Texas Honor Roll

Should there be grade requirement for athletics? Should athletes have to be on the honor roll in order to play? Many states and schools have many different opinions. To be on the regular honor roll, you can have grades ranging from A’s to B’s with no more than one C. If you do have a C, you must have one A. In order to be on the honor roll, your GPA must be a 3.0. Some schools have made it easier to stay on teams with a low grade. School leaders are starting to see the good in making it easier for students to keep playing with poor grades. Students attending Rockford in Illinois are able to keep playing sports even with less than a C average. At some schools eliminating GPA requirements are upsetting students who think that playing sports

Texas was the first state to pass the No Pass/ No Play Law. In Texas if you don’t pass a class you cannot play for 3 weeks. In Hartford County Public Schools students can fail up to 6 classes in 4 years of high school and still get a Maryland diploma. Students beginning in their second year of high school, must earn 5 credits which count during state high school graduation requirements. In the beginning of their third year, they must earn 10 credits or 5 credits during the 12 month proceeding the first day of the current school year. Last year the University of North Carolina’s athletic department was charged for giving students a “GPA Booster” classes to keep students playing. The University of North Carolina used that strategy to keep students from failing which causes them to be ineligible to play sports. At Syracuse University, they did not control nor monitor its athletics department. Also in Georgia, a coach made arrangements for a student to enroll in an independent study course just to keep playing. At Rutgers, the head football coach was suspended from the university for three weeks due and fined for $50,000 for violating their policy. The coach contracted a faculty about the academic standing

Natalie stated, “It still frustrates me that too often in D.C. and in many other schools systems the football players kind of funnel through for their athletics and nobody ever really coaches their brain.” Natalie also teaches biology at a high school. Natalie Randolph also said, “I have a lot of things in place like study hall requirements and teachers to help out to really make sure that that part isn’t forgotten. I make sure that the boys know that part is important to me. They can’t practice if they don’t get that done.” I think that it is very rare for a coach to want their students to fully balance athletics and academics. Most coaches just want their players to not fail so they won’t have to get kicked off the team. Clemson College understands that most of the student athletes will not become pro when they graduate. For that reason, Clemson provides programs in leadership training, social media awareness and personal finance. Clemson also has Tiger Trust which allows any athletes who leave campus in good academic standing to return on athletic aid to complete their degree. Clemson college focuses more on the success of student-athletes who earn their degrees and who impact their communities. Nearly 8 million students who play a sport in high school, but only 480,000 will compete in a NCAA school. And only a fraction of that group will become professional. In