DMN Blac athletes' academic success (NT +)

OldTimer · April 7, 2006

Black athletes' academic success hailed

Graduation rates increase to 52 percent in most recent study

08:27 PM CDT on Thursday, April 6, 2006

By JEFF MILLER / The Dallas Morning News

Richard Lapchick has been tracking the academic performance of major college athletes for almost a generation. He calls the revelation that black athletes in NCAA Division I are now graduating at a rate 17 percentage points higher than their counterparts 14 years earlier the best news that he has seen on the subject.

Lapchick is the director of the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport, which released those findings on Thursday. The report stated 52 percent of the black athletes who entered Division I schools from 1995 through 1998 graduated within six years, according to federal graduation rates. That compared with 35 percent in the first group included in the federal study, those who entered school from 1981 to 1984.

Lapchick said he believes the scrutiny that athletic departments have been under by media outlets and groups such as his has helped create better environments for black athletes to succeed academically.

"The disparity between African-Americans and whites has been so great for so long that departments have taken a lot of heat," said Lapchick, son of Pro Basketball Hall of Famer Joe Lapchick. "A consequence of that has been they've paid more attention to it on a lot of campuses."

In the graduation rates released in January by the NCAA, 11 of 19 Division I schools in Texas saw improvement among black athletes. Black athletes graduated at higher rates than the overall black student populations at 15 of them.

Lapchick was the keynote guest speaker at last week's annual meeting of the Drake Group, a nonprofit organization of people in or near college athletics that seeks widespread academic reform. The group's director, Mississippi State assistant professor David Ridpath, said he fears academic gains made by black athletes through stiffened entrance requirements since the mid-1980s could be hurt by the sliding scale that the NCAA instituted in the fall of 2003.

An athlete can earn initial eligibility with a relatively low score on a standardized test by having a high grade point average in high school. Some high schools have recently been exposed as diploma mills for high-profile athletes, which Ridpath said could lead to academic fraud to keep them eligible in college. The Drake Group seeks a level of transparency in athletic academics that would make fraud more difficult to achieve.

E-mail jmiller@dallasnews.com

BLACK ATHLETES' GRADUATION RATES

Eleven of 19 NCAA Division I schools in Texas saw improvement in the federal graduation rates of their black athletes, according to figures released in January. At 15 of the schools, black athletes graduated at a higher rate than the campus' overall black enrollment. Those comparisons are listed below along with each school's NCAA graduation success rate, computed for the first time this year, for its black athletes:

School Black athlete FGR '98-99 vs. previous year vs. campus black FGR '98-99 Black athlete GSR '98-99

Baylor 71 -2 +5 85

Houston 46 +6 +12 46

Lamar 44 +7 +21 50

North Texas 48 +6 +8 51

Prairie View A&M 72 +10 +35 64

Rice 88 -1 +4 92

Sam Houston State 52 +6 +16 56

SMU 64 -2 -2 82

Stephen F. Austin 46 +2 +13 51

Texas 45 -3 -16 55

UT-Arlington 54 same +23 49

UT-El Paso 34 -7 +13 33

UT-Pan American 19 -4 +6 43

UT-San Antonio 40 +3 +13 54

Texas A&M 53 +6 -13 54

TCU 64 +3 +5 83

Texas Southern 33 -20 +19 34

Texas St-San Marcos 51 +16 -1 61

Texas Tech 61 +8 +21 72

NOTES: The students – both athletes and non-athletes – entered school from the 1995-96 through 1998-99 school years and had to graduate within six years to count as a graduate; the federal graduate rate (FGR) penalizes schools for students who transfer out or go pro early while in good academic standing. The NCAA's new graduation success rate (GSR) doesn't; Texas A&M-Corpus Christi is also in Division I but hasn't had a full athletic program during the full time period of this study.