"The input of the high schools has been invaluable," said James A. Castaneda, faculty athletics representative at Rice University and chair of the Division I Academics/Eligibility/Compliance Cabinet's Subcommittee on Initial-Eligibility Issues. "We look forward to a continuing relationship with these groups as we address this important challenge."

Representatives from seven education associations attended the November meeting. They included the National Association of Secondary School Principals, the National Federation of State High School Associations, the American School Counselors Association, the National Association for College Admission Counseling, the National Association of State Boards of Education and the Minnesota State High School League.

The NCAA was represented by the Division I Subcommittee on Initial-Eligibility Issues, the Division II Academic Requirements Committee and members of the NCAA Initial-Eligibility Clearinghouse Committee. The Division I subcommittee and the Division II Academic Requirements Committee plan to conduct a final meeting in December, at which time they will produce the report that will be submitted to the Divisions I and II Management Councils, the Division I Board of Directors, and the Division II Presidents Council.

Those groups will consider the report at their January meetings. If the plan is approved at that time, it will be implemented in spring 1998. High schools would be informed of the changes in a February mailing.

The current approach places the responsibility for reviewing high-school core courses with the clearinghouse. This is accomplished by asking the high school to complete and submit a core-course worksheet for classes it would like added to its approved list. The new approach being suggested asks the high-school principal to review the core-course criteria and to simply list those college-preparatory courses the high school offers that meet the criteria. In the event that a course title might "flag" the course as potentially not meeting the criteria, the high school will be asked to provide additional information describing the course.

The alternative approach has been supported in concept by the Divisions I and II governance structures. The approach also gained support at a number of Divisions I and II conference meetings this fall. In addition, a straw poll at the November convention of the Faculty Athletics Representatives Association revealed strong support for the new direction.

Kevin C. Lennon, NCAA director of membership services, stressed that the proposed changes will be built on an atmosphere of trust between the NCAA and the high schools. However, he noted that the plan will contain mechanisms for addressing abuses, such as the removal of "clearly erroneous listings." The system also will provide for greater scrutiny in cases in which a course is submitted for approval after a student has graduated high school and in which an athlete needs the course to be certified.

The change will not involve any modification of NCAA legislation. NCAA rules stipulate only that the clearinghouse will be responsible for making certain that prospective student-athletes have met the prescribed initial-eligibility standards. The legislation does not describe how core courses will be determined.

Communication was a major theme of the November meeting. The high-school groups were asked to solicit recommendations from constituents, which produced a number of useful ideas. Among them were making the NCAA's World Wide Web site more helpful for counselors and timing mailings in a manner that will achieve the best response.

To aid communication, the NCAA has retained Fleishman-Hillard, a national public relations firm, to assist with the report. Fleishman-Hillard previously has helped the NCAA with the communications process for initial-eligibility matters.