The ”no pass-no play” question is replacing the forward pass as the biggest bomb in high school sports, and it is covering considerably more ground.
Whether a student should be ineligible to participate in extracurricular activities–from band to chess club to football–if he or she receives a failing grade for a marking period is a question much simpler than the answers it elicits.
”You can have a kid playing on a team with five D`s and another sitting out with three A`s, a B and a failure. Is that fair? No, of course not,” said Jack Kenney, a member of the Illinois High School Association`s legislative commission and principal at Stephen F. Decatur High School in Decatur.
”It`s tough, but that`s the situation.”
That would be the situation should a no pass-no play bill sponsored by State Sen. William Marovitz (D., Chicago) become law. The bill, which was passed 39-14 by the Illinois Senate May 21 and is now before the House, proposes that a student who during a grading period fails a core course required for graduation (English, math, science and history) would be ineligible for extracurricular activities for the following two weeks.
There are no national and, in some cases, no statewide standards concerning eligibility. Rules can differ from city to city and from county to county. Grade-point averages, instead of single grades, can be the sole factor in determining eligibility, and courses often are weighted differently. Marking periods can vary.
— In Texas, Gov. Mark White faces a tougher-than-expected November election because of his push for stricter standards, including no pass-no play, that sidelined hundreds of athletes this year. The Texas law forbids a student flunking any class in a grading period from participating in extracurricular activities during the entire next grading period.
— In Los Angeles, which some think has the most stringent eligibility rules anywhere, the high school sports coordinator for the city believed he was ”hoodwinked” into no pass-no play requirements by a publicity-happy school board. As a result, he estimates that 22-23 percent of the student body is lost for extracurricular activities each marking period. Students must maintain a 2.0 GPA and pass all courses to remain eligible for sports.
”Our coaches and administrators are almost unanimous in wanting to get rid of no pass-no play, but our board won`t because they get a lot of publicity on it and they love that,” said Jim Cheffers, L.A.`s high school sports coordinator.
— In Illinois, people like Marovitz believe some form of no pass-no play should be implemented. ”We`re telling students they need to pass a course to graduate but not to play football,” Marovitz said. ”To me, that`s inconsistent.”
Education officials and politicians do agree, however, that rules governing athletic eligibility are being scrutinized like never before.
”It`s important to send a loud and clear message to the high schools that the No. 1 priority is academics,” said Marovitz, who indicated it was the Texas law that brought the issue to his attention. ”We have to be saying: `What are our schools for?` ”
At suburban North Chicago High School, a no pass-no play rule instituted several years ago had to be rescinded when programs started shrinking because of academic casualties. Zion-Benton, a member of the same conference, voted in tougher guidelines and has kept them.
”There`s no question there`s a trend across the country to toughen up on all eligibility,” said William Snodgrass, North Chicago`s principal. ”Kids are simply going into college not prepared and, from what I understand, that`s also true of going into the Armed Forces.
”There was a lot of flak when we put in our no pass-no play plan because a lot of parents thought we were discriminating against our own kids. That`s one of the reasons we rescinded it, but some board members weren`t very happy to rescind it.”
Marovitz acknowledges he is locked in ”a turf battle,” even though the requirements stipulated in the final version of his bill that passed the state senate are scaled down from his original proposal–which called for a four-week suspension rather than one of two weeks–and are not much stronger than the existing Illinois High School Association guidelines.
The IHSA`s present, statewide policy requires a student to maintain, week by week, passing grades in courses–including physical education–that total 20 credit hours toward graduation or face a week`s suspension. (Marovitz`s bill would exclude P.E. as a source of scholastic credits.) A final failure for a term can mean ineligibility for the entire next term.
Students can get an F and remain eligible by taking more than 20 hours of core work. A final failure at the conclusion of a school year can be made up during the summer. (In Texas, a student receiving an F in any course at the end of a marking period is ineligible for the entire next term.)
IHSA officials have not taken a public stance on Marovitz`s bill.
Despite the good academic intentions of a no pass-no play law, a question arises as to whether the issue should be decided by the political process.
”My concern is that the legislature is forcing upon school districts a criterion that may or may not be good policy,” said State Sen. John Maitland (R., Bloomington), an opponent of Marovitz`s bill. ”It`s inappropriate for the legislature to do that.”
”Why don`t our elected officials leave educational policy up to the principals (who make up the IHSA)?” asked Rich Herrin, basketball coach at Southern Illinois University and former, longtime coach at Benton High School. ”You`d think they have more important things to be concerned with.”
”We don`t see anything wrong with week-to-week checks, like now,” said Jerry Turry, Niles West athletic director and president of the Illinois Athletic Directors Association. ”It works and allows a youngster the opportunity to fail and still have the motivation to drive toward academic progress.
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”Ostensibly, if you ask a man in the street about no pass-no play, he thinks it`s a great idea. But we wind up translating all the problems occurring in college to the high school level, and they`re not the same. Failing will become a punishment.”
Said William Harden, head of physical education for Chicago`s Public League: ”I think a lot of people have decided there are no rules or regulations in sports, but I think there are more than enough,” he said.
”Somebody is always introducing rules. Just because it is new doesn`t make it better.”
The National Federation of State High School Associations, which represents 12 million students and closely monitors all activity programs at the secondary level, stresses that sports, like other academic courses, are part of the overall educational process. Its stance is that higher eligibility standards shouldn`t be necessary for participation.
”High schools should not be in the business of producing college athletes,” said Warren Brown, formerly of the NCAA and now a director with the Kansas-based federation. ”It is a law that kids have to be in high school, but not college. Parents demand that schools make productive citizens out of their children, most of whom are not going on to college.
”Well, extracurricular activities are the only place in school that`s organized so that a student learns how to compete and win and lose and work in group-solving situations. They are inherently educational. So why take them away?”
The battle lines over high school eligibility do not necessarily follow political, geographical or socioeconomic lines.
The IHSA estimates that close to 20 percent of the state`s districts already have enacted stronger eligibility rules than it requires. A Public League official says that league`s rules were more restrictive before being made to conform with IHSA policy years ago.
”I don`t see this as a rural vs. city or Chicago vs. Downstate or Chicago collar vs. inner-city issue,” said Decatur`s Kenney. ”There just aren`t easy boundaries. It`s not regionalized. It`s just a matter of opinion. ”This is the second year we`ve had more stringent rules and we`ve had some grumbling, but my opinion is that students generally have worked harder to stay eligible,” he said. ”If we have complaints, there`s probably more in music and drama than sports.”
One impetus behind the high school eligibility issue appears to be a trickle-down effect from colleges. The NCAA`s tougher, new Proposition 48 has left some high school seniors ineligible to compete as incoming college freshmen next fall. One major college football coach describes it as ”The Year of The Big Hurt.”
”I think something else that`s contributed to the mood as much as anything was the report several years ago by President Reagan`s task force committee on secondary education,” said the National Federation`s Brown.
”There was no mention at all of athletics, but it did deal a lot with academic reforms. And when the states and others get involved, the most visible way was through sports and eligibility, because there`s a sports page in the newspapers and not a math page.”