Kevin Lennon Quotations

Many and most of the nontraditional high schools do have integrity and do provide a quality education. But it is clear that some do not. The committee recognizes that these are real problems. We know the abuses are going on as we speak, and I think there's a great sense of urgency among all of the members of the committee to take on these issues as quickly as possible.

We can't go through another year. If we discover there is a school that has been providing fraudulent education, not going to class, not doing anything, we are going to say we are not going to accept the courses immediately.

We know that the abuses are going on as we speak.

There are about 5,000 schools that fall in the category, non-traditional.

What's alleged in that case ought to be of concern in everyone in the country. It relates to the quality of the diplomas students receive. Athletes continue to be a small percentage of this problem; other students are taking advantage of diploma mills. It's a bigger problem than something for the sports page.

We imagine that type of information will be made available as mitigation, if you will.

Are you accredited? Are you listed with a state athletic association? If the answer is no, those schools likely would come under the most scrutiny.

There's some thought that this can't just be the highest APR. Maybe it's the biggest jump from one year to the next. Maybe it's the biggest difference between student body and student-athlete. Maybe it's a matching grant for programs that are underperforming that want to do better. All of those things, I think, are going to be fleshed out at this meeting.

Teams that use the squad-size adjustment to escape penalty rather than improve their academic practices right away might find the 'pay-me-later' syndrome hard to accept. As more years of APR data become available, teams will find scores harder to change.

This in no way is an indictment on all of our secondary schools because we know the vast, vast majority do a good job.

Academic reform is really reshaping the focus of analysis to the team level.

For example, they drop your major. (Or) you have significant health problems. The retention piece is a part of the APR, in part, to prevent runoffs. And if you have legitimate reasons that you can say 'this isn't a runoff issue' ... we ought to figure out a way to adjust the APR.

It's our belief there needs to be some accountability through law enforcement when students present credentials that are fraudulent.

In the past, we haven't had the authority to do this. But for those (schools) that have no state oversight, that's where we'll have additional questions.

The first thing we're going to do is ask for a written review in response to a series of very detailed questions. Depending on what the response is, it could trigger an on-site visit.