NCAA requirements disallow the use of these classes for meeting eligibility requirements for athletic scholarships. That is what I'm told from a concerned citizen that gives me issues of importance and typically this individual has been right. This is something I will look into; I'll bring this for discussion at the next board workshop. Nobody should be forced into courses that limit the potential of any type of a scholarship---academic or athletic!
From a concerned citizen:
"This is what I know...
For several years, Escambia County(and I assume other school districts)
have been using Compass classes to push kids through to graduation. In most cases, not giving the children or
parents a choice or informing them of the implication of the decisions. However, XXXXXXX and other teachers have been
trying to make them understand the problem and have just been ignored. So the problem is two-fold.
In order to qualify for a NCAA scholarship you have to have completed
10 core classes before the beginning of your senior year. Because Compass classes do not count toward
NCAA credit (based on the fact that a student-teacher dialog is not possible),
several students are now [expletive] out of luck. They are seniors and do not have the 10 core
classes because they were put in Compass classes. There is no way to fix this from what I
understand. The school district was
informed and chose not to believe their teachers and did nothing to confirm or
deny the teacher's claim.
Fast forward to the current students who were held back for
one semester in 8th grade and have been enrolled at XXXXXXXX this spring
semester. From what I understand, two of
them are potential college athletes.
Here is their situation. They
have spent a semester taking Compass classes that will not count toward NCAA
eligibility. They have now been enrolled
at XXXXXXX as a second semester freshman.
Because they cannot take most of the core classes, because they are full
year classes, they have been enrolled in electives as well as a part of the
Algebra 1A-1B series. In most cases,
nothing they are taking this semester will count toward the NCAA 10 Core at the
end of 11. So, now they have gone to
high school 1 year and have zero core classes.
The result is that they will now have 2 years (sophomore and junior) to
take 10 core classes in order to be eligible.
In the case of football
players, they have also lost a year of high
school eligibility and will only be allowed to play football 3 years -- not
exactly an ideal situation if you are trying to play a college sport.
Parents should be informed of the consequences of moving
their kids to high school in the midst of their "freshman" year. Futures are being sacrificed for the district
to improve their "graduate on time" percentage. The sad part is that [neither] the students
nor their parents have any idea that the school district has led them down a
path of a high school diploma without the possibility of a college athletic
future. It is all a part of the
district's policy to keep the parents and students in the dark so that they can
do whatever they want to make themselves look better.
It seems to me, that they could have allowed these kids to take
FLVS or even the XXXXXXXXX EVS classes while sitting at XXXXXXX waiting to start
high school. At least those classes
would count toward NCAA eligibility.
In the end, it’s not just athletes, some colleges, for
instance Mississippi State University, has a core requirement for
admission. It is a required 15 hours in
the obvious - science, English, social studies, fine arts, etc. They use the NCAA course guidelines to
determine what classes they will accept and what classes they will not. Many colleges are going to this because it is
easier than to evaluate every class from every out of state school when
admitting students. If my children had
been pushed into a compass class for whatever reason (and they tried to do that
with XXXXXXX when she couldn't fit XXXXXXXX in her schedule -- ended up doing
FLVS), they would not have been admitted to MSU regardless of their nearly
[extremely high] weighted GPA and [and extremely good score] on the ACT.
This affects me in no way.
However, I find it appalling children's futures are being decided
without their or their parents input just so the school district can say that
the percentage of graduating on time has improved. If you want to improve the percentage of
on-time graduation, have real counselors at the school that will guide the
children from their freshman year toward their goal -- the student's goal --
whether it is to get a job, go to technical school, go to college, play college
sports, or to join the military. I
believe with all my heart that the number ONE reason students fail at XXXXXX
(probably other schools but I can't speak for them) is because students have no
idea what they need, how to do it, or what the implications of not doing it
really is. They have NO counseling that
is there for the specific and only reason of looking out for the students and
nothing else. The counselor's job should
not be to make the school look better; it should be to make the students look
better. If the students are better, the
school will be better by default. It is
as if the school has given up on improving student's lives and has just decided
as long as they look good - that's good enough.
Off my soap box.
Unfortunately, I don't know much more specifics or even who the students
are. I do know that XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
both knew of this problem and tried to make XXXXXX understand what they were
doing to the kids so it is not like they just heard about this or that it is a
new thing. I know XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX has been screaming about this for several
years. And, I know that after years of
trying to tell XXXXXXXXXXXXXX------
XXXXXXX finally said, "Maybe we should look into
this".
I also know that XXXXXXXXXXX is finally "trying to look
into" their NCAA class portfolio because it is wrong. I brought it to XXXXXXXXXXXX’s attention that
it was wrong when XXXXXXXx was a XXXXXXXX. They have not properly designated
the honors/AP/Dual classes as such -- therefore, the students do not get the
added weight to the GPA. With the NCAA
minimum having been raised to 2.3, some kids may need those bonus points just to
be eligible. I even had the NCAA representative
go to the school and talk to them -- only XXXXXXXXXXXXX, XXXXXXXX understood
what he was trying to say. XXXXXXXXXX
said that they were doing it like XXXXXXXXx-- so it must be right. The reality is that Washington High School is
the ONLY school in Escambia School District that is in the NCAA course profile
correctly. Just another way they are not
caring about what happens to a student after graduation."
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