<p>The Chronicle of Higher Education 100606 (C10-5)
Copyright 2006 The Chronicle of Higher Education</p>
<p>All Rights Reserved</p>
<p>The Chronicle of Higher Education</p>
<p>October 6, 2006 Friday</p>
<p>AS GRADUATION RATES RISE, SO DO FEARS OF ACADEMIC SHORTCUTS</p>
<p>BYLINE: BRAD WOLVERTON</p>
<p>SECTION: ATHLETICS; Pg. 38 Vol. 53 No. 7</p>
<p>LENGTH: 946 words</p>
<p>Knute Rockne, he was not. But when Myles Brand spoke to athletics officials at Elon University last month -- saying he wanted to see 80 percent of college athletes graduate -- the message from the president of the National Collegiate Athletic Association reverberated throughout college sports.</p>
<p>His goal seemed ambitious to athletics officials accustomed to hearing that, on average, only six in 10 college athletes graduate within six years.</p>
<p>But last week, as the NCAA released its annual graduation-rate report, Mr. Brand's goal did not seem out of reach. The report found that 77 percent of Division I athletes were graduating within six years, with rates improving sharply in dozens of sports. </p>
<p>The higher numbers -- over all, the graduation rate rose 1 percentage point from the previous tracking period -- reflect a change in how the NCAA calculates the figure. Previously the association used the U.S. Department of Education's numbers, but beginning last year it started using its own formula, called the Graduation Success Rate.</p>
<p>Unlike the Education Department's calculation, the NCAA's rate accounts for transfer students, making athletes' graduation rates look rosier. Many athletics officials agree, however, that the NCAA's formula provides the most accurate measure of how many athletes are succeeding in the classroom.</p>
<p>The report measured the graduation rates of more than 93,000 athletes, on some 5,000 Division I teams, who enrolled at colleges between the 1996-97 and 1999-2000 academic years. Their Graduation Success Rates improved in 24 of the 35 sports that the NCAA measured.</p>
<p>Two sports in which athletes have traditionally had poor graduation rates -- men's basketball and football -- made big gains. Sixty-eight percent of Division I-A football players who enrolled in the 1999-2000 academic year graduated within six years, five percentage points higher than those who enrolled in 1995-96, the association said. And 61 percent of athletes on men's basketball teams who enrolled in 1999-2000 graduated within six years -- five percentage points higher than the rate for those who enrolled in the earlier period.</p>
<p>The news was not all good. Athletes in two men's sports -- lacrosse and water polo -- and three women's sports -- bowling, lacrosse, and water polo -- had lower rates in the most recent report. And the graduation rates in many sports stayed virtually the same.</p>
<p>Several academic leaders commended the NCAA for introducing tougher academic requirements for ath-letes, a step that they said has helped improve players' classroom performance.</p>
<p>But some of the academic requirements the association has introduced, including one specifying that athletes must complete 40 percent of their degree requirements by the end of their second year to remain eligible to compete, have raised concerns that players are cheating their way to eligibility, taking academic shortcuts, or clustering in easy majors.</p>
<p>Officials of the Knight Foundation Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics have heard concerns from faculty members in the past year about athletes' clustering in certain majors. Next year the commission plans to sponsor a summit to discuss, among other things, how well faculty members are informed of their athletes' academic progress.</p>
<p>'Bringing Up the Bottom'</p>
<p>In a news conference last week, Mr. Brand said he believed that graduation rates could reach 80 percent if athletics programs focused on "bringing up the bottom," or improving rates in the lowest-performing sports.</p>
<p>According to the NCAA's report, Division I men's basketball, baseball, and football players continued to have the lowest graduation rates. Just 59 percent of Division I men's basketball players graduated within six years, according to the NCAA's rate, while 65 percent of baseball and football players did.</p>
<p>Three of the country's top football programs had graduation success rates below 50 percent: the University of Texas (40 percent), Louisiana State University (49 percent), and the University of Georgia (41 per-cent).</p>
<p>Athletes in some programs were performing poorly in all of the so-called big three men's sports. At Savannah State University, for example, just 19 percent of baseball players graduated in six years, while 30 percent of men's basketball players and 27 percent of football players graduated within that time.</p>
<p>But some programs had extraordinary numbers: Fourteen of 17 sports at Siena College had 100-percent Graduation Success Rates. And 16 of 19 sports at the U.S. Naval Academy had perfect rates, with the three others in the high 90s.</p>
<p>Over all, men's sports had lower graduation success rates than women's sports. Seventy percent of male athletes were graduating within six years, while 86 percent of female athletes earned their degrees within that time, said NCAA officials.</p>
<p>But there were plenty of bright spots among both the men's and women's numbers. Nine of the 17 men's sports had scores above 80 percent. Men's skiing led the way, with 89 percent of its athletes graduating.</p>
<p>Among women's sports, fencing, field hockey, gymnastics, and skiing had the highest graduation rates, at 94 percent. Lacrosse and swimming also scored over 90 percent, and no sport scored below 70 percent.</p>
<p>The NCAA plans to release overall Graduation Success Rates for each college this fall. (This release included only the rates for individual teams.)</p>
<p>The association also plans to publish more information from the federal graduation report, including comparisons of how athletes' graduation rates compare with those of the overall student population on various campuses.</p>
<p>Graduation Success Rates for each Division I team are listed on the NCAA's Web site, at <a href="http://www2.ncaa.org%5B/url%5D">http://www2.ncaa.org</a>.</p>