University Business, Are Professors Too Soft on Grading? Survey Says 8 in 10 Give in to ‘Grade Grubbing’:

A hallmark of students’ learning experience is their ability to approach and engage their professor outside of the classroom to pick their brain in a less formal setting. Unfortunately, student-professor dialogue isn’t always that rosy.

A new report by Intelligent has discovered that over 80% of high school teachers and college professors have given in to students’ demands for a higher grade than they’ve earned, a phenomenon known as “grade grubbing.”

The top reasons educators obliged were that they believed the student deserved a second chance (73%) and that they “felt bad” for the student (33%). Another 19% feared retribution for not changing students’ grades. …

One the most concerning consequences of students becoming so ardent about grade-grubbing—and their professors acquiescing—is that it can cause them to undermine the value of education, wrote David Labaree, professor at Stanford’s Graduate School of Education, according to The Washington Post.