New grading scale at HHS
Tragic. The Board of Education and Mango have approved a new grading scale. A 90 to 100 is an A. Since when? A 66 is a passing grade? Why are they lowering the standards when, in fact, we need to prepare our students to succeed in a competitive society? Just wrong! ( It used to be 93 or better equals and A, anything less than a 70 was a failing grade) What is going on? Are the teachers on board?
jjd What did the Board or Superintendent say about this when you contacted them to inquire? Since this is an important issue to you, I assume you were at the meeting and asked questions.
Btownguy This is a common grading system utilized by most schools. While it may not be the one used at HHS previously, it does make HHS students more truly comparable to other students as they move on to college.
Htown Resident Wow that's "tragic " ??? You obviously don't know what real problems are ! This was the grading when i was in school and most schools use it
Missrx I see nothing wrong with it. There are kids with learning disabilities that may struggle to pass certain classes. Are we supposed to shove them to the side? A high school diploma isn't worth what it was 30 years ago. Good luck finding a good job just with that. Kids need to be goal oriented. Getting a 70 isn't good enough anyway if they want to go to the college of their choice. The ones who care about getting into the college they want to go to are going to work their tail off whether a 65 or 70 is passing.
Metsman 
CraftBeerBob 
Lori...since '73 While I don't believe it's tragic, I do not like the new grading system. It's specifically for those kids with learning disabilities who look for easy ways to make the honor roll. I will also agree with Metsman: Kids who get good grades will continue to do so.
Parents who like this grading system are the same ones who look for schools to babysit their kids and want every handout that they think they their child deserves in order for their child to get a better grade. Then brag to others that their child is on honor roll without stating the special treatment their child received in order to get there. While some children are legit, there are others who are not, and are labeled anyway just to get extra time for a test, a redo test, special treatment, etc.
Better yet, let's group kids in their levels of intelligence and see how far this goes. :)
neighborhood watcherWell, if it takes work to earn a 90 in one school, but it is easy to get a 93 in another, then what are we yelling about?
Numbers can be meaningless if the standards to achieve them are low and if nothing worthwhile is being demanded.
Andy Loigu It's not special treatment. It's not fair for a kid who gets a 60 in Sparta for example to pass while a kid in Hackettstown fails with a 69. The state needs to step in and make it the same across the board.
School for me was 60-69 D. 70-79 C, 80-89 B, 90-100 A.... I have a learning disability and received "special treatment" and I still failed :(
Booster90 Agree that the scale should be the same across the state.
Not fair to bring learning disabilities into the discussion, kids with an IEP have a modified program designed to take their abilities into account and challenge without overwhelming. It's about educating them, not about honor roll.
hktownie WOW Neighorhood Watcher are you for real? I have a child in the High School and he has an IEP and he busts his butt to get great grades. With the old grading system he missed getting a higher grade by that 1 point...and I am not talking about "just passing grades" either.
Like so many others have already said, this is the grading system that we had when we went to school, as well as the grading system used presently.
hockeymom115 I am for real. My children got great grades by studying and working hard...not by anything extra. That's just it....even with the new grading system, people are going to be saying he/she "missed by one point" ....people are never happy.
Also, I am not knocking IEPs for those who truly need them. I've seen parents take advantage of getting their children labeled just to get extras. It's like welfare...I want I want I want.........for free.
Btw, when I went to school I had the current grading system.
Grade scales are meaningless. While I know a lot of people hate them, the only way to truly measure how Hackettstown measures against other schools is to compare standardized state and/or national test scores.
emaxxman "Better yet, let's group kids in their levels of intelligence and see how far this goes. :)"
I don't see any problem with that. When I was in school, honors students took honors English for example. The second tier of students were grouped together, then the third, and so on. It allowed the school to challenge the honors students while also using a curriculum and teaching methods that HELPED the lower tier students.
To me, that's the win/win for all. We shouldn't water down the curriculum or standards for honors students because they may have a classmate that isn't at that level.
HHSgrad My kids are long out of the schools but we were always in favor of 60-69 D. 70-79 C, 80-89 B, 90-100 A like Booster90 said.
Many times my kids would miss an A because they got a 92.
I thought it did the kids a disservice by not having the same grading as other schools because it gave them lower grades when actually they deserved the same grade.
I guess if high school is the last you expect of schooling, then this is a good thing, so hopefully you can get a higher letter grade. But if you intend to continue schooling at a college, they'll care about your rank and how good the school is in comparison to others, plus standardized tests. Or, even more important, but rarely shared, is how well you write a research paper, and the comments and editing the teacher gives you on the paper.
As said before in previous posts there is a part of this to raise graduation rates. Just a part but a part none the less.
Melissa I went to school in the 40's & 50's anything below 70 was failing. It was the same when my children went to HHS. When did it all change. Only the number grade meant anything, not the letter. Except for math, aren't all the other grades up to the teacher. Sadly, when I recently read essays written by college students the grammar was so bad I would have failed the students, but they are only graded on the content of the subject. I suppose it's modern teaching.
Ms Fishy in Canada where I grew up... anything below 50 was a fail. We had grades of A, A-, B+, B, B-, C+, C, C-, D, and F.
haha talk about options.
fujixt1 Neighborhood watcher
I am fot this grading system and i am not one of those parents that expect them to "babysit" my child. I am very involved with my childs schooling. I take that very offensively what you had said. My child does vety well with homework and studies very hard for tests. But unfortunately like many others freezes when.it comes to.taking tests. It doesnt mean they dont know the material or do not try.
htownlifer Lifer,
I hope your child is still in grammar school if you're very involved.
The benefit of adopting the new grading scale is very simple - it allows the transcripts to be viewed comparably to those around the country for colleges evaluating students. The "new" system is the most commonly used, thus when our kids' transcripts are compared - the letter grades - the scale is the same, rather than the present system, which puts our kids at a comparison disadvantage nationally - has NOTHING to do with who works hard, who doesn't, welfare state, easy passes, making things easier, etc. etc...
It's amazing to me how folks use any excuse to spew criticism and judgment.
pmnsk Neighborhood Watcher
What I meant by involved is I keep my eyes open to their homework and attend their back to school nights to get to know their teachers and their policies. If I was to have them just. "Basit" u would not care about such things. To me this being a parent.
Parents can only do so much. Kids have to spread their wings eventually and do it themselves.
"It's specifically for those kids with learning disabilities who look for easy ways to make the honor roll."
It's not easy for kids with learning disabilities to make honor role.....just remember it takes many of them 10 times more effort than it takes your perfect little child.
Nosila Anyone else reading this and seeing Spinal Tap interview "These go to 11". So long as a standard scale is used, grades will be equally applied. Keeping in mind teachers can always skew for a couple points by using class participation, or extra credit, or just by being biased.
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