Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us! > Unfortunately that can make the class pretty easy for top students, and I'm working on ways to challenge them. But

Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us! > Unfortunately that can make the class pretty easy for top students, and I'm working on ways to challenge them. But I don't need to knock the whole class down to a B just to challenge top students. Why not? What's wrong with a B? You said it yourself, most people in your class are average, although there are a few top people. Why would you assign them the same grade when the whole point of grading is to assess how well a student is doing? (Why grade anything at all then?) And why rob the average students of the honest but very useful feedback that "You're doing fine but there are still ways for you to improve"? For instance, back when I was TA'ing a lab course for some introductory physics class, I remember a student coming over to ask me why I hadn't given her full points on her lab report. She said now she might no longer be getting an A for the overall class. …which, from my POV, would have been entirely justified: She had had no clue what she was doing and had not understood the experiments at all (no surprise given that she hardly paid attention in class), and her lab reports very clearly reflected that. How could I ever give her full points? How would I have justified that in front of those of her peers who were doing better than her because they were working much harder (or were at least paying attention in class)? Obviously, that student had come to live under the impression that A's were the norm and that her performance, no matter how bad, demanded an A. But even if one disregards the argument that grades (should) provide a measuring stick and feedback mechanism for average students as to where they stand, one should still ask the question, Why rob the top students of their reward (an outstanding grade) when they truly excel? Very good performance typically comes with very high costs for the students (lots of time is spent on studying), and rewards or at least recognition of what they've achieved are therefore absolutely necessary, I'd say. So have you considered that, by makng A's your default grade, you might be demotivating some of your top students? > And most of these students don't need the threat of a bad grade to motivate them Again, since when has a B been a bad grade? It's obviously a rhetorical question: B's have gained the connotation of being bad grades ever since everyone and their dog have been getting A's without having to put in much effort. Grade inflation leads to further grade inflation. I'm afraid, though, your reasoning just confirms (and reinforces) this usual catch 22 but it doesn't really justify it.