High school grades and test scores are clearly no indication of college-readiness, as ALL big-time NCAA sports programs know so well. If universities’ were required to perform their own independent assessment of each student-athlete’s ability to read or write at the high school level, which could easily be accomplished using test instruments similar to freshman English/Math placement exams, the universities would know the answer. Motivated blindness at its worst, harming the most vulnerable, all in the name of an opportunity provide to the STUDENT (for crying out loud!).
Do you think this topic can be discussed without addressing the issue of race, head-on? The topic was conspicuously avoided in the Wainstein report, and also, I believe, in the press coverage.+ It seems crucial to me, but at the same time I fear that if adequate high school preparation required for academic success in the specific institution admitting the athlete were to become a REQUIREMENT, it’s quite possible that the those claiming to speak for the same students who’ve been shortchanged for decades would be the ones to lead the fight to continue to allow academically unprepared athletes admission to the university or college whose SPORTS program the athlete finds most attractive.
+Thinking about NCAA Proposition 48. The head coach of a big-time NCAA Div. I basketball program (Georgetown University) claimed “… these stern requirements would prevent a disproportionate number of poor and African-American athletes from attending the colleges THEY DESIRED.” (Emphasis added.)
Huh? Every year, thousands upon thousands of non-student-athletes are prevented, for academic reasons, from attending the college THEY desire! If they want a college education, they suck it up and apply to less academically rigorous schools. Why isn’t that same remedy good enough for “big time” high-school athletes? It might even spread the largess around a bit more!
October 23rd, 2014 at 11:41PM
High school grades and test scores are clearly no indication of college-readiness, as ALL big-time NCAA sports programs know so well. If universities’ were required to perform their own independent assessment of each student-athlete’s ability to read or write at the high school level, which could easily be accomplished using test instruments similar to freshman English/Math placement exams, the universities would know the answer. Motivated blindness at its worst, harming the most vulnerable, all in the name of an opportunity provide to the STUDENT (for crying out loud!).
Do you think this topic can be discussed without addressing the issue of race, head-on? The topic was conspicuously avoided in the Wainstein report, and also, I believe, in the press coverage.+ It seems crucial to me, but at the same time I fear that if adequate high school preparation required for academic success in the specific institution admitting the athlete were to become a REQUIREMENT, it’s quite possible that the those claiming to speak for the same students who’ve been shortchanged for decades would be the ones to lead the fight to continue to allow academically unprepared athletes admission to the university or college whose SPORTS program the athlete finds most attractive.
+Thinking about NCAA Proposition 48. The head coach of a big-time NCAA Div. I basketball program (Georgetown University) claimed “… these stern requirements would prevent a disproportionate number of poor and African-American athletes from attending the colleges THEY DESIRED.” (Emphasis added.)
Huh? Every year, thousands upon thousands of non-student-athletes are prevented, for academic reasons, from attending the college THEY desire! If they want a college education, they suck it up and apply to less academically rigorous schools. Why isn’t that same remedy good enough for “big time” high-school athletes? It might even spread the largess around a bit more!