TEST ON TRIAL : NCAA’s Academic Requirements Might Be Too Difficult for Some

Last football season, their names dominated the high school headlines: Curtis Conway, Russell White and Derek Brown. Each was a brilliant athlete and could stake a legitimate claim to being the best player in Southern California.

Naturally, all three were offered scholarships to major colleges. Yet, none of them will be playing football this season.

They, along with many other talented athletes throughout the United States, will be spectators during their freshman years of college after failing to meet the academic requirements of the National Collegiate Athletic Assn.’s controversial Proposition 48.

Adopted in 1986 to raise academic standards for athletes, Prop. 48 requires that a high school senior receiving an athletic scholarship to a Division I school must have at least a 2.0 grade-point average in 12 core classes and score a minimum of 700 on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) or a 15 on the American College Test (ACT) to be eligible to practice or compete in a sport as a freshman. Core classes are college-preparatory courses such as algebra and geometry.

By achieving one of the minimum requirements, a student is designated a “partial qualifier” and can receive an athletic scholarship but must sit out the freshman year and lose a year of eligibility.

It was hoped that Prop. 48 would lead to more concentration by athletes on academics and far better results in the classroom and on the standardized exams.

Has that happened? ANo one knows for sure, but based on comments from coaches and educators, the answer is probably not, at least not to the degree many had hoped.

The NCAA keeps statistics only on Prop. 48 players who actually receive scholarships. That number has increased from 457 in 1987 to 552 in 1988.

Because of their talent, Conway, who played at Hawthorne; White, of Encino Crespi, and Brown, of Anaheim Servite, were certain to be offered Division I scholarships.

Conway, a scrambling quarterback who ran for 813 yards and 11 touchdowns and passed for 1,159 yards and 10 touchdowns, was offered a scholarship by Nebraska but left the school before registering. The state’s 100-meter dash champion (10.42 seconds) wanted to go to USC, and reportedly still wants to go there, although he was unable to meet the school’s requirements. He was able to go to Nebraska because the Cornhuskers admit partial qualifiers whereas USC does not.

White, who ran for 1,379 yards and 20 touchdowns in an injury-plagued senior season, is the state’s all-time leading rusher with 5,998 yards. He received a scholarship to California, a surprise, considering the school’s strong academic reputation.

Brown, the Southern Section’s leading rusher last season with 2,301 yards and scored 30 touchdowns, accepted a scholarship to Nebraska.

But many other less gifted athletes do not have as many options. More and more schools are declining to offer scholarships to partial qualifiers, who are then left with the choice of going to community colleges or not attending school at all.

Although there has been no recognizable change in academic performance, the perception among educators and coaches, high school and college alike, is that the situation is improving.

They point to an increased awareness by the athletes and the high schools of the academic requirements, and claim more is being done to help the athletes achieve educational needs.

“We average six to 10 Division I players a year and this year we had two players who did not pass the SAT,” said Gene Vollnogle, Carson football coach. “That number has stayed the same since Prop. 48 took effect.”

Educators, parents, coaches and students say the results have not been better because:

--The SAT exam is racially or culturally biased against blacks.

--Regardless of race, the SAT is not a valid test.

--Many high schools are not adequately preparing athletes for college and the entrance exams.

--Parents are not taking an active enough role in the educational future of their children.

--Athletes spend far too much time on their sports and not enough on academics.

--The ego of some athletes is such that they are certain that they will be accepted by many colleges regardless of academic standing.

Conway, who signed a letter of intent with USC contingent upon his passing the SAT, took the exam five times without scoring 700.

He claims he was at a disadvantage because of the elementary and junior high schools he attended.

Lacking a solid educational foundation, Conway says, he had too much work to make up in high school to be ready for the SAT.

“I think the SAT is not fair so there should not even be a Prop. 48,” he told the South Bay Daily Breeze. “School and the SAT are two different things.

“If you look at a guy like me, the area I grew up in is not even middle class. It’s a different element in my neighborhood than in Beverly Hills or Palos Verdes. Everybody knows that schools in the ghetto don’t get the quality of teachers those schools have.”

Conway is far from alone in his contention that the SAT is biased.

In fact, Educational Testing System (ETS), the company that designs the Scholastic Aptitude Test, told NCAA officials when Prop. 48 was passed that it opposed a cutoff score.

ETS President Gregory Anrig wrote that a cutoff would disproportionately affect black students as compared to whites, and that although ETS was in favor of raising academic standards, the use of a fixed cutoff score “may undermine the overall effectiveness of this worthy effort.”

Basing his argument on 1981 test results, Anrig concluded that twice as many black students as whites would have lost their freshman eligibility if a 700 cutoff score had been in effect. This year, the average score for whites was 935 compared to 737 for blacks.

Others argue that the SAT is an unreliable indicator of how well a student will perform in college because it is a conceptual exam, with heavy emphasis on vocabulary and math.

Still, the difficulty of the exam crosses racial, social, economic and academic lines. Gino Tagliaferri is another who failed to achieve a 700.

He grew up in Granada Hills, a middle-class suburb, and there attended Kennedy High School, which has well-regarded academic program.

Tagliaferri, a partial qualifier, received a baseball scholarship to Cal State Fresno, but the third-round draft choice has since signed with the Detroit Tigers. He took the SAT three times and scored 690 each time. He had a 2.8 grade-point average in the core classes and took an SAT preparation course.

“I would go to (preparation) class and go over all the sections,” Tagliaferri said. “I worked my butt off. It’s very sad to have my grade-point average and my level of study habits, but I’m not eligible because of a test that can’t tell the future.”

At Crespi, a Catholic boys’ school with a respected academic tradition, principal Gregory Gunn says the average SAT score is 1,030. Whereas the NCAA requires 12 core classes, Crespi requires 23. White graduated from Crespi with a 2.3 grade-point average, but could not score 700.

Bill Redell, formerly Crespi’s football coach, said the SAT is not the proper criterion by which to judge White.

“Russell attended an SAT class starting last summer, but whether he applied himself or not, only he could answer,” Redell said. “How can I explain his SAT? I can’t. I was surprised. He’s a better student than that. It has to do with his ability to take the test. But it seems unfair that he spent four years at a college prep school and is ineligible. I question the validity of the SAT.”

Like White, Brown attended a private school, Servite.

Although he expected to receive assistance in securing a scholarship, Brown said that Servite is partially responsible for his current situation because he was not informed of the cutoff SAT score until his junior year.

“It was a problem that I didn’t know about the SAT until then,” he said. “There should be more emphasis during the freshman and sophomore years. Servite didn’t really do that. I’ve told other guys, ‘Get that done with first and you’ll be OK.’ Our counselor worked with the entire school, so it would have been helpful if there was someone working with (athletes).”

Fr. Patrick Donovan, Servite’s principal, maintains that Brown had resources available to him.

“We have all sorts of counseling for all our students, particularly our athletes,” he said. “He had all the benefits of the counseling office and he was part of a (standardized) testing program that begins freshman year.”

Conway’s SAT problems have magnified the argument that schools are not doing enough to help students prepare for college.

“The Curtis Conway thing has brought a lot of attention to Hawthorne because he didn’t pass the SAT,” said Otto Plum, the school’s athletic director.

“Curtis made some comments that he had tutoring, but he sloughed off. Maybe if he had started with the PSAT (a practice SAT exam) in 10th grade, things would be different.”

According to Kye Courtney, Hawthorne’s track coach, Conway’s failure to meet the requirements was one of the factors leading to the formation of the Academics and Athletics Commission last February. McKinley Nash, the superintendent of the Centinela Valley Union High School District, formed it to investigate how well student athletes in that area were preparing for college admission.

Conway’s low scores “moved the superintendent to where he wanted to do something,” Courtney said. “It’s brought attention and put pressure on the district.”

Courtney, who was Hawthorne’s interim vice principal at the time, headed the commission that surveyed 400 students who had earned a letter in a varsity sport.

The survey asked these questions:

--Did they take the PSAT (a practice SAT exam)?

--Did they take the SAT or ACT?

--Did they plan to compete in college?

--Did they fill out their grant and financial aid forms?

--Did they receive a grant or aid?

--Are they planning to attend a community college?

“When I went out with the questionnaire, I knew the answers,” Courtney said. “I just had to prove it to myself.”

What Courtney found was that students were waiting until their senior years to take the SAT and 95% did not take the PSAT. Students can take the SAT as early as the ninth grade and as often as they want.

Although Courtney advocates stronger preparatory measures, there is only so much the high school counselors can do, he said.

“We need parental guidance, of which there is little to none. It’s another big social problem,” Courtney said. “We teach (students) to drive, we teach them about (sex education)and now we teach them how to take this test. It’s another thing that’s dumped on the schools.”

When parents do get involved, the results are usually positive.

Gloria Nelson, a single parent with two sons, works two jobs to pay their tuition to St. Bernard High School in Playa del Rey. When her sons were being harassed by gangs on the bus going to school, she took on another job and bought them a car.

The older son, Douglas, was senior class president and a linebacker on the football team last year. When the school called to tell Nelson that Douglas had been slacking off in a class, she was in school the next day. Soon his grades were back on track.

“I’m very strict with my sons,” she said. “I set their guidelines. To be able to participate in sports they have to excel academically.

“Part of being a parent is helping them make decisions, but sometimes it’s also to say no. ‘You have to do your homework. You have priorities. The situation you are in now is a temporary one. There are things you can’t enjoy now, but if you play sports and get a scholarship, your education will allow you to do anything.’ ”

A 3.0 student, Douglas Nelson took a SAT preparation course and the exam in 11th grade. He scored a 750, and is now a freshman football player at Oregon State on scholarship.

“He’s been playing flag football since he was a little boy because I’ve always had a goal in mind,” his mother said. “I worked hard to keep them in a private school and keep up with their work and meet with teachers.

“Now I’m not paying a dime for college. We are always crying that we don’t have opportunities, but parents are not being parents. Kids are raising themselves and making their own decisions.”

According to educators, when athletes’ do not have their parents enforcing rules for academics standards, they frequently spend more time practicing sports than working on the subjects they have difficulty with.

Often, students do not take the core classes that will help them do well on the SAT until 11th or 12th grades, when they should be preparing specifically for the test. And even if they take the classes, some students just work to maintain the necessary 2.0 grade-point average.

That situation frustrates Ed Azzam, the Westchester High basketball coach.

“We have study hall every day after school during the season,” Azzam said. “Teachers are helping kids and they’re still coming up with F’s. But if a kid doesn’t spend an hour or two after they leave school, either in a library or at home, reviewing material from the day in classes, they are not going to learn. Most of my kids do not do that. The SAT is a test of verbal skill and basic math. If a kid does his homework he will pass.”

Another problem is that when a young athlete experiences success on the playing field, there is a tendency to minimize Prop. 48 requirements. Some athletes believe that if they perform well enough, a college will find some way to grant them scholarships.

“The idea that everything will work out in the end is false,” Courtney said. “For some students, it’s more important for them to get a job so they can show up to the prom in a limo, than do their work and study for the SAT.”

If Prop. 42, favored by many educators, is adopted by the NCAA next year, athletes will no longer be able to delude themselves into thinking that they will receive a scholarship regardless of what they score on the SAT or how they perform in the classroom.

Prop. 42 would require both a 2.0 grade-point average in the 12 core classes and a minimum 700 SAT score to receive a scholarship. It is under attack by coaches who claim that it discriminates even further against low-income students, and had it been in effect this year, Conway, White and Brown would not have been eligible for scholarships.

The debate over the legitimacy of the SAT will probably continue for years to come, but the fact remains that the cutoff score of 700 is an NCAA requirement.

Although there are no statistics available, educators say that it’s the SAT score rather than the necessary grade-point average that poses the greater difficulty.

Statistics from Educational Testing System reveal that students score lower on the verbal section than the math. This year, the average verbal score was 428, the average math score 476.

ETS has calculated the number of correct responses needed to score a 400 on math and a 300 on verbal. To get that total, one must answer 17 of 60 math questions correctly and 14 of 85 verbal questions correctly. There is a 1.33-point penalty for a wrong answer and students receive 400 points for signing their names.

“Verbal seems to be the nemesis,” said John Becker, a Banning High School guidance counselor who advises student-athletes at the school. “Math classes in high school can really prepare a student (for the SAT) because if you know your algebra and geometry you’re OK. But for the verbal, your vocabulary and reading comprehension have to be good. Today’s kids don’t read that much.”

Since Prop. 48 was passed in 1986, SAT preparation courses have become extremely popular.

Through a program offered by the UCLA Extension, 49 schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District and 15 of the 47 schools in the Los Angeles Archdiocese paid for teachers’ SAT preparation training. Those teachers now supervise SAT courses at their local schools.

“We don’t teach tricks, but how to read closely,” said Kathy McGuire, UCLA’s continuing education specialist. “That’s something a student can use in their next history class. It’s a learning skill.

“The trouble is, you don’t buy a skill the way you buy a product. Just taking a course is not going to raise a student’s score. He’s got to be willing to work.”

Even if an athlete is well prepared in the classroom, understanding the requirements of Prop. 48 is essential.

At Banning, Becker works only with athletes, providing them with necessary qualifying information in their freshman years and monitoring their progress.

This year, nine Banning students received scholarships to Division 1 schools.

“You’re always going to have the individual who is not academically inclined,” Becker said. “They may work hard and just be capable of getting a passing grade. They will struggle on the test and it’s really hit or miss. You hope they get enough from their classes to pass it. Some kids, maybe someone who’s a very good ballplayer, learns the facts, but I have to keep on reminding him.”

Some educators believe that the entire system must be revamped in addition to having more focused counseling for both athletes and non-athletes.

Nash, the Centinela Valley district superintendent, is in the process of such a task. For the last three summers, the APPI (Assessment, Planning, Programing, and Intervention) program has been offered to Centinela Valley high school students. The comprehensive four-year college preparatory program combines an eight-week program each summer during high school with specific college-oriented classes during the school year.

Although some athletes are already participating in the program, Nash wants APPI to be mandatory.

“If you have an athletic program, you have an obligation to build some academic reinforcement,” he said.

But although such programs are designed to prevent athletes from falling victim to Prop. 48, it’s questionable how much can be done.

“As long as there’s the proposition, there will always will be some kids who will be a problem,” said Goy Casillas, Hawthorne football coach. “The hope is the majority of the kids will wake up and also get proper guidance from their parents and from their teachers.”