The decision to present final grades earned in a course as letter grades, rather than numeric grades, was made because this is the method preferred by colleges and universities. This method is also in alignment with what is done by other high-performing high schools. Please note that parents and students have access to Aspen, Hunterdon Central’s online, password-protected student information source, and can view the actual numerical grades earned in each course.

The grade scale includes a modification at the low end of the scale, which sets Hunterdon Central’s passing grade at a 65 instead of a 60. Experience has shown that because of the rigorous coursework associated with Hunterdon Central’s curriculum, students who earn a grade of 60 have an extremely difficult time being successful in subsequent sequential classes. (Examples of sequential classes would be Algebra 1 to Algebra 2, Spanish 1 to Spanish 2, English 1 to English 2, etc.) because of this, 65 was established as the “failure point.”

Research indicated that the inclusion of “plus” and “minus” designations – along with the corresponding delineations in GPA - are beneficial in further identifying the level of a student’s work and achievement in a specific course. Most colleges and universities also use these designations.

After reviewing the “weighting” methodology used by other high-performing high schools, a weighting of .5 for Honors courses and a weighting of 1.0 for Advanced Placement courses was established for the new grading scale. This “weighting” aligns the new scale with that of other high-performing high schools; it also more accurately reflects the academic rigor and difficulty of these courses.