Writing in the Christian Science Monitor, former Duke geophysics professor Stuart Rojstaczer discusses his findings on grade inflation.

Does it really matter? Yes, says Rojstaczer: “When students walk into a classroom knowing that they can go through the motions and get a B+ or better, that’s what they tend to do, give minimal effort.”

The amount of studying students do on average has been dropping steadily, and many fill up the idle time with drinking and fun. “If we continue along this path,” Rojstaczer writes, “we’ll end up with a generation of poorly educated college graduates who have used their four years principally to develop an addition to alcohol.”

A few schools, most notably Princeton, have fought grade inflation successfully. The big question, one that the author doesn’t address, is why more don’t fight it. The fact that grades are inflating while student effort keeps sliding is not breaking news. For decades, most colleges and universities have blissfully allowed academic standards to erode. They’ve been content to slap degrees on large numbers of students who have just gone through the motions, accumulating credits but learning very little. Why?

Because it keeps students happy and there is no penalty for doing so.