No Pass, No Play Rule Under Fire.

good_ken · January 28, 2007

Making classes exempt from state rule can keep failing athletes in game
08:03 AM CST on Sunday, January 28, 2007
By KAREN AYRES / The Dallas Morning News
kayres@dallasnews.com
The no-pass, no-play law, once hailed as the stiffest academic standard in America, is now diluted by exemptions that let students with poor grades off the hook.
The Texas Legislature crafted the landmark reform law in 1984 to bench athletes, band members and youngsters in other extracurricular activities for scoring less than 70 in a class. But school districts have used a loophole to lower that standard for students taking classes labeled advanced.
In the past 12 years, Texas school districts have created no-pass, no-play exemptions for classes ranging from calculus and auto shop to yearbook. Some districts exempt more than 100 classes, while others exempt none.
This means a quarterback who makes a 65 in pre-AP Algebra might get kicked off his team while an opposing quarterback with the same grade in the same course can play.
AP File
Former state Rep. Paul Sadler, who helped craft education laws in the 1990s, says, "I never imagined that districts would exempt 100 classes."
The former chairman of the House education committee, which crafted a 1995 bill that changed no-pass, no-play, said he and other lawmakers never intended to let school districts make such sweeping changes.
"I don't think we ever would have envisioned [competing]schools being allowed to exempt different classes," said former state Rep. Paul Sadler, an acknowledged expert on Texas education law. "It creates an uneven playing field. I never imagined that districts would exempt 100 classes. That's just beyond belief to me."
The Dallas Morning News obtained hundreds of documents from the University Interscholastic League, which regulates sports and other extracurricular activities in more than 1,000 Texas school districts. Those records reveal a system in which no one at the state level has the power to grant or deny the exemptions. The UIL simply files them away without comment.
A course for everyone
The Southlake Carroll school district, home to the state's premier high school football program, does not allow exemptions. Some students might welcome a less stringent rule, but Dragon linebacker Justin Padron said classes must come first.
"If you don't take care of your school work, you shouldn't be able to play," Mr. Padron, 18, said. "If you sign up for the class, you should be able to handle it. If you can't handle it, you should go see your counselor and get out of it."
UIL records show students in many other districts could easily craft a schedule in which nearly all of their classes are exempt from no-pass, no-play.
The state lets districts exempt Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, dual-college enrollment and other top-level classes.
On top of that, school boards are allowed to add courses to their no-pass, no-play exemption lists as long as they label them as somehow "advanced" or "honors."
The districts must submit their exemption lists to UIL, but no one reviews the lists and districts don't need to update them every year. Districts can also ban exemptions.
"There is kind of a broad range of allowance there," said Bill Farney, executive director of UIL. "We don't have a master list of courses they can and cannot exempt. Trying to make one rule fit everybody ends up with some discrepancy and some difference in interpretation or application."
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In Texas, each district decides what courses to classify as advanced beyond the core list of state-approved advanced classes.
"We would certainly expect that an honors class would go into greater depth or rigor, but we don't have any state guidelines on that issue," said Kelly Callaway, director of advanced academics for the Texas Education Agency. "It's purely local control."
Austin ISD, for example, exempts 166 courses, including cooking, hospitality, auto repair and many fine arts classes, UIL records show.
Austin and other districts say they compile their exemption lists by including all honors or advanced courses that give students extra points for taking them.
"We know it's a higher level course," said Ann Smisko, Austin's assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction. "And we know you're going to have to work harder."
Controversial from start
The 1984 no-pass, no-play law became the linchpin of a sweeping school reform effort spearheaded by Dallas billionaire Ross Perot. Many states followed Texas' lead.
The rule was relatively ironclad: Any player who scored below 70 in a course couldn't practice or play for six weeks. A principal could remove the suspension for students making less than 70 in classes labeled as advanced by the state.
Politicians praised the rule, but it quickly fell under assault.
Critics said it pushed students out of sports and into trouble. If they couldn't excel on the sports field, they would find something else to do.
"We lost some kids to the street," said D.W. Rutledge, now the executive director of the Texas High School Coaches Association. "We lost some kids to gangs."
Some argued that the rule deterred students from taking tough classes. Why bother taking a hard subject when neither the state nor the principal had exempted it from no-pass, no-play? After all, it could cost you a spot on the basketball team.
Lawmakers tried to weaken the law several times. The effort took hold in 1995 when the Legislature approved a bill to cut the suspension from six weeks to three weeks and to let students practice while they boosted their grades.
Legislators allowed exemptions to continue, but they eliminated the principal's power to decide on them. The final bill did not indicate who should identify advanced classes to be exempted.
After the bill passed, Texas Education Agency officials crafted rules that allowed districts to exempt additional courses they had labeled advanced.
Several school districts lobbied against the more liberal exemption policy, according to a 1996 copy of the Texas Register, which publishes proposed rules that interpret new laws.
TEA staff discussed the changes with some legislators, state records show. The state Board of Education ultimately approved the rules, opening the floodgates for districts to craft their own exemption lists.
Mr. Sadler said the rules went far beyond what he envisioned. He thought the exemptions would be uniform across the state.
"It bothers my sense of fairness," Mr. Sadler said. "Sometimes you pass a statute and you make your best efforts, but the implementation is difficult."
Bill Ratliff, chair of the Senate Education Committee at the time, said he doesn't specifically remember discussing exemptions. To him, the point of the 1995 bill was to restore control to local districts.
"I'm not all that big about the state getting involved in what is fair on the football field," Mr. Ratliff said.
Mr. Perot, still widely known for no-pass, no-play, declined to be interviewed for this story.
An eye on the rules
More than half of Texas high school students take part in at least one UIL activity before they graduate. Who gets to play and who doesn't often means the difference between a trophy and a last-place finish.
Mark Cousins, who oversees no-pass, no-play for UIL, said districts with lots of exemptions don't necessarily give their students an edge. Larger districts often exclude more classes because they offer a wider variety of courses than smaller districts, he said.
"It's tough to say just because one school exempts 40 and one exempts two that one has an advantage over another," Mr. Cousins said. "It would depend upon the circumstances of that school district."
Students and coaches pay close attention to what classes count – and what classes don't – in their respective districts.
Kenny Perry said he reviews eligibility rules with his football players at Bowie High School in Arlington every year.
"We do a fairly good job of knowing which classes count and which ones don't," said Mr. Perry, the head football coach. "A lot of your success is based on your kids getting eligible, but as a coach you have to realize the first reason they're here is to get their grades."
Shawn Pratt said some of his football players struggle to get "C's" in their AP classes at McKinney North High School. The exemptions take away the worry, he said.
"They might not have taken that class if they thought it would have forced them to be ineligible all year," said Mr. Pratt, head coach at McKinney North.
Students at Kennedale High School in Tarrant County, like those in Southlake, don't have that option. They have to score no lower than 70 in all courses to stay eligible – no exceptions.
"If that's [the course] they're going to choose, they've been held to having to pass it," guidance counselor Bena Glasscock said.
Most school districts that do exempt classes require their students to score at least 60 in those courses to stay on the team. Some also limit the number of grading periods a student can get an exemption for bad grades.
Eligibility going forward
No-pass, no-play is no longer unique across the country.
During the past 23 years, other states have adopted eligibility rules – some stricter than others.
The National Federation of State High School Associations recommends that states bench students for a full grading period if they don't pass four core courses. The association doesn't have the authority to enforce the recommendation.
Some states require students to pass five courses to maintain eligibility, a lower standard than the Texas rule that applies to all courses.
Other states bench students with bad grades for nine or 10 weeks, a much longer penalty than the three-week suspension required in Texas.
"Everybody has an eligibility rule, but after that point there is nothing in common," said Elliot Hopkins, director of education services for the national association.
Here in Texas, Dr. Farney said the UIL just enforces the state's rules and doesn't assess the intent of the original legislation. Each school district offers its own set of courses. If local residents object to exempting honors band, that's up to them, he said.
"It serves the intent to the extent that no one has felt it was a big enough problem to take it back to the Legislature," Dr. Farney said.
Mr. Sadler left the Legislature in 2002 and returned to his East Texas law practice. He said he believes lawmakers need to reconsider no-pass, no-play to make sure it meets its original goal.
"To allow districts to cherry-pick [exempt classes] seems inherently unfair to me," Mr. Sadler said. "There needs to be hearings held on that, and we need to take a long look at that to see that it's what we really want. That seems on its face to be patently unfair."

MeanGreenBuzz · January 28, 2007

Thats great to hear from one of our recruits. He seems like a kid thats got his head on straight. Its no wonder TD was so eager to get him on the roster.