You are the athletic director of a budding high school. Currently there is a six and a half foot junior with incredible athletic ability, earning national recognition. Weekly you are receiving phone calls from newspaper and television reporters, as well as fielding questions from college coaches and community sponsors. You see the potential in this student, and it leads to recognition, acclaim, and possibly future financial gain. There is, however, one small problem; the student-athlete is currently failing three of six classes for the semester. As it stands, if the school year finishes without change in the grades, your future of fame and fortune will be ineligible for the senior season.
This is situation all too familiar in high
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I am interested in this topic because of my plan of influence on high school student-athletes as an athletic director. A problem of increasing concern with high school student-athletes is preferential treatment and altering the grades of exceptional athletes. Many problems and scandals are difficult to identify because of the secrecy surrounding the situation. Grade altering is not one of those problems. Grade altering stories are readily available in both local and national newspapers.
There is a growing problem where much of a school’s popularity and funding stems from athletic success. Even more, if a school has a student or group of students with great athletic ability, the school will likely bend some of its rules to maintain the athletes’ image and eligibility.
In this study I intend to identify common administrative flaws within high schools, and identify a strategy of grade altering corruption prevention.
All high school teachers and athletic directors should be familiar with the idea of grade altering, and have a system in place to handle and correct any possible academic corruption. A precautionary and preventative system can eliminate the possibility of grade altering, student-athlete entitlement, and negative media coverage of the school and athletic department.
Are there measures that can prevent the immoral and unethical practice of grade altering?
High schools do not receive much coverage from the
In his article “The Shame of College Sports,” Taylor Branch (2011) describes how universities are focused on advancing and receiving money from major athletics and having star athletes, but how the universities are not caring for the “student athlete.” The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has made college sports into an unmerited business. However, as years progress more athletes are getting smart and are taking the NCAA to court. The more students that challenges the rules by the NCAA and take them to court, the secrets and undermining values of the NCAA come out and the closer the NCAA comes to an end.
The ugly truth behind the money machine that is college sports is that, every year, college athletes are deceived by the institutions the compete for into making them millions of dollars, with relatively little in return. Athletes are said to be given a chance to attend college and to attain a free college degree. However, research has shown that this is not completely true for two reasons. For one, the student athlete will spend most of their time in preparation for competition. Secondly, what education the student athlete does receive hardly serves them outside of maintaining eligibility just so
Most college and secondary school athletic programs, however, virtually ignored Title IX until a series of Supreme Court decisions during the 1990s made it clear that lack of compliance left schools vulnerable to lawsuits with monetary-damage claims. Partly as a result of this threat of prosecution, educational institutions increased their efforts to comply with Title IX's athletic provisions throughout the 1990s (Anderson, Cheslock, & Ehrenberg, 2006, p. 227). These efforts persist, albeit not without continued
In today’s society, there are many issues, dilemmas, and scandals that we have to face. After reading Kenneth Jost’s article about college football there is, respectively, many issues in this field. I firmly agree that the Committee of the Coalition of Intercollegiate Athletics, which is an organization that represent roughly half the FBS schools, should search for ways to force college athletes to be admitted into the school before being provided with scholarships to play. Even though everyone loves watching college athletics, the purpose of going to school isn’t to be entertained, it’s an opportunity to better your education. Although many colleges feel like this will decrease their schools win efficiency there are examples that diminish
For many students, the college experience is measured by the success of their NCAA-sanctioned athletic programs. Without the experience and athletic performance the student athlete brings, most colleges would not reap the benefit of these significant revenue-generating activities. At best, current NCAA regulations need to be revisited to ensure all avenues are addressed to enable the success of athletic students both in the classroom and on the field or court of play. As stated previously, even though students receive full and partial scholarships determined by their athletic performance, in both instances
The impact of college athletic programs on academics has always been a controversial and contentious topic. It seems that athletic programs have some contemplative effects on academics of colleges and universities. Different people have different ideas about how college athletic programs should be carried on. College presidents, administrations, student athletes, parents of students, and athletic trainers are along with these people who point out different facts about the fallouts of athletics on academics. A bunch of people suggest that athletic programs should be dropped from college system, while another group suggests that athletic programs should be taken care with more advertence. An analysis on the effects of college athletics on
The National Collegiate Athletic Association is charged with the regulation of athletes, and all athletic programs in affiliated universities and colleges across the United States. The N.C.A.A. is the association charged with developing and implementing policies regarding athletics in colleges and universities. With such a role, the association is mandated to specify the minimum academic requirements for a student to participate in any sporting activity. The association claims that it aims at creating a balance between sport and education. The heart of the association 's mission is student-athlete success in classroom and on the field. N.C.A.A. comes up with policies that provide a student-athlete with the opportunity to learn through sporting activities. This is a noble endeavor, but some institutions as presented in the article by Sarah Lyall (1) have misused it. In the article, one can see that the University of North Carolina denied some of its student-athletes the learning opportunity envisioned by the N.C.A.A. Sarah Lyall (1). By offering the students free grades, U.N.C. was doing the students a great disservice, which only served the interests of the university.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) governs all laws regarding college sports under the Division I, Division II, and Division III conferences. Its sole purpose is to protect student-athletes on and off the field, and regulate all games and scholarships affiliated with the students. Right now there are 1,121 colleges and universities under the NCAA (NCAA, n.d.), leaving a chunk of schools out—those who do not participate in Division I, II, or III conferences. Since an immense amount of colleges and universities are associated with the NCAA, this organization plays a significant role in regulating college sports. Within these regulations, there is a common issue that lingers around student-athletes and their coaches. This issue has to do with the role that a student-athlete holds, and if he or she should be paid for it. It is an ethical decision that poses problems regarding the education institutions and their members.
As a college student, one must attend classes, complete work specific to their degree requirements and maintain a minimum grade point average as sanctioned by the NCAA to participate in athletics. The NCAA is an “organization dedicated to safeguarding the well-being of student-athletes and equipping them with the skills to succeed on the playing field, in the classroom and throughout life”. The NCAA has put in place a set of rules to assure fair and safe competition at the collegiate level. Arguably one the most debatable topics is the NCAA rule that states “College athletes are not to be paid, not to cash in on their prominence, never to cross any kind of line of professionalism.”
Professional athletes were paid less than average wages and would frequently work multiple jobs. The reason student athletes would play their sports was for the spirit of competition and the desire to be better than their rivals. However it wasn’t long before these friendly competitions became more and more heated and teams would do whatever they could to gain an advantage over their opponents. In 1840 “Harvard University sought to gain an undue advantage over its academic rival Yale by obtaining the services of a coxswain who was not a student.” (R. K. Smith, 11) It was at this time that some regulation to college athletics would have to be set in place. In the beginning college athletics were monitored by the faculty of the universities until 1905 when “over eighteen deaths and one hundred major injuries in intercollegiate football” occurred President Roosevelt called for the formation of what eventually would become the NCAA. (R. K. Smith, 12) The NCAA, the governing body behind all college athletics, is ultimately the deciding force behind not paying student athletes today. From humble beginnings the NCAA’s focus has been to preserve “the collegiate model of athletics in which students participate as an avocation, balancing their academic, social and athletics experiences.” (NCAA) In an attempt to preserve this core value the NCAA states in its rules that any student athlete is “not eligible for participation if [they] have ever taken pay, or the
The multibillion-dollar industry that college sports has become has richly rewarded the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), university athletic programs and top football and basketball coaches. Athletes, however, continue to play under a decades-old system in which scholarships pay for tuition and room and board but fall short of covering the full cost of attending school. In return, players are expected to maintain a rigorous training and playing schedule while keeping up their studies. This falls very short to being fair for the student athletes, who are the ones putting their sweat, hearts, bodies and health on the line, day in and day out.
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, or so they say. In this case the phrase holds true, as it would be foolish to change a wildly successful college athletics system. Currently, athletes are able to earn their degree for free, while playing the sport they love, in a harmonious reltionship between amatuer athlete and college sports. Nonetheless, critics call for colleges to pay athletes a portion of the profits generated off of their services even though college athletes are already paid in the form of scholarships, free housing and other benefits. Furthermore, changes, such as sharing profits with student athletes could ruin a system that sucessfully supplies us with the ameteur sports that we love, while providing athletes with a free college education.
This sort of situation can be defined as ‘Grade Deflation’ which means that higher grades are harder or more difficult to receive because a very small amount can be given out or to protect an institution. Grade deflation should be reduced or even eliminated because it can improve education and positively affect a student’s future. Elizabeth Wissner-Gross tells us about grade deflation and why and how it should be terminated in her article “Invitation to a Dialogue: Stop deflating Grades” published on the New York Times. The Author argues against high schools and colleges that are manipulating numbers in order to protect their institutions from being accused of grade inflation. Some administrators believe that too many A’s can, in some ways, affect their institution’s image negatively. The author, while
Grade inflation- the belief that students are receiving grades that they haven’t worked for and therefore don’t deserve. But what’s so wrong about grade inflation? When learning about this topic we open the doors to a multitude of other problems plaguing our educational system. When looking at grade inflation, we’re able to understand these often forgotten about and looked over problems, which enables us to start taking steps forward towards a brighter educational future.
According the most recent national assessment recorded in the Washington post, “the nations high school seniors have shown no improvement in math and reading performances since 2009.” In the most recent years, education has taken a huge downfall. Since 2010, over 45% of students drop out. Many students have problems with the grading system, so many different testing programs and having to follow a set of rules and not expand on those rules. The education system needs to induce more creativity, enforce the ways on how education is important and elaborate more on the rules of grading.