"Widespread Grade Inflation" - not where expected

[ucbalumnus]

@iaparent

According to the US Department of Education there are 2 methods of grading with descriptions of the letter grade given. In the “Norm Referenced” system a C is described as average and should be those in the 40% to 70% class rank. D’s and F’s should encompass 40% of students (20% each).

You mean https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ous/international/usnei/us/grading.doc ?

Those grading distributions or scales are only examples, not necessarily what every school’s grading distribution or scale should be. Indeed, is it realistic to say that 20% of students overall should be failures (F grades), and that another 20% should be barely passing (D grades)?