The NCAA News - News & Features

Study probes effect of core-course standard

In 51.4 percent of the cases in which an individual was classified as a partial qualifier in Division I, that person either did not complete 13 high-school core courses as described in NCAA Bylaw 14.3 or did not achieve the required grade-point average in those core courses.

In addition, 16.2 percent of those who were partial qualifiers failed to meet both the standardized-test and core-course requirements. (Until August 1, a partial qualifier in Division I is defined as a student who does not meet the requirements for a qualifier but who, at the time of graduation from high school, presents a cumulative grade-point average of at least 2.000 on a 4.000 scale.)

Previously, core-course failures were not examined separately, and the study focused on test-score failures because of an assumption that this was the area in which most failures occurred. However, because of the recent increase in the Division I core-course requirement from 11 to 13 and because of the involvement by the NCAA Initial-Eligibility Clearinghouse in approving whether a course meets the standards to be a core course, the NCAA research staff determined that the data needed to be compiled in a way that assesses how the core-course requirement is affecting eligibility.

Because of that, the manner in which the data are compiled has changed, making a comparison of test-score and core-course failures with previous studies impossible.

However, comparisons with previous years are still possible involving the aggregate number of Division I partial qualifiers.

For instance:

* The percentage of partial qualifiers among freshman student-athletes who were awarded grants-in-aid in 1995 was 4.1 percent, essentially unchanged from recent years.

* The percentage of partial qualifiers in football was 8.0 percent, the same as 1994.

* The percentage of partial qualifiers in men's basketball was up from 5.2 percent in 1994 to 8.3 percent, the highest since 1990.

* Partial qualifiers in women's sports were essentially the same percentage as in recent years.

* The percentage of African-Americans partial qualifiers was 58.8 percent of freshmen receiving grants-in-aid.

The figure is 7.8 percent higher than last year's but still is the second-lowest figure since the study began in 1987.

Division II

In Division II, the percentage of core-course failures as a percentage of the whole was 63.4 percent, while test-score failures represented 36.6 percent.

A partial qualifier is defined differently in Division II than in Division I. In Division II, a partial qualifier is a student who does not meet the requirements for a qualifier but who, upon high-school graduation, has completed 13 core courses with a 2.000 grade-point average or scored 820 on the recentered SAT or 68 on the ACT sum score.

The overall rate of partial qualifiers in Division II was 12.5 percent of those receiving grants-in-aid. The percentages of football and men's basketball partial qualifiers were similar to those of previous years, but there were significant differences in other areas:

* The percentage of women partial qualifiers was 28.1 percent, up 7.7 percent from last year and the highest percentage since the Division II study began in 1988.

* The percentage of African-American partial qualifiers was 30.4 percent, which is down 14.1 percent and is the lowest figure since the study began.