I'm surprised nobody has posted this yet.

UNC whistleblower Willingham: Academic sins not isolated

Quote:
Mary Willingham says the NCAA would open 'Pandora's Box' if it really looked into academic fraud. (USATSI)

That even one illiterate player was ever admitted to a university anywhere in big-time college athletics is a scandal. Mary Willingham says she has helped teach several at North Carolina.

"We may as well go right up the street to Glenwood Elementary," Willingham, a former academic advisor at the school, told CNN last month, "and let all the fourth graders in here."

Willingham, a 52-year-old mother of a three, is known first as a whistleblower these days. The current clinical instructor in North Carolina's school of education said her research showed that between 8-10 percent of athletes screened between 2005-2012 were "functionally illiterate."

The school attacked her research. There were others who wanted to attack her in a different way.

"The first 12 hours after the story, it was brutal," Willingham told CBSSports.com recently. "Every email, my phone, a couple of my colleagues got messages."

This is the way it usually goes for whistleblowers. There's the message, then the inevitable push back against the messenger. We've become almost numb to academic scandal, but when the word "illiterate" creeps into the conversation, hasn't something changed?

Here's another excerpt from the story.

Quote:She is particularly disturbed by "special admits," basketball and football players she said were brought but who couldn't handle college work.

But special admits are one thing, bringing in the functionally illiterate athlete-students is another. Willingham tells the story of a player who came to her wanting to learn so he could read about himself online.

"That's when I wrote my thesis paper," she said.

"Academics & Athletics -- A Clash of Cultures" took on the special admit issue in 2009. While graduation rates and admission standards have risen, she wrote[quote]"there are no NCAA limits on special admits ..."

"... ultimately, admitting under-prepared students constitutes deceit and is immoral."

This is a very sad comment on UNC and their pursuit of excellence in athletics, at the expense of those who bring them their glory. What's even sadder is the NCAA's apparent lack of interest in the whole affair.

I've always thought the NCAA was a joke. Here's proof.

This is what the Athletic "Scholarship" is.

It is saying "we want you in this university because of your athletic talent and dont care a thing about how smart or dumb you are"

We can rail about how thats wrong and against a schools mission, but its a symptom of a far more basic human quirk: the need to win at all costs. That's why we bring in ringers, to make sure our team is betetr than their team.

Sure, we could get rid of athletic scholarships and only admit students who qualify...but then we'd just be back at square one where we were either fudging scores or creating special majors with no requirements at all to make sure the ringers get in.

Theres really no system you can create to stop it outside getting rid of athletic scholarships, rigorous 3rd party scrutinizing of admissions and severe (and actual) punishments for offenders...none of which the schools themselves will ever actually agree to.

If UNC is letting in "functionally illiterate" players, the my assumption is that HS teachers passed them when
they should never have, even in grade school? Who is taking the ACT SAT tests for these kids?

I hope this spreads and every school has to face up to this issue, including my own Alma Mater.

This isn't right and its part of the reason college athletics is being driven by money instead of the original purpose.

North Carolina Ashville better be afraid

There isn't a D1 school, public or private, east or west, north or south, small or large, that this isn't applicable to.

(02-11-2014 05:12 PM)HeartOfDixie Wrote:  I hope this spreads and every school has to face up to this issue, including my own Alma Mater.

This isn't right and its part of the reason college athletics is being driven by money instead of the original purpose.

Not too bang on the SEC but back in the day the word on the street was
that former Auburn and Bengal James Brooks could not read. I don't think this happens everywhere, but more so by a few going after the high level 5 Star type recruits.

But is starts with grade, middle schools and then high schools passing kids who they very clearly should not.

(02-11-2014 05:24 PM)SuperFlyBCat Wrote:  

(02-11-2014 05:12 PM)HeartOfDixie Wrote:  I hope this spreads and every school has to face up to this issue, including my own Alma Mater.

This isn't right and its part of the reason college athletics is being driven by money instead of the original purpose.

Not too bang on the SEC but back in the day the word on the street was
that former Auburn and Bengal James Brooks could not read. I don't think this happens everywhere, but more so by a few going after the high level 5 Star type recruits.

But is starts with grade, middle schools and then high schools passing kids who they very clearly should not.

There has been a lot of talk about all that and many who have come out and admitted they are illiterate have mentioned it being a much wider problem than many think.

Like I said, this is a D1 issue, not a conference or school issue.

(02-11-2014 05:17 PM)HeartOfDixie Wrote:  There isn't a D1 school, public or private, east or west, north or south, small or large, that this isn't applicable to.

If they can't read or they are at a grade school level they can't score high enough on the SAT/ACT to get in. Are there easy A electives, grading curves, sure, but wide scale academic fraud everywhere .....I don't know.

We do know that Sister Rose over at Xavier always makes sure that the Diploma Mill is well oiled for the BBall team.

(02-11-2014 05:27 PM)SuperFlyBCat Wrote:  

(02-11-2014 05:17 PM)HeartOfDixie Wrote:  There isn't a D1 school, public or private, east or west, north or south, small or large, that this isn't applicable to.

If they can't read or they are at a grade school level they can't score high enough on the SAT/ACT to get in. Are there easy A electives, grading curves, sure, but wide scale academic fraud everywhere .....I don't know.

We do know that Sister Rose over at Xavier always makes sure that the Diploma Mill is well oiled for the BBall team.

I think it's extremely widespread. I don't see how it isn't.

(02-11-2014 05:24 PM)SuperFlyBCat Wrote:  

(02-11-2014 05:12 PM)HeartOfDixie Wrote:  I hope this spreads and every school has to face up to this issue, including my own Alma Mater.

This isn't right and its part of the reason college athletics is being driven by money instead of the original purpose.

Not too bang on the SEC but back in the day the word on the street was
that former Auburn and Bengal James Brooks could not read. I don't think this happens everywhere, but more so by a few going after the high level 5 Star type recruits.

But is starts with grade, middle schools and then high schools passing kids who they very clearly should not.

The problem definitely begins with the childhood education system. It's so incredibly difficult these days to make a child repeat a year. My sister is a 7th grade English teacher here in Connecticut and has some kids in her classes reading and writing at a third/fourth grade level. She does all she can (tutoring, after school hours, extra credit) because she loves what she does, but that only goes so far. There's some real issues with No Child Left Behind that need to be addressed. IMO until this happens, we're still going to have this problem at the collegiate level.

So what should we do with the "functionally illiterate"?
Should we take away their best chance to make a lot of money? To attend college?

The best of the best make it to the NFL. A few others can make some $ in the CFL and such.

It is the "middle of the class" athlete who has no chance at a professional sports career and apparently has no chance in the college classroom that should be kept off the field right?

What we should do with the functionally illiterate is teach them something useful, in case their athletic career goes bust. If they can't make it in the pros, where can they make it?

(02-11-2014 05:29 PM)HeartOfDixie Wrote:  

(02-11-2014 05:27 PM)SuperFlyBCat Wrote:  

(02-11-2014 05:17 PM)HeartOfDixie Wrote:  There isn't a D1 school, public or private, east or west, north or south, small or large, that this isn't applicable to.

If they can't read or they are at a grade school level they can't score high enough on the SAT/ACT to get in. Are there easy A electives, grading curves, sure, but wide scale academic fraud everywhere .....I don't know.

We do know that Sister Rose over at Xavier always makes sure that the Diploma Mill is well oiled for the BBall team.

I think it's extremely widespread. I don't see how it isn't.

I tend to agree with you to a certain extent, dix. But I'd bet the number of schools who have gone as far as UNC seems to have done isn't as large as you think.

(02-11-2014 05:42 PM)Dasville Wrote:  So what should we do with the "functionally illiterate"?
Should we take away their best chance to make a lot of money? To attend college?

The best of the best make it to the NFL. A few others can make some $ in the CFL and such.

It is the "middle of the class" athlete who has no chance at a professional sports career and apparently has no chance in the college classroom that should be kept off the field right?

They do not belong at a University.

The other equally unpopular option is a minor league system for the NFL

(02-11-2014 05:52 PM)10thMountain Wrote:  The other equally unpopular option is a minor league system for the NFL

It's only unpopular with the NFL. It's economically beneficial to the NFL to defer the cost of developing players to the NCAA. So they do.

(02-11-2014 05:46 PM)bitcruncher Wrote:  What we should do with the functionally illiterate is teach them something useful, in case their athletic career goes bust. If they can't make it in the pros, where can they make it?

(02-11-2014 05:29 PM)HeartOfDixie Wrote:  

(02-11-2014 05:27 PM)SuperFlyBCat Wrote:  

(02-11-2014 05:17 PM)HeartOfDixie Wrote:  There isn't a D1 school, public or private, east or west, north or south, small or large, that this isn't applicable to.

If they can't read or they are at a grade school level they can't score high enough on the SAT/ACT to get in. Are there easy A electives, grading curves, sure, but wide scale academic fraud everywhere .....I don't know.

We do know that Sister Rose over at Xavier always makes sure that the Diploma Mill is well oiled for the BBall team.

I think it's extremely widespread. I don't see how it isn't.

I tend to agree with you to a certain extent, dix. But I'd bet the number of schools who have gone as far as UNC seems to have done isn't as large as you think.

I meant the unpreparedness rate.

When millions of dollars are a stake all of these schools are cutting corners at the expense of education.

(02-11-2014 05:49 PM)SuperFlyBCat Wrote:  

(02-11-2014 05:42 PM)Dasville Wrote:  So what should we do with the "functionally illiterate"?
Should we take away their best chance to make a lot of money? To attend college?

The best of the best make it to the NFL. A few others can make some $ in the CFL and such.

It is the "middle of the class" athlete who has no chance at a professional sports career and apparently has no chance in the college classroom that should be kept off the field right?

They do not belong at a University.

Absolutely. Go back to night school or to the community college. Schools like UNC do that to non-athletes every day.

And considering what big schools like that do to regular students tranferring from two-year schools, like additional testing and background checks, what UNC is doing is disgustingly insulting.

(02-11-2014 06:04 PM)HeartOfDixie Wrote:  

(02-11-2014 05:46 PM)bitcruncher Wrote:  What we should do with the functionally illiterate is teach them something useful, in case their athletic career goes bust. If they can't make it in the pros, where can they make it?

(02-11-2014 05:29 PM)HeartOfDixie Wrote:  

(02-11-2014 05:27 PM)SuperFlyBCat Wrote:  

(02-11-2014 05:17 PM)HeartOfDixie Wrote:  There isn't a D1 school, public or private, east or west, north or south, small or large, that this isn't applicable to.

If they can't read or they are at a grade school level they can't score high enough on the SAT/ACT to get in. Are there easy A electives, grading curves, sure, but wide scale academic fraud everywhere .....I don't know.

We do know that Sister Rose over at Xavier always makes sure that the Diploma Mill is well oiled for the BBall team.

I think it's extremely widespread. I don't see how it isn't.

I tend to agree with you to a certain extent, dix. But I'd bet the number of schools who have gone as far as UNC seems to have done isn't as large as you think.

I meant the unpreparedness rate.

When millions of dollars are a stake all of these schools are cutting corners at the expense of education.

Not all. I seriously doubt Stanford is doing it. They take academics very seriously. There are other institutions that are of similar mind. But they are in the minority.

(02-11-2014 05:12 PM)HeartOfDixie Wrote:  I hope this spreads and every school has to face up to this issue, including my own Alma Mater.

This isn't right and its part of the reason college athletics is being driven by money instead of the original purpose.

I agree 100%. I'm sick of it.