COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) -- The University of Missouri has seen grades steadily rise, like most colleges and universities across the nation.
The Kansas City Star (http://bit.ly/22f32O5) reports that grades keep climbing at less selective schools and on elite Ivy League campuses.
In national surveys, faculty say they feel pressured to boost grades as students, parents and campus administrators steer them toward doing so. Some faculty say they get better evaluations when they grade higher, decreasing the risk that their teaching status would change if less students took their class.
"Everybody looks to find where they can get easy grades," said Kurt Diable, a University of Missouri student from Liberty.
But Stuart Rojstaczer said that grade inflation reflects a change in campus culture. Rojstaczer has studied how grades have risen, and his recently updated research shows them rising 0.1 points per decade without pause for 30 years. His findings conclude A's are now three times as common as in 1960.
University of Missouri is one of the few that lists all of the grades given in its course from 1997 on. The numbers show that the average grade rose from about a B (slightly below 3.1) to B-plus (just shy of 3.3) over the last 18 years.
University of Missouri professor R. Lee Lyman breaks the mold in his introductory archaeology class by sticking with the same grading scale he's used for more than 30 years. Fewer than half of the 25 sophomores in his class in 2014 earned an A. Two got D's and two flunked.
"I never thought grading on a curve was a very good idea. At some point, 20 percent on a test becomes an A," he said. "(But) I feel like I've dumbed the exams down."