Nearly half of all US high schoolers graduate with an "A" average

[n2doc]

To graduate from high school with a grade-point average (GPA) of A, the top range of academic marks, used to be a crowning achievement and every parent’s dream come true (literally, every parent’s). Now, it’s basically the norm.

Nearly half of American high school students—47%, to be exact—are graduating with grades ranging from A+ to A-, according to a study released this week. The report, coauthored by a member of the SAT-administering College Board and a doctoral student of higher education, found that while high-school students’ average GPAs have soared, SAT scores have slipped noticeably over the past decade.

Taken together, those trends suggest that American teenagers are not necessarily getting smarter; high-school teachers are just being more lenient with grading, and perhaps rewarding students more for the same amount of effort.

That’s not a problem in and of itself—but it is troublesome when it comes to college and, later down the line, employment. Grade inflation makes it difficult for students to honestly self-assess their accomplishments, and it often discourages them from working harder and striving for more. When half of every school is getting the “top” grade, students have few ways of knowing where they really stand, in comparison to their peers.

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https://qz.com/1032183/no-wonder-young-americans-feel-so-important-when-half-of-them-finish-high-school-as-a-students/

Explains why the incoming GPA of admitted College students is so crazy high. University of Georgia, for example, has an average incoming GPA of over 4. It's a different world than the one I grew up in.