One of the articles I read on this mentioned something about how students in the honors classes are "unfairly penalized" because overall class rank is based purely on grade point average. I suppose this is supposed to justify dumbing down the curriculum.
However, I respectfully submit that this is a potential problem with honors classes. I graduated from high school in 1962. My school had an honors (or advanced placement) program at the time, such that students in the advanced placement program were taking all college-level courses in the senior year. One of the girls in that program was exceptionally smart, and had a really good average. However, she only got to be Salutatarian at our graduation. Who made Valedictorian? A girl who spent all four years taking typing, shorthand, and home economics.
That didn't stop Hilda from getting into a good college, but I have always thought it was unfair. But I have never come up with a weighting system to correct for it.