Hi Cap’t Jack,
The short answer is YES! I have been “advised" many times by the administration that my GPA of 2.2 (equivalent to a letter grade of just above C) is too low for the course taken by the student I mentioned in my original post; that students will not register in our general-education physics courses, and that these courses will not be populated enough to justify offering multiple sections of them, meaning that we would have to decrease the number of the employees of the department. Now the GPA of my course is 2.6, with the result that those who ought to fail the course are getting a low B!
The meaning of the “average" seems to have been lost in education! Our College of Education, for example, has a GPA “average" of 3.8 out of 4. So all their graduates are excellent teachers!
The high school I taught in has the same dilemma for students with learning disabilities, i.e. the teacher has to follow an individual plan (IEP) designed to assist the student in whatever subject they're failing and the grades are weighted so that no student will receive a failing grade. This also has to be reported to the State. These grades are now tied to funding and both teachers and the admin. are gun shy. this year Ohio is instituting a plan to tie student performance to salary which makes me relieved that I'm retired. All of this is based on standardized State tests of course, leaving the teacher to spend most of his/her time teaching the test.
The problem now facing local colleges and universities is that many students are attending colleges with the expectation of being assisted as they were in high school. Now those institutions are being forced to implement tutoring programs and entry level courses that are literally "dumbed down" in order to attract students hence your problem. It's a real nail biter for professors who want to teach but don't want to be laid off due to lack of students. Some of my friends have taken early retirement out of frustration; complaining that many students have trouble writing a cogent paragraph. I've noticed many changes in education in the last forty years and it seems that we're dropping our standards for money and that's a pity. Yes, our Education department demands that students maintain a 3.5 average and they are given one semester of probation to bring up a lower average. After that they have to set out one year before reapplying.
Cap't Jack