At Some N.J. Schools, D No Longer Counts As Passing : NPR

At Some N.J. Schools, D No Longer Counts As Passing : NPR

by Nancy Solomon

(Published Oct. 8, 2010)

Excerpt:

So with the support of the Mount Olive school board, principals and teachers, Reynolds eliminated the possibility of getting a D as a final grade. Students must now have an average of 70, a C.

"If you don't know 70 percent, it's not that we're going to give you an F and be done with it. It's that you have to learn 70 percent. There's not an option. The option before was get an F and average it in. No," Reynolds says. "The option now is if you get an F, you do it over. So it's A, B, C or do it over."

[...]

But the superintendent was not satisfied with the 389 students in the high school who got at least one D last June — even though that represents only 2 percent of the kids. So now, every student who gets a D or an F must repeat the class, either at a new night school, in summer school or during the next school year. Mount Olive High School Principal Kevin Stansberry says eliminating the D grade sends a clear message to all students.

"We feel it's going to have a positive impact, not only on D and F students, but we feel all students, because even our B and C students somewhere along the line probably earned a C or a D or F that brought their average down," Stansberry says.