What would you give the average student in this class?
A C does not necessarily equate with "Average." If C equated to "average," there'd be no stigma attached to having an average student's level of comprehension of, say, organic chemistry.
A C, rather, is indicitive of an adequate mastery of the subject, or so it should. A B is a good mastery of the subject, and an A should reflect strong mastery of the subject.
If all the students in the class understood and interacted with the subject material well, I would argue that it would be wrong and unfair not to give those student's "A's" just because of some sort of quota system. Especially when graduate schools and employers attach a stigma to the "C."
A
If the whole class earned A then they earned A and the average woud be A.
In a math class? You can't grade on a curve on that.
They either get the Questions right or not. It is very possible for an entire class to ace every test, with a very good teacher.
What would you give the average student in this class?........Mrs Mark
That would depend on what the so-called "average" student scored.
Let's say that you have a class composed entirely of Type A personality geniuses that are all given the same extremely difficult, objective and fair test.
Let's say that one third of the class scores 98% on that test, one third of the class scores 97% on that test and one third of the class scores 96% on that test.
In such a case, every last student in that class deserves an "A" even though one half of them are "below average" in terms of that particular class.
The bottom line is that you have to consider not only the "Rank in Class" but also the quality of the competition.