High School Athletes Should Be Required

Do student athletes make the most of their opportunity to obtain a post-secondary education? Do they have the same academic success as those students that are not athletes? Are student athletes just “dumb jocks?” The answers to these questions might surprise you. Much research has been done to dispel the myth that athletes going to college are only there to play sports with little regard to their education. Programs have been created to assure that colleges and universities hold athletes to the same standards as the everyday student. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has decided that the “magic number” to put the “student” back into “student-athlete” is 925 (Hamilton).

In “The Case Against High School Sports,” Amanda Ripley, a journalist for The Atlantic, states that America is spending more money on high school sports rather than on academic purposes. “High School Sports Aren’t Killing Academics, “ written by Daniel Bowen, a postdoctoral scholar at Rice University, and Colin Hitt, an assistant professor at the University of Arkansas, discusses the benefits that come out of sports programs to improve the classroom and the school’s social capital. Co-founder of a sports recruiting social network, Kai Sato’s article “The Case For High School Sports,” focuses on how school does not just involve scoring well on a math test but to educate us to be productive in what lies ahead. Ripley’s article discusses how

Should there be grade requirement for athletics? Should athletes have to be on the honor roll in order to play? Many states and schools have many different opinions to both questions.

For these students, their academic pursuit is warded off by negatives such as being underprepared for college and not ready for the rigor of college academics (Reynolds, Lacey, Dawlah Fisher, and Kenyatta Cavil). A large portion of young black children are not going to be prepared for college life because of the athletic environment that they are placed in at a young age. College is commercialized in every aspect of the experience. Thus, for millions of black youth who aspire to becoming a professional athlete as a major goal, education matters only to the extent that maintaining eligibility to participate in sports in elementary and secondary schools through college is necessary in order to fulfill externally imposed requirements (Marvin, Dawkins). Today’s generation of a good grade is a 70 or higher. A child can carry that type of mind-set throughout their entire school experience until college approaches. The school systems are settling for mediocre and colleges are expecting exceptional. School, media, and surroundings of the young generation create this visual of these hopeful children getting into a college through athletics and mediocre academics.

High school sports make student athletes strive for better success in their education. Sure some Schools have a minimum G.P.A requirement of 2.0, and to get that all your classes have to be “C” or better. Well that’s better than letting them have a 1.0 and letting them play. It makes them have something worth studying for, For example my friend Bryan Garcia does not like school or work but he is always looking for ways to make his grades better so that he may play with the John F. Kennedy soccer team. Also not all the states in the United States of America have a G.P.A requirement to play in a sport activity, twelve out of the fifty states in the USA require a G.P.A to play."A High School Athlete 's GPA Vs. Average High School Student 's GPA." Everyday Life. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Feb. 2016.”Sports participation is associated with higher GPAs, lower dropout rates and stronger commitments to school compared to the average,non-athlete high school student”. Also they made a study for Kansas in 2008-2009 between athletes and non-athletes,Academic Performance Of Athletes And Non‐Athletes, and Page 41. COMPARING THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETES AND NON-ATHLETES IN KANSAS IN 2008-2009 (n.d.): n. pag. Web.”high school athletes earned higher grades,graduated at a higher rate, dropped out of school less frequently, and scored higher on state assessments than did non-athletes”. Student athletes have a greater chance of graduating with a 3.0 or more. They are more

The Adequate Yearly Progress qualifier is a guideline that labels what all students achieve when it comes to state academic standards in at least Reading/Language Arts and Math (U.S. Department of Inculcation Website, 2006). The exigency of addressing and rectifying academic/athletic imbalances at schools is underscored by the estimated 8 million students who participated in high school athletics during the 2008 school year (Associated Press, 2008). Yancey (2007) concluded the incrimination of students participating in interscholastic sports is positive as athletics amend the overall high school experience for

Lowering eligibility requirements can be defined as what can be done to maintain eligibility and not necessarily just maintaining the required GPA. The whole purpose is to take into account the quality of education the student-athletes are receiving. The greatest concern when discussing eligibility requirements is based on all the topics of changing grades, encouraging the enrollment of ‘easy’ classes, and even the admission process. An article was written about keeping the colleges accountable in terms of making sure the student-athletes are getting the best education they can. The chronicle received a statement from a Big Ten academic advisor stating, “ you jump, online, finish in a week and a half, get your grade posted, and you’re bowl eligible” (Carey, 27). The same article stated that these online

Out of all the high school student athletes, only 6% pursue their dream to play on the college level (National Collegiate Athletic Association). Athletes have the potential to play at a high level but do not make it because they struggle academically. Also, the academic requirements for each division are different which allows students to enroll in a school, but at a lower rank. Meeting all of the requirements and criteria of academic eligibility during high school is extremely important because if not met, playing or participating in sports in college will be difficult. High schools and colleges require that their students meet certain academic criteria in order to participate in extracurricular activities.

I don’t think school sports should b a requirement. Being the best at a sport while it does boost moral and self-confidence it doesn’t help with gpa. Football isnt’ a skill jobs look at when hiring you for a position at their company. It’s for entertainment that’s it. If anything it could be a negative effect if required. Majority of people maybe more academically strong then physically strong plus it could take away from studying for school to get good grades in school, also the peer pressure to be the best and the pressure of being shunned for failing. For example : there is a movie called 21 Jump Street and in the beginning it showed how the jock Channing Tatum was good at football but ended up going to the principal because his grades

Students should not have to get a B average in order to participate in athletic programs. Academics are important but athletics programs are just as important. Athletic programs are important because we need to stay healthy and staying healthy would mean that we do better academically. Participating in any kind of athletic program will help maintain the discipline of exercising. It is like “killing two birds with one stone.” Everyone is fit and healthy and they also do exceedingly well in academics.}

Practice every day, sometimes twice a day. School work piling up. Trying to be the best student and athlete you can be School games. Travel games. Late nights. Stress! When are student athletes supposed to get their school work done or prepare for tests? A study hall is the perfect solution. Schools should replace athletes’ gym classes with a study hall period. This would provide a time and place for these stressed out students to complete assignments and study. Student athletes already get more exercise than the average person does on a typical day. A gym class isn’t going to make a huge difference for them. You get home and you’re so tired, you plop on your bed and sleep for an hour. Then you wake up and realize that you have

In order to participate in team sports, students must meet requirements established by the state and other athletic governing bodies. For many athletes, it is the only area they excel in but realize their ability to continue to play depends upon their making the grade. Maintaining passing academic grades help students receive academic or athletic scholarships to other schools. Academics play an important role because it provides the students with knowledge to read comprehend and utilize the information, which may be used in higher learning but also completing job applications, employment and everyday living activities. Sports combined with academics can make the difference in so many different ways both in and outside of the classroom.

Think back to when you were a child. While looking around, you often realize all of your friends playing sports are exceptional at them. You are not the ultimate athlete and honestly don’t enjoy sports at all, but you keep playing anyways. All of your friends’ play and your parents have always encouraged you to do well in sports and to be the best. You know there are other opportunities out there for you, but you don’t feel as popular just being satisfactory in school. In today’s world, high schoolers are constantly under pressure to do well in sports, but not necessarily in school. Life lessons, like getting a job or just being an overall good person fly out the window. Central High School focuses too much on athletics instead of academics; this problem can be alleviated through the encouragement of parents to promote academic success and to help set realistic goals.

Just as studies at the collegiate level have found athletic participation to be both positive and negatively related to academic performance, the same came be seen at the high school level. However, in some of the early studies athletic participation was not seen to have an impact on academic achievement (Lumpkin & Favor, 2012). Hauser and Lueptow (1978) found in their study of 852 senior males that graduated in 1972, from five moderately large Midwestern city high schools, that their results were in-line with the results of the 1973, Lueptow and Kayser (as cited in Hauser and Lueptow, 1978) study that they replicated, “do not support a casual interpretation of the relationship between athletic involvement and academic achievement.” (Hauser & Lueptow, 1978, p. 308). Alternatively, that athletic participation was not the underlining reason, but the initial dissimilarities in academic achievement between athletes and non-athletes. Marsh (1993) in his study found a similar lack of effects for athletic participation on school grades. However, he did find participation in athletics during the last two years of high school had a statistically significant positive impact for 14 of 22 senior and post high school outcomes and no apparent negative effects. There do seem to be more studies that find either a negative impact (Beem, 2006; Cook, 2003; Gehring, 2004; Goldman 1991; Klein, 2011) or positive impact (Burnett, 2000; Fejgin, 1994; Lumpkin & Favor, 2012; White 2005; Whitely,

In order to implement strategies to help student-athletes maintain academic success throughout an academic school year, I think it is important to understand how student-athletes view academics. Therefore, the following literature review will highlight student viewpoints on academics. Researchers Joshua Levin, Sara Etchison, and Daniel Oppenheimer, conducted a study to test whether student-athletes accurately perceive how much their teammates value academics (Levine, Etchison, Oppenheimer, 2014). To understand how much student-athletes value academics, they were given a survey that rated the importance of academics. The researchers based the survey on false social norms that associate student-athletes as underperforming academically. However, after the student-athletes took the survey, the researchers found that most student-athletes hold positive private attitudes towards academic achievement (Levine et al., 2014). In fact, some of the student athletes responded to the survey by saying: “I feel that participating athletics has, if anything increased my academic success,” and “I feel that athletics help provide student-athletes with a greater sense of accountability in the classroom” (Levine et al., 2015, pg. 532). Based on this survey, we can conclude that student-athletes’ care about academic success. As a result, the following research highlight strategies to help student-athletes succeed in academics.