The average cumulative grade point average has been improving steadily since the early 1960s, according to ex-professor of geophysics and grade inflation expert, Stuart Rojstaczer. Since abandoning the academic realm, Rojstaczer has dedicated himself to in-depth study of the trend of grade inflation. His work details a massive shift in the graduation GPA of American university students over the decades, even such that ‘A’ is the most common letter grade at private universities, and ‘B’ at the public (not a C, as one might expect).
Distribution of grades over the decades, 1960s-2000s. Source: New York Times Economix Blog
A separate study performed by data scientists at the National Bureau of Economic Research indicates a simultaneous and opposite shift in the number of hours spent by American university students per week working on homework — a reduction from 40 hours in 1961 to just 27 hours in 2003. Reasons for the shift are inexplicable by any other phenomenon than ‘a fundamental change in the human capital production on American university and college campus’, according to the study.
Regardless of the forces motivating such a shift — including a competitive job market, where students need the best GPA achievable, rising college costs, and increasing numbers of job-oriented majors, where students might expect 100% (i.e. an ‘A’ grade) for comprehension and synthesis of all subject material — it’s an inherently devaluing and dangerous one.