NCAA responds to literacy findings

Joining many top-tier UNC administrators, the NCAA has also called into question the statistics presented in a CNN report last week about the literacy levels of college athletes.

In the report, UNC academic counselor and former athletic reading specialist Mary Willingham said many of the athletes she tutored lacked the reading skills necessary for college. The report also detailed the admissions of athletes nationwide with SAT scores in the 200s and 300s — the threshold for being college literate is a 400 on the critical reading or writing test, the article stated.

The NCAA issued a press release Friday stating 16 out of 29,000 Division I athletes scored below a 600 composite on the SAT, and just two of them were football or men’s basketball players. It also states that 68 student athletes scored between a 600 and a 700.

“Academic success of student-athletes is a core priority for the NCAA and its member schools,” the press release states. “NCAA member schools have established academics standards student athletes must meet so they can compete in their sport. These are completely separate from the admission standards colleges and universities use to admit and enroll students.”

In the CNN article, Willingham also said she had collected data between 2004 and 2012 which showed that nearly 10 percent of 183 football and basketball players read below a third-grade level, and 60 percent were reading between a fourth and eighth grade level.

Willingham has not yet released the data, and administrators have been critical of the report’s accuracy.

UNC-system President Tom Ross would not comment on the CNN report during a press conference at the UNC Board of Governors meeting Friday, but said the University is taking steps to address the issues.

“I do think it’s important to understand that we have really strong admissions departments, whether it’s student athletes or other students,” he said. “We provide support for student athletes to ensure that they have strong opportunities to succeed academically and many, many student athletes do perfectly fine.”

In addition, the Board of Governors released a report which examined the performance of student athletes at 15 campuses in the system.

The board’s report also stated that five institutions had teams with academic progress rates — a number used by the NCAA as an indicator of academic strength — below 930, which could result in future penalties. UNC Chapel Hill was not one of the five schools.

Despite the criticism against her, Willingham said last week that UNC has the obligation to make sure athletes get the education they deserve, and that should be a national conversation.

“The only hope is for one chancellor, one college president to stand up and tell the NCAA, ‘Enough, we’re going to educate these students and we’re going to decide to how we’re going to give them a voice.’ That’s the only way,” she said.

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