Minimum GPA In Omaha Schools Would Make Hundreds Of Athletes Ineligible

Omaha.com

http://www.omaha.com/article/20130512/NEWS/705129915/1694

If the Omaha Public Schools required student-athletes to maintain a 2.0 grade-point average, hundreds of teenagers who played high school sports last year likely would have been ineligible.

OPS data show that 464 football players, wrestlers and other athletes had GPAs lower than 2.0 at the end of last school year. That was just more than 16 percent, or one of every six OPS high school athletes.

A minimum 2.0 GPA — a C average — also would disproportionately affect black and low-income student athletes, based on the data. One-third of the district’s black athletes would have been ineligible last school year.

About a quarter of the district’s athletes whose families qualified for federal lunch subsidies earned less than 2.0 GPAs last year. The subsidies provide an indicator of poverty.

The idea of a minimum GPA came up in March, when board member Justin Wayne suggested one for students participating in sports and other extracurricular activities. To gauge the impact of the idea, The World-Herald requested data from the district to show how a minimum 2.0 GPA would affect student-athletes. The data did not name students, nor did it break down numbers by varsity versus other teams.