Athletic Eligibility Requirements? An F, two Ds, what should it be?
Currently students are ineligible for intersholastic athletics or other co-curriculars when their cumulative grade for a counted subject drops under an F as recorded Friday at noon. Some concern has arisen over the fact that students who earn high marks during the first semester can academically coast for the remainder of the year. A few possible solutions have arisen.
One line of reasoning promotes changing inelgible standing to be any F or two cumulative D's. In this scenario a student receiving two Ds, an F, or an F and a D would be ineligible.
Another line argues that instead of using cumulative grades to determine ineligibility the quarter or semester grade should be used. The benefit is ongoing accountability but the drawback consists of fewer points/assignments with which to determine the grade.
The goal is to promote commitment to academic excellence while viewing participation in co-curriculars as a privelege not a right.
Love to hear your thoughts on the subject...
posted by croy @ 4:01 AM
3 comments
3 Comments:
Personally, I think allowing any combination of D's and F's is too lenient. My feeling is, if grades fall below C's, there is a problem. Regardless of school policy, my child is ineligible until the grades improve. If school work is not the primary focus, extra curriculars are not an option. Go ahead...call me the wicked stepmother! ;)
I guess I am a little startled that the bar is so low, existing and proposed.
First, I would separate atheletics from academic-related co-curriculars. Foreign language study, speech (declamation), theatre . . . academic co-curriculars have value such that they should not be used as punishment for low grades. While it is true that they may be a time suck that is hurting overall academic success, they may be feeding a particular academic area from which the student benefit while they struggle with other studies.
So I would not use "eligibility" as a factor in academic co-curriculars. In those instances, I would combine forced focused study in the deficient area WITH the academic co-curricular. If you have grades below the threshold and you want to go to play practice, you have to spend 1/2 in study hall doing study in the low area before you can go to the practice . . . or after. . . or something like that.
Sports are an entirely different matter. FIrst and foremost, students who are academically ineligible should NOT be allowed (let alone required) to attend practices. We've had (and seen other's) children suspended from teams for academic reasons who are still required to sit in the bleachers and watch practice. Policy doesn't get any more moronic than that. If the kid's school work doesn't merit playing, they should be in a forced study situation, not sitting on the bleachers wasting time.
Second, there should be forced study hall for these cases. Rather than just sending the kid home for the parent(s) to try to work out what's missing, what to do, when to do it, yada, yada, there should be forced study hall that is specific to the educational deficiency of the student.
Third, I've NEVER been in favor of an artificial amount of time tied to a threshold (if you have a F/D, whatever, you are out for the week, etc.). The threshold should be set, the items that factor into future grades should be set (no redos or extra credit) and the kid is not eligible until the grade goes over the threshold. The situation (of a kid who's out over grades) does require that the teacher get the work graded and recorded and figured into the grade a bit more quickly than some teachers might like. But the course of the class should continue as per normal. Yet . . . if it happens that there is work on friday, or monday, or whenever, that would bail the kid out, an artificially imposed extra few days isn't appropriate either.
As for the proper threshold . . . tough call. I would think that any "F" would find a student ineligible for sports as long as the "F" stands, no matter what their other grades are. But "Ds"? Esp. if the overall gpa is passing? Are they making progress toward graduation? We may not like Ds. And a given parent might want to limit their child for having them. But if the student is making progress to graduation (getting a C average) I would think that a D might not knock one out of play....
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