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College athletes that can't read?
Posted on 1/7/14 at 8:59 pm
Posted on 1/7/14 at 8:59 pm
quote:
Willingham's job was to help athletes who weren't quite ready academically for the work required at UNC at Chapel Hill, one of the country's top public universities. But she was shocked that one couldn't read. And then she found he was not an anomaly. Soon, she'd meet a student-athlete who couldn't read multisyllabic words. She had to teach him to sound out Wis-con-sin, as kids do in elementary school. And then another came with this request: "If I could teach him to read well enough so he could read about himself in the news, because that was something really important to him," Willingham said.
LINKhttps://www.cnn.com/2014/01/07/us/ncaa-athletes-reading-scores/index.html
This post was edited on 1/7/14 at 9:00 pm
7
Posted on 1/7/14 at 9:15 pm to Revelator
How great would this have been from a big ten team. They fricking love to talk about how smart their athletes are.
Posted on 1/7/14 at 9:17 pm to Revelator
quote:
There are anecdotes of student athletes who do succeed. Christine Simatacolos, the associate athletics director for student life at the University of Louisville in Kentucky, talks of a student whose low scores fell below the college literacy threshold but who graduated from Louisiana State University and is now in medical school.
I don't believe anyone can graduate from high school reading at a 4th grade level, matriculate at LSU while being a varsity athlete and then get into a legitimate medical school based upon your academic abilities.
The medical school should be investigated.
Posted on 1/7/14 at 9:17 pm to Revelator
There was a New York Times article last week, about how a UNC professor was charged with some type of public fraud, he was the chairman of the African and Afro-American studies department.
He ran the department for 20 years and they found out that dozens of this classes would never meet. A majority of his students were UNC basketball and football players. The chairman and his assistant (she retire with full pension after 30 years) presided over 500+ unauthorized grade changes for athletes dating back to 1997, which included forging professors' signatures.
He was paid 12 grand to teach an afro-american studies class, inwhich numerous athletes enrolled. He wasn't even in the country at anytime the course took place.
He ran the department for 20 years and they found out that dozens of this classes would never meet. A majority of his students were UNC basketball and football players. The chairman and his assistant (she retire with full pension after 30 years) presided over 500+ unauthorized grade changes for athletes dating back to 1997, which included forging professors' signatures.
He was paid 12 grand to teach an afro-american studies class, inwhich numerous athletes enrolled. He wasn't even in the country at anytime the course took place.
This post was edited on 1/7/14 at 9:19 pm
Posted on 1/7/14 at 9:21 pm to CarrolltonTiger
What is the "college literacy threshold"? I'm guessing it's got to be a bit beyond fourth grade, no?
Posted on 1/7/14 at 9:23 pm to Revelator
Anyone who has been to an SEC school can tell you this is nothing new.
Posted on 1/7/14 at 9:25 pm to Y.A. Tittle
quote:
What is the "college literacy threshold"? I'm guessing it's got to be a bit beyond fourth grade, no?
Why? They also didn't say how far below this student was.
The article did state: "Many student-athletes scored in the 200s and 300s on the SAT critical reading test -- a threshold that experts told us was an elementary reading level and too low for college classes."
You get a 200 on the SAT you are reading at about a 4th grade level, or what 4th graders were doing in functional schools in the 1950's.
Posted on 1/7/14 at 9:37 pm to CarrolltonTiger
Why do I think fourth grade level is not the "threshold" of reading for what is expected of college students? Why would you think it would be? 
I suspect, the woman was using an example of someone who came in just under the bar initially (maybe 10th grade, or whatever this threshold is) to try to cleverly (she thinks) make some point. Not that some kid in college barely reading on a lower elementary school level actually made it to med school.
I suspect, the woman was using an example of someone who came in just under the bar initially (maybe 10th grade, or whatever this threshold is) to try to cleverly (she thinks) make some point. Not that some kid in college barely reading on a lower elementary school level actually made it to med school.
Posted on 1/7/14 at 9:44 pm to Revelator
The NCAA and major college athletics are a fraud. The term student-athlete is a joke. Most of those guys running around Death Valley have no business being in college...they're there for our entertainment... That scholarship - worthless. What good does that do for a person who's reading at the jr high level if reading at all. These guys basically get "tutored", coached through joke classes. Read Blind Side and behind the feel good story is how they gamed the system to get that kid eligible for college. It's a joke....But, yeah, I'm watching every Saturday too.
Posted on 1/7/14 at 10:20 pm to cwill
quote:
The NCAA and major college athletics are a fraud. The term student-athlete is a joke. Most of those guys running around Death Valley have no business being in college...they're there for our entertainment... That scholarship - worthless. What good does that do for a person who's reading at the jr high level if reading at all. These guys basically get "tutored", coached through joke classes. Read Blind Side and behind the feel good story is how they gamed the system to get that kid eligible for college. It's a joke....But, yeah, I'm watching every Saturday too.
This is a problem, but I don't know how it can be remedied? Some of the best athletes come
from the worse schools, families, backgrounds, etc. and have the poorest educations.
Posted on 1/7/14 at 11:00 pm to SammyTiger
quote:
How great would this have been from a big ten team. They fricking love to talk about how smart their athletes are.
Posted on 1/7/14 at 11:02 pm to Revelator
quote:
This is a problem, but I don't know how it can be remedied? Some of the best athletes come
from the worse schools, families, backgrounds, etc. and have the poorest educations.
It could be easily remedied.
All you have to do is have administrators actually enforce admission requirements.
The mission of a university IS NOT here to provide the general public with entertainment.
Too many universities have long forgotten this.
Posted on 1/7/14 at 11:06 pm to asurob1
Then how do you respond to the resulting claims of racism bc big time CFB teams are not signing underprivilaged blacks who have suffered in part bc of a poor education system?
Posted on 1/7/14 at 11:10 pm to asurob1
Then the state would have to pony up the money the athletic department no longer brings in. The only way it ever works is if every school increases to the exact same standards at the exact same time with the exact same enforcement.
Posted on 1/7/14 at 11:13 pm to Wishnitwas1998
quote:
Then how do you respond to the resulting claims of racism bc big time CFB teams are not signing underprivilaged blacks who have suffered in part bc of a poor education system?
They are being admitted for their economic value not fears of being mau maued.
It is easy to explain how a kid with a 400 SAT, that can't read, can't do elementary math is not admitted to the university.
Posted on 1/7/14 at 11:14 pm to Wishnitwas1998
quote:
Then how do you respond to the resulting claims of racism bc big time CFB teams are not signing underprivilaged blacks who have suffered in part bc of a poor education system?
shrug
Affirmative action is a product from our guilty past.
You either find students who can meet the requirements or you lower the requirements and let ALL those who meet them in.
Too long football schools have tried to have it both ways.
Posted on 1/7/14 at 11:15 pm to LSUGrrrl
quote:
Then the state would have to pony up the money the athletic department no longer brings in. The only way it ever works is if every school increases to the exact same standards at the exact same time with the exact same enforcement.
So?
Once again, the mission of any university, state or private is to educate it's student body. Not entertain them with Johnny Football scoring touchdowns.
Posted on 1/7/14 at 11:17 pm to CarrolltonTiger
quote:
They are being admitted for their economic value not fears of being mau maued.
It is easy to explain how a kid with a 400 SAT, that can't read, can't do elementary math is not admitted to the university.
No one would get sued if they universally held ALL students up to the same standard. Athletes are not suppose to get special shite because they can run faster then the common student.
Posted on 1/7/14 at 11:19 pm to asurob1
All I'm saying is if these schools just completely stop taking these kids who normally wouldn't be qualified there will be claims of racism.
Not saying it's right but once you start letting people slide it's very hard to stop when the people are minorities in the media climate we live in currently bc you will be labeled as a racist
I hope this doesn't sound racist as that isn't what I'm trying to say
Not saying it's right but once you start letting people slide it's very hard to stop when the people are minorities in the media climate we live in currently bc you will be labeled as a racist
I hope this doesn't sound racist as that isn't what I'm trying to say
Posted on 1/7/14 at 11:24 pm to asurob1
quote:
No one would get sued if they universally held ALL students up to the same standard
It would totally change college football as it stands but probably needs to be done. No one is actually buying the "student athlete" myth anymore.
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