Good-bye to the D
The AP reports that the Mount Olive (New Jersey) school district is getting rid of the D grade in the middle and high schools. Any score under 70 percent will be considered failing.
According to The Star-Ledger, Superintendent Larrie Reynolds wants to motivate kids who are working just hard enough to get by.
“This is the message I’d like to get out,” Reynolds said. “It’s basically to the kids who have a D. Choose this day to decide what kind of student you’re going to be. Choose to become a learner or choose to do the class over again, but get off the fence.”
Mount Olive’s not the first district to eliminate the letter D.
Alan Guenther, spokesman for the state Department of Education, was uncertain if any districts in New Jersey had eliminated the D, but the move has been made in some school districts in California, Kentucky, Alaska and Kansas with varying degrees of success.
Officials at the Eminence Independent School District in northern Kentucky said eliminating D’s dropped the failure rate and raised standardized test scores by 13 percent in middle school and 10 percent in high school, according to a 2007 story by the Associated Press.
Kids will be supported and parents will be kept informed.
The plan would call for an e-mail to be sent to parents if their child receives a failing grade on any quiz or assignment. It would also allow for students to make up unacceptable work.
“Our school district is poised for greatness and the one thing yet to be addressed … is student motivation,” Reynolds said. “It has occurred to me in the last couple of years our kids have learned just what it takes to get by and we’re going to take the next step forward in becoming a top 10 school.”
