Hopatcong Administrator: We Have No Plans to Cut "D" Grades, Like Mount Olive Did

Joe Cruz isn't a "D" student. The Hopatcong High School junior said juggling wrestling training, house chores and honors classes hasn't been too big of issue.

But Cruz said some of his friends struggle in the classroom, and if Hopatcong's school system eliminated "D" grades, like Mount Olive's did Monday night, they'd be in for a rude awakening.

"They'd be kind of scared," Cruz said.

That was the consensus among most Hopatcong students, graduates and administrators interviewed by Hopatcong Patch after Mount Olive's announcement.

Mount Olive's new policy raises the failure mark to scores below 70 instead of 65. It's expected to begin in September. According to an Associated Press report, 384 Mount Olive high school students earned "D" as final grades at the end of the last school year.

Currently, Hopatcong students earn "D" grades for scores 60-69.

Jeff Hallenback, Hopatcong's director of curriculum, doesn't see a policy switch happening in the borough any time soon.

"Every school district has to make a decision as to what passing grades are going to be," he said. "At the current time, it's nothing we've even considered."

Hopatcong curriculum supervisor William Roca, a former chemistry teacher living in Flanders, which sends students to Mount Olive High School, has worked in the borough's school system since 1990. He's intrigued by the concept, but isn't sure of its effectiveness, and thinks it could raise serious issues.

"It's going to be interesting to see what their failure rate looks like and whether the [Mount Olive] community will handle anything less than a 'C' as a failure," he said.

Roca said sometimes teachers would give failing students passing grades, like "D-," provided they believed the students were putting the maximum effort. He called it the "gentlemen's 'D.'"

"If the kid was close you gave him a 'D-' instead of an 'F' because you felt the kid deserved to pass because he put the effort in," Roca said. "So you had that ability to pass him. Now, if a kid were in that position, you'd almost have to elevate him a 'C.'

"There are some kids who struggle at certain disciplines. Perhaps earning a 'D' is the best they can do. ... I understand it raises the bar. [But] I think you can raise the bar in a lot of classrooms by raising the rigor of the course."

Giancarlo Cruz, Joe's older brother and a senior at Hopatcong, had difficulty imagining a school system without "D" grades.

"It would force more people to work hard and no one would want to fail," said Giancarlo Cruz, who said he's also an honors student. "That's not something anyone wants to go through.

"No one wants to have their parents see an 'F' on their report card."

Chase Manning, a 2006 Hopatcong High School alumnus, wouldn't want Hopatcong to make the change.

"You can't always do the best in a class," he said. "To go straight to an 'F' after a 'C,' it would make a kid feel terrible."

Roca wondered how it'd affect grade graduation rates. Hopatcong students can take a maximum of two summer school courses to make up failed classes. But Roca thinks it could cause some students to fail more than two courses, which would force a student to re-take a class during the next school year in addition to a full summer school schedule.

"In all honesty, sometimes a 'D' is the best a kid can get because of the nature of the course," he said. "Some kids work hard for that 'D.' If they don't get it …"

Then Roca paused.

"That's going to be an interesting concept," he said.