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NCAA Releases Three-Year Figures for Academic Progress Rate
May 2, 2007 COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Nineteen teams at the University of Maryland posted multiyear Academic Progress Rates (APR) above the national average for Division I public institutions based on data released Wednesday by the NCAA. Those teams were led by the gymnastics and women's cross country teams, which were noted for public recognition last week, as their perfect APRs of 1,000 were among the top 10 percent of programs in those sports nationally. Maryland had 20 programs at or above the 950 mark in the multiyear rates, which take into account three years of data. APR data submitted for the 2003-04, 2004-05 and 2005-06 academic years are included in the figures released on Wednesday. The APR is the index developed by the NCAA to provide, by team, a real-time snapshot of student-athlete retention and eligibility performance of all Division I institutions. Also allowed are bonus points for student-athletes returning to graduate. The APR is part of a larger system package, the NCAA Academic Performance Program (APP), which was mandated by the NCAA Board of Directors to improve the academic performance of athletic teams. In calculating the APR, each student-athlete who receives athletic aid receives one point for continuing as a full-time student or graduating, and one point for remaining eligible to compete each semester. The maximum number of points a student-athlete can earn in an academic year is four. A team's APR is the total number of points earned divided by the maximum number of points possible. This APR number is then multiplied by 1,000. (For example, a team which receives 94 percent of all possible points would have a team APR of 940.) The APR has established a benchmark, called the cut score, under which contemporaneous penalties will be imposed in the form of scholarship reductions for those teams which fall below the cut score. However, no penalties are imposed if a team falls below the cut score if it still falls in a range known as the "confidence interval," a statistical measure which takes into consideration the squad size of teams. The cut score was established at 925 and equates to an approximate 50 percent graduation rate. The APP did not assess penalties in the first year of the program, waiting instead until more data was available for each team. The NCAA will eventually base penalties on a team's four-year rolling APR average. MARYLAND'S ACADEMIC PROGRESS RATE RESULTS All intercollegiate varsity teams tracked by the NCAA that are sponsored by the University of Maryland were above the cut score in the multiyear rate, with the exception of wrestling and men's basketball. The NCAA does not track figures for competitive cheer. The wrestling and men's basketball teams, however, were not subject to contemporaneous penalties due to squad-size adjustments. The upper confidence boundaries in both those sports were above the cut score of 925, meaning they will not receive penalties this year. Squad-size adjustments will be eliminated when the fourth year of APR data is collected, provided the team's multiyear cohort includes 30 or more student-athletes. Maryland's wrestling team posted an APR of 909, while the men's basketball multiyear rate is 908. Factoring in the upper confidence boundaries, those rates were 942 and 946, respectively. The national average for all Division I public institutions for men's basketball is 917, which is below the cut score. Four of the six seniors in the Maryland men's basketball program are currently on track to graduate. Although wrestling had its non-adjusted multiyear rate below the cut score, it still had 20 student-athletes, more than half the squad, post grade-point averages of 3.0 or better in the Spring 2006 semester. Maryland's football multiyear rate was 944. The football team was in the 60th percentile within Division I football teams, and Maryland's rate was well above the Division I public institution average, which fell below the cut score at 922. Baseball was the third sport tracked in which the rate for Division I public institutions fell below the cut score at 923. Maryland's baseball team had a multiyear APR of 963. APR FACTS
RATE CALCULATION THE SYSTEM MARYLAND'S ACADEMIC INITIATIVES
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS The NCAA has developed a new graduation-rate formula - the Graduation Success Rate or GSR. This new graduation-rate index is meant to give a more accurate look at an institution's success rate by taking into account those student-athletes who transfer in or out of an institution, as opposed to the federal rate calculations in which transfers count against the institution. The APR and graduation-rate formulas also handle transfers differently. Student-athletes who transfer from a school count against a team's federal graduation rate, even if they were in good standing at the time of their transfer or if they eventually earn a degree. The APR gives credit for those student-athletes who were eligible or in good academic standing at the time of their transfer. Q. Has this changed how Maryland will monitor academic progress and retention of student-athletes? MARYLAND'S MULTIYEAR APR SCORES
* - not subject to contemporaneous penalties due to squad-size adjustment |
