REPORT OF
THE
NCAA
RESEARCH COMMITTEE
ACTION ITEMS.
·
None.
INFORMATIONAL ITEMS.
Association-wide.
1. Update
on the Study of College Outcomes & Recent Experiences (SCORE). An update of SCORE was provided, focusing
on the sampling plan and preliminary findings. It was noted that a series of research
reports will be released throughout this calendar year as analyses are
conducted in specific topic areas. A
large-scale presentation of findings is being planned for the 2007 NCAA
Convention.
2. Update
on Growth, Opportunities, Aspirations and Learning of Students in College
(GOALS) study. The sampling procedures,
test administration, Institutional Review Board issues and response rate
pertaining to the GOALS study were discussed.
3. Discussion
of the NCAA committee mandate and its effects on the future of the Research
Committee. The committee members understood the
mandate and focused on exploring ways in which the Research Committee may
restructure itself to better serve the NCAA research staff, other NCAA staff
members and the membership. It
became clear through the discussion that there are two primary purposes of the
committee: (1) providing feedback
on new and ongoing research conducted by the NCAA research staff; and (2) administering
the grant program for research proposed by outside investigators. On the first point, the committee
instructed NCAA staff to explore means of electronically distributing research
presentations and reports to the committee members, enabling them to provide
comment in a timely manner. Recognizing
that the current grant program was inadequate due to a mismatch between
available funding and the written commitment to studies that are relatively
large in scope and generalizable to the wider membership, the committee instructed
NCAA staff to explore a grant program structure where a “call for
proposals” was employed to ensure the proposed research would be focused
in a topic area timely and relevant.
Further, the committee proposed a program model where a number of smaller
amount grants (e.g., $5,000) were offered in the hopes of attracting doctoral
dissertations and master’s theses.
This could potentially increase the number of proposals received and
provide the committee the ability to fund student-level research. In addition, the committee instructed
NCAA staff to explore ways in which the grant winners could be publicly
recognized and given the opportunity to present their findings to a group of
peers. The Faculty Athletics
Representatives Association (FARA) Fall Forum was suggested. With the possible link between the
proposed grant program and the FARA Fall Forum, the committee discussed the
option of holding their annual meeting in conjunction with that event.
4. Research proposals. The committee reviewed three research
proposals from external researchers and chose not to fund them.
Division I only.
5. Academic
Progress Rate (APR) issues. Findings were presented from
the recently completed second year of APR data collection. Issues discussed included contemporaneous
penalties, the squad size adjustment, institutions with limited financial
resources and the incentive/disincentive program.
6. Division
I Graduation Success Rate (GSR). Year 1 findings from the
first year of GSR data collection were presented with discussion of differences,
positive or negative, between the Federal Graduation Rate and the GSR and the
need for multiple years of GSR data to conduct a responsible trend analysis.
7. Initial
eligibility. Information was
presented pertaining to the academic profiles of student-athletes before and
after changes to the Division I initial eligibility standards with attention to
the “smoothing” of the test score distribution among Initial
Eligibility Clearinghouse prospective student-athletes and the possible reasons.
Division II only.
8. Division
II Academic Success Rate (ASR) - Year 1 preview. An overview of the inaugural year of
data collection for the ASR program was presented, noting the unique challenges
facing Division II institutions in this first year and the Web-based tracking
system that has been developed.
Division III only.
9. Division
III Financial Aid Reporting Program – Year 1 findings. Findings were presented from the first year of
the Division III Financial Aid Reporting Program, including outcomes from the
program’s Level I Review Process and aggregate information pertaining to
the variance estimate and other indicators.