{"41574":{"#nid":"41574","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Tech Performs Well in Initial NCAA APR Report","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Tech\u0027s athletics teams performed well in the initial\u003Cbr \/\u003E\ndata released today by the NCAA regarding the new Academic Progress Rate (APR).\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EIn particular, Tech\u0027s men\u0027s basketball score of 962 for the 2003-04 academic year ranks in the 70th-80th percentile nationally, meaning that Georgia Tech stands better than at least 70 percent of NCAA Division I basketball programs. Tech\u0027s football score of 942 is in the 60th-70th percentile.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe APR is a key component of the NCAA\u0027s academic reform structure, which is designed to ultimately improve graduation rates for student-athletes. Under the APR formula, each scholarship student-athlete is scored each semester, receiving one point for remaining academically eligible and one point for being retained. One point is deducted for each student-athlete who is not academically eligible, and one point is deducted for each student-athlete who leaves school for any reason, including academic status, transfer to another institution or pursuit of a professional career.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe NCAA Division I Board of Directors, on which Georgia Tech President Dr. Wayne Clough serves, established a score of 925 (out of 1000) as acceptable for each sport. A sport program falling below 925 would be subject to scholarship reductions, losing scholarship equivalency for any student-athletes who receive an \u00220-for-2\u0022 score, meaning that he or she left school and was not academically eligible upon departure. However, the 925 score will be initially adjusted with a temporary confidence boundary to account for squad sizes until more data is collected.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EData released today is for the 2003-04 academic year and will be combined with 2004-05 data to achieve the initial score for which schools could be penalized.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003ENo Tech programs would be subject to penalties, based on the 2003-04 data released today. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003ESixteen of the Yellow Jackets\u0027 17 sports programs scored above the established standard of 925. The lone exception is baseball at 907, but even that score is well within the APR upper confidence boundary, which accounts for squad size until more data can be collected. Also, baseball had seven players leave for professional baseball following their junior seasons, but all were academically eligible, meaning that there would be no \u00220-for-2\u0022 penalties.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EFive Tech programs -- men\u0027s golf, men\u0027s tennis, women\u0027s cross country, women\u0027s softball, women\u0027s swimming and women\u0027s tennis -- received perfect scores.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EAs a member of the NCAA Division I Board of Directors, Clough has stressed the need to supplement graduation rate data, which measures what has happened in the past rather than what is currently happening.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022As a member of the NCAA Division I Board of Directors, our intent was to find a statistic that would provide a timely and meaningful measure of a university\u0027s commitment to academics,\u0022 said Clough. \u0022While the new APR is not perfect, it\u0027s a step in the right direction. It will provide universities and the public with a more intelligent assessment of the success of student-athletes, and provide data that reflects the current situation and not the way it was six years ago.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022I\u0027m very pleased with Georgia Tech\u0027s numbers. As one of the few technological research universities competing at Division I-A athletics, I\u0027m very impressed with the success of our student-athletes and coaches. Since we have no calculus-free majors at Tech, I\u0027m delighted that our first report shows us to compete very well with other Division 1A programs around the country. We have a very good foundation from which to build and we will continue to be vigilant as we build a winning program on the playing field and in the classroom.\u0022\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003ETech Director of Athletics Dave Braine said, \u0022We\u0027re very pleased with our initial APR report. We are committed to the academic success of our student-athletes, and these figures clearly show that they are performing well and succeeding in the classroom as well as on the field.\u0022\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EGeorgia Tech\u0027s APR Scores by Sport\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u0026bull; Baseball: 907\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u0026bull; Men\u0027s Basketball: 962\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u0026bull; Men\u0027s Cross Country: 950\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u0026bull; Football: 942\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u0026bull; Men\u0027s Golf: 1000\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u0026bull; Men\u0027s Swimming: 966\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u0026bull; Men\u0027s Tennis: 1000\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u0026bull; Men\u0027s Track, Indoor: 979\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u0026bull; Men\u0027s Track, Outdoor: 978\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u0026bull; Women\u0027s Basketball: 984\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u0026bull; Women\u0027s Cross Country: 1000\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u0026bull; Women\u0027s Softball: 1000\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u0026bull; Women\u0027s Swimming: 1000\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u0026bull; Women\u0027s Tennis: 1000\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u0026bull; Women\u0027s Track, Indoor: 988\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u0026bull; Women\u0027s Track, Outdoor: 988\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u0026bull; Women\u0027s Volleyball: 981\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"Tech\u0027s athletics teams performed well in the initial data released today by the NCAA regarding the new Academic Progress Rate. The APR is a key component of the NCAA\u0027s academic reform structure, designed to improve graduation rates for student-athletes.","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Athletics teams do well in data released by NCAA"}],"uid":"27301","created_gmt":"2005-03-01 01:00:00","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:02:30","author":"Elizabeth Campell","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2005-02-28T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2005-02-28T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/ramblinwreck.collegesports.com\/","title":"Athletics"}],"groups":[{"id":"1183","name":"Home"}],"categories":[{"id":"129","name":"Institute and Campus"},{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"}],"keywords":[{"id":"1876","name":"Academic"},{"id":"3222","name":"athlete"},{"id":"1625","name":"athletics"},{"id":"1155","name":"NCAA"},{"id":"167014","name":"Sports"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cstrong\u003ELisa Grovenstein\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ECommunications \u0026amp; Marketing\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.gatech.edu\/contact\/index.html?id=lgrovenste3\u0022\u003EContact Lisa Grovenstein\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E404-894-8835\u003C\/strong\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["lisa.grovenstein@comm.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}