Since the implementation of the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) Academic Progress Rate (APR), Historically Black Colleges & Universities’ (HBCU) male student athletes have disproportionately received more APR academic penalties than other groups of athletes (NCAA, 2016b). Each Division I team receives an APR score based on athletes’ eligibility and retention as a means to monitor graduation (Paskus, 2015). Calculating each team’s score, the NCAA uses a cut score to guide the distribution of penalties (Blackman, 2008; New, 2015). Penalties are sanctioned to teams that fail to meet the designated cut score. However, Black colleges have historically lagged behind predominantly White institutions in regards to equal resources (Ashe, 1988b). Consequently, the distribution of APR penalties is disproportionately greater at institutions with limited resources, e.g. HBCUs (NCAA, 2015b; NCAA, 2017e). Imposing uniform academic standards across member institutions disadvantages HBCUs and their athletes and conflicts with the intent of the APR metric — which was to increase graduation rates for all athletes (Harrison, 2012; Paskus, 2012). The exploratory analysis in this study found that the NCAA was not fully enforcing the APR penalty system. During the first five years of APR implementation, fewer HBCU male teams were below the 900 threshold compared to non-HBCU male teams. However, HBCU male teams disproportionately received more severe APR penalties compared to non-HBCU male teams with comparable multi-year APR scores. This study sought to investigate the action-policy-conflict to determine: whether the NCAA’s enforcement of APR penalties had an empirical relationship with graduation rates for penalized Division I male teams; whether a differential relationship exists between graduation rates and penalties assigned to HBCU male teams; and what would the impact of APR penalties on graduation rates be if the NCAA had fully enforced the APR penalty system for all teams below the benchmark (intent-to-treat)? To answer the research questions, the NCAA’s publicly accessible APR and Graduation Success Rate (GSR) databases, and the National Center for Education Statistic’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) were used as data sources. Multiple regression analysis was used to predict the relationship between APR penalties and six-year team graduation rates for the academic years of 2005-2006 and 2009-2010. Results of the study found that in the first year (2005-2006) and towards the latter year (2009-2010) of the original APR penalty system, historical penalties were not statistically significant predictors on six-year team graduation rates. Although HBCU male teams disproportionately received more historical penalties than non-HBCU male teams with similar multi-year APR scores, the penalties had no differential impact on the six-year team graduation rates for HBCU male teams. Had the NCAA fully enforced historical penalties to all teams below the 900 cut score, receiving the penalty would not have been a statistically significant predictor on Division I male team graduation rates for the two years of interest in the study. The results from the study are thought to be the first empirical study to examine the NCAA’s APR penalty system (Harrison, 2012; Paskus, 2012). This study provides empirically supported recommendations for the NCAA to consider if the APR penalty system is continued. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester 2018. / April 9, 2018. / Academic Performance Program, Academic Progress Rate, Academic Reform, Historically Black Colleges & Universities, Multiple Regression, National Collegiate Athletic Association / Includes bibliographical references. / Robert Schwartz, Professor Directing Dissertation; John Taylor, University Representative; Stacey Rutledge, Committee Member; Toby Park, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_653484 |
| Contributors | Ositelu, Monique O. (Monique Oluyemisi Oluseyi) (author), Schwartz, Robert A. (professor directing dissertation), Taylor, John (university representative), Rutledge, Stacy A. (committee member), Park, Toby J. (committee member), Florida State University (degree granting institution), College of Education (degree granting college), Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies (degree granting departmentdgg) |
| Publisher | Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text, doctoral thesis |
| Format | 1 online resource (162 pages), computer, application/pdf |
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