Research

http://www.njsba.org/sb_notes/20110524/surveyresults.html

The New Jersey School Boards Association posted a series of surveys that they conducted regarding public opinion on class rank. In one survey, the people who favor not including class rank in transcripts to the people who did was 42.4% to 40.7%, indicating that more people favored opting out of class rank but only by a slight number. In fact, the results appeared almost equal on both sides when factored in statistical accuracy. Comments indicate that "for districts that have a great number of high achievers, class rank may be a detriment to some pupils who are outstanding yet not quite at the very highest level", so larger schools may have less of a benefit from class rank as it hurts near top-performing students. On the other hand, small schools flourish from class rank as it provides the brightest minds to have even stronger applications.
In another survey, the NJSBA revealed that "Only 26.8 percent agreed that class rank gives a clear picture of a student’s academic achievements". Therefore, a large majority of citizens came to the consensus that class rank is ineffective in painting a picture of how strong a student is academically, therefore, colleges should not view it in the college applications.