadership said Thursday.
"Where does that blame fall?" WFAA asked.
"With me. With me," Elizalde admitted.
Elizalde said that she's been in contact with several universities about what happened, and added that many of them said students won't be impacted if they've already been accepted into their school.
So far, no students have told WFAA that their scholarships are in jeopardy.
Elizalde also added that only one student fell out of the top 10% of their class when the rankings were done again, yet she said she couldn't confirm if it was due to those course credits counting more.
At the moment, Elizalde said she's working with the state and the TEA for approval to fairly re-evaluate rankings.
She told WFAA that it wasn't right students didn't know they were going up against other students who would get more on their transcript for certain courses they were taking.
"The district is going to do everything at its disposal to ensure that students aren't harmed," Elizalde said.
Until then, the Class of 2019 will have to endure this unexpected ending.
Class of 2020
Juniors who are about to become seniors attended an informational meeting for parents about the issue Thursday and were concerned about how this will impact them.
Several of them held signs and said that all classes should be weighed the same.
"It's all the same, so it should be counted the same," Ryan Davitt said. "AP, IB, and STEM."
Sofia Furrh said that she hasn't been told her class ranking since DISD made changes in April.
She fears that there will be jumps and drops in her class too.
"All of us feel like it's unfair and it shouldn't be like this," Furrh said.