@CValle - as an AP teacher in an upper middle class suburban HS, I can tell you pressure for grade inflation, by parents and administrators, is very very real. The school one district over was recently honored by being named “#____ in the nation”. The very next day, a meeting was held to talk about what we can do to ensure that we are on a par with said school… and the fact that the average GPA was higher at that school than ours absolutely came up.