| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"" |
| Date: |
04 Mar 2006 11:31:12 PM |
| Object: |
'Lutheran Christian School' lives up (down?) to its name |
Edumakayshun? Who needs it? Just prep 'em to look good, get a
scholarship for TV exposure, and then drop out for the NBA draft.
All made possible by a xian-owned prep "school" that has but one
staff member: the basketball coach (who is also the "teacher"),
an ex-janitor without a post secondary degree.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/11/AR2006021101733.html
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2006/02/19/SPGTTHACNI1.DTL
Bob Dog
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Philadelphia School Questioned
Some Say Students at Lutheran Christian Only Hit the Boards
By Mark Schlabach
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, February 12, 2006; E01
By most every basketball measure, Lutheran Christian Academy in
Philadelphia is among the most successful high school programs
in the nation. More than a dozen of its athletes are currently
playing at Division I colleges, including Georgetown and George
Washington. And it has a 92-11 record over the past three seasons.
But among some college coaches, the private school has become a
symbol of what they believe is one of the game's growing
problems: prep schools with questionable academic programs that
help players with deficient academic performances become
eligible to play Division I sports.
The school does not have its own building or formal classrooms,
and it operates out of a community center in a ragged North
Philadelphia neighborhood. It has just one full-time employee:
the basketball coach, a former sanitation worker who founded the
school. One former student, who attended the school for three
months, said it did not use traditional textbooks and that the
coach, Darryl Schofield, was the only teacher.
Yet Lutheran Christian graduates remain a hot commodity for
college recruiters.
"Prep schools are the biggest problem in our sport today, and
Lutheran Christian Academy is one of the worst," said one
college head coach, who has visited the school. Said an
assistant coach, who recruits from schools in the Philadelphia
area: "We don't recruit players from Lutheran. Lutheran's
players aren't prepared academically to attend college, and we
don't need those headaches."
Both coaches requested anonymity in the belief that fellow
coaches would ostracize them.
Schofield defended the school, saying it employs four part-time
teachers who work with the school's 30 students, all male, and
that the school offers a strong curriculum. He said the school
affords opportunities to players who otherwise wouldn't be able
to enroll in college.
Two current players on the team also said the school offers a
legitimate curriculum. The NCAA Clearinghouse, which validates
the transcripts of student-athletes for eligibility purposes,
approved 35 courses offered by Lutheran Christian, according to
the clearinghouse's Web site.
"I was an AAU guy," said Schofield, referring to the popular
youth basketball leagues across the country. "I didn't want to
be one of the hypocrites that used the kids and pumped them up
all summer and then when they need help, we're not there for
them."
According to Pennsylvania Department of Education records, the
school graduated all seven of its seniors in the 2003-04 school
year. Schofield said his players have an 80 percent graduation
rate from college.
"Our success rate of kids graduating from college is very high,
probably up there with the percentages of the prep schools in
Boston," Schofield said. "It's evident that all the kids who
have come through our program, they're doing well academically
in college. I could care less about the basketball. Academics
are the only thing I care about."
The Prep School Scene
There are more than 1,000 college preparatory schools in the
country. The ones with strong athletic programs often enroll
players who have completed four years of high school without
achieving the necessary grades and standardized test scores to
attend and play basketball at a major university.
"Preparatory schools in general are to get kids intensive
tutoring and support in an environment that is conducive to
doing well academically, and in some cases take advantage of the
additional resources that they have athletically to improve
themselves," said Peter Roby, the director of Northwestern
University's Center for the Study of Sport in Society, not
speaking specifically about Lutheran Christian. "I don't think
there is anything in the prep schools [model] that is an issue."
The money at stake in a young basketball player's career has
made the schools attractive to players whose academic
shortcomings would otherwise detour their athletic careers and
knock them out of the development chain. That could be the
difference between that player going on to college, being
drafted in the NBA and earning a multimillion dollar contract,
and falling out of the talent pipeline.
A player can repair his qualifications at a prep school in two
ways: The NCAA admits student-athletes on a combination of
grade-point average and college entrance exam score. The higher
a player raises his GPA, the lower test score he needs and
vice-versa. A player with a 2.5 GPA needs an 820 SAT score, for
instance.
Nearly 100 college scouts attended the first two days of the
National Prep School Invitational tournament this weekend at
Keaney Gymnasium on the University of Rhode Island campus. Teams
from 13 states and Canada competed, and the recruiters each paid
$200 for a tournament program that consisted of little more than
photocopied rosters.
Lutheran Christian, with 18 players from five states, the
District and Canada, clearly was one of the most talented teams
in the tournament. Theo Davis, a 6-foot-9 forward from Toronto,
is being recruited by Gonzaga, Michigan and Texas-El Paso,
according to Schofield. Michael Scott, a point guard from
Philadelphia, has been offered scholarships by Rice, Columbia,
George Washington and Jacksonville. Lawrence Williams, an
imposing 6-8 forward from Brooklyn, N.Y., already has decided he
will attend Texas El-Paso on a scholarship, Schofield said.
Among the Lutheran Christian products currently in college,
George Washington guard Maureece Rice, one of the No. 8
Colonials' top reserve players, spent one year at the school
after he failed to graduate from a public school in Philadelphia
and abruptly left a more established preparatory school in North
Carolina.
"I never saw him in a game, just saw him in a couple of
workouts. My thing about him was, I kept asking myself, 'Why
isn't everybody killing to get this kid?' " George Washington
Coach Karl Hobbs said. "I thought something was wrong. I thought
I was missing something, like he was a crazy kid. I trust his
[high school] coach and his coach told me, 'Give this kid a
chance and I promise you'll be happy.' I don't know much about
the school. I'm just happy we gave him the opportunity."
Rice could not be reached for comment.
Georgetown freshman Marc Egerson played last year at Lutheran
Christian after failing to graduate from Glasgow High School in
Newark, Del.
Georgetown spokesman Bill Shapland said the school would not
comment for this report.
In addition to Georgetown and George Washington, Lutheran
Christian has sent players to Mississippi State, Massachusetts
and Temple, among others, even though the school doesn't even
have a gymnasium.
The community center belongs to Helping Energize and Rebuild
Ourselves Inc., a nonprofit. The only sign of the school inside
is a framed picture of the basketball team hanging on a wall.
The single-story building has bars on its windows and graffiti
markings etched over its red-painted exterior, but it's still
the cornerstone of its neighborhood.
Down the street, the Resurrection Life Church looks as if it is
in need of salvation; the doors are boarded, and a sign states
that it will reopen "sometime in 2006." Directly across the
street from HERO is an abandoned apartment building, with seven
stories of shattered windows.
The community center has about seven rooms, two of which are
used by the school, center director Doris Phillips said.
Grade-schoolers take computer classes in the lab and a
motorcycle club meets there regularly. Yesterday, a child's
birthday party was being held there.
Lutheran Christian has used the center for more than three
years, Phillips said. She said she has seen about 20 male
students and one teacher arrive on weekdays at 9 a.m. and
spend about five hours in HERO's banquet hall. Yesterday the
room was set up a little like a classroom, but there were no
desks. The room is filled with several white plastic tables,
with two chairs pushed into each table. Phillips said that some
weeks Lutheran Christian holds school five days. Other weeks,
Phillips said, the students come three or four times.
"We don't get too involved in the school. It all happens through
Schofield," Phillips said. "We try to help them as much as we
can by giving them space, but they pretty much just come and go.
With their basketball schedule, you never know when you'll see
them."
Phillips said Schofield uses the banquet hall for about 20 hours
in an average week. Sometimes, the school moves into a small
computer lab down the hall.
"I know they have a lot of recruiters come and talk to them and
stuff like that," Phillips said. "And then they have some school
lessons."
Schofield, 37, said he was a sanitation worker for the city of
Philadelphia before opening the school with David Anwar, now the
director of basketball operations at Texas El-Paso. Schofield
said he has an associate's degree from Thaddeus Stevens, a
two-year community college in Lancaster, Pa.
Lutheran Christian is licensed as a religious institution by the
Pennsylvania Department of Education, which reports on its
database that the school opened Sept. 1, 2003. Schofield said
the school is currently not directly affiliated with a church.
Schofield said the school has four part-time instructors: two
former players with bachelor's degrees who returned to teach at
Lutheran Christian and two women. One of them, Tamara Casey, has
listed her residence as one of the houses Schofield said he
owns. One current player said Casey taught him in three courses.
Property records show that house is owned by Schofield's
parents. When asked for the name of the second instructor,
Schofield couldn't recall it, calling her "Mrs. Robinson." None
of the players he asked could remember Robinson's first name,
either.
Casey and Robinson could not be reached for comment.
Lutheran Christian guard Delonte Taylor, from H.D. Woodson High,
said he enrolled at the school on the recommendation of his
cousin, Chris Matthews, a former player at the school and now a
freshman at Washington State. Matthews played three seasons at
National Christian Academy before transferring to Schofield's
school. Taylor said he had a 3.66 GPA at H.D. Woodson, but
didn't earn a qualifying score on standardized tests. Taylor
said Lutheran Christian has helped him prepare to take the
tests.
"The experience is great," Taylor said. "Basketball-wise, it's a
lot more advanced than the D.C. public schools. The schoolwork
is, too."
Guard David Tairu, a Post honorable mention All-Met selection as
a senior at Crossland High School, is enrolled at Lutheran
Christian as a junior this year. Tairu said he had a 2.189 GPA
in high school and scored 720 on the SAT. By dropping back to
his junior year at the academy, Tairu can retake some of his
core courses and submit the new grades to the NCAA
Clearinghouse.
"It's a legitimate school," Tairu said. "It's a second chance
for me. It's a blessing to be here."
James Woodson, who has worked the front desk at HERO for five
years, said he used to hold a 30-minute session each morning
about how to dress and act. "Nobody would ever listen or pay
attention," Woodson said. "I gave up a year or two ago. Now
[Schofield] is the only one who works with them."
Schofield said Lutheran Christian teaches each of its 35
courses, including English, psychology, sociology, geometry,
trigonometry, chemistry and Spanish and French, in what he
calls "12 paces." Each student must pass an exam at the end of
each pace, scoring 80 percent or better, before moving on to
the next level, Schofield said.
Schofield said tuition is $5,000 but he normally receives only
$2,000, which includes room and board for nonlocal students.
Schofield said he earns about $7,000 working as the school's
basketball coach and also works as a cook at a restaurant during
the week. Schofield said the school has "tons and tons" of
crates of books used for instruction, and said the school
recently upgraded its computer lab to include 12 flat-screen
computers and new educational software.
Phillips said the new computers were obtained by the center,
not the school, with the help of a Pennsylvania congressman.
And the former player, who attended the school for three
months, said the school didn't have computers and didn't use
textbooks in its instruction.
The former player and his mother both agreed to be interviewed
for this story but later asked not to be identified for fear
that Lutheran Christian players would retaliate.
"Schofield was my teacher," the former player said. "You would
walk in this room about the size of a Foot Locker store and
he'd hand you a gray booklet about the size of composition book.
He'd say, 'Read it or you're not playing.' I never saw any
computers. I saw some books laying around there, but we never
used them. Schofield was there sometimes."
The former player's mother said she worried her son wasn't doing
much at the school other than playing basketball.
"I was trying to figure out if the kids were going to school,"
the former player's mother said. "When I'd ask [her son] how
school was going, he'd say he only had one teacher. I asked him
who the teacher was and he said, 'Schofield.' "
The former player said he enrolled at Lutheran Christian after
Schofield promised a disciplined, rigorous academic program that
enabled his players to improve their academics and basketball
skills. The program was so successful, Schofield told the former
player, that each of the players who had graduated from the
school played basketball in college.
Instead, the former player and his mother said, they found an
unstructured academic environment. The former player and his
mother said nearly a dozen of the school's basketball players
lived in a cramped apartment owned by Schofield. She said the
apartment lacked sufficient heat and the players had to turn on
the oven and open the door to heat the room.
Schofield said his players never lacked heat and he often spends
more than $500 a month heating their residences. He said
yesterday that the players now live in three properties.
"It wasn't what I thought it was going to be," said the former
player, who now attends another college preparatory school. "I
thought it was going to be an opportunity to get my grades up
and get more exposure to college coaches. But it ended up being
a big step back."
Schofield said most of the basketball players come to him
through recommendations of high school coaches and former
players. Schofield said he interviews the player and his
parents or guardians and decides whether to admit them. If the
player has severe academic deficiencies, he can still be
admitted if he produces positive character references. "I don't
turn anybody down," Schofield said.
The Post obtained the transcript of one player who enrolled at
Lutheran. The player left high school as a junior after the
2003-04 school year. He had repeated the ninth grade and had a
1.33 GPA in the core courses in English, math, hard science and
social sciences the NCAA requires for initial athletic
eligibility at a four-year college.
According to the transcript, the player made grades of C or
better in only three of the 14 core courses needed for initial
eligibility and had not yet made the minimum score needed on the
SAT or ACT. During one academic year at Lutheran Christian, the
player passed six core courses, making four grades of A and two
of B. He also scored high enough on the SAT to qualify for
admission to a major university.
Schofield said Rice had similar academic problems when he
enrolled at Lutheran Christian.
"When we first started, we had to take the kids no one else
wanted," Schofield said. "When we started, I was a little afraid
myself because I grew up in the inner city. But those were the
kids we had to save. We butted heads every day for about a year.
But it was the right thing to do, so why fix it if it isn't
broken?"
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NCAA cautions athletes to avoid diploma mills
Mark Schlabach, Washington Post
Sunday, February 19, 2006
Washington -- All but admitting that it is unable to police the
growing number of fraudulent prep schools, the NCAA is
considering ways to change how those schools are certified and
warned student-athletes this week to avoid so-called diploma
mills.
The more than 5,000 private high schools that fall outside the
regulations of state education boards would be more closely
examined under recommendations from a 23-member committee formed
in December, chairman Kevin Lennon, the NCAA vice president for
membership services, said Wednesday.
"Many and most of the nontraditional high schools do have
integrity and do provide a quality education," Lennon said. "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."
Reports in the New York Times last December and the Washington
Post Feb. 12 detailed how football and basketball players were
able to become eligible to play intercollegiate sports by
improving their grades at prep schools with questionable
academic programs.
Lennon said three schools have already been decertified; one of
them is University High of Miami, the subject of the New York
Times article. The Times reported that the school had no classes
or instructors and catered to football players. It has
reportedly closed. Lennon said he did not know the names of the
other two schools.
The Post reported that Lutheran Christian Academy in
Philadelphia, which has produced more than a dozen Division I
basketball players, has no building and operates in two rooms of
a community center. A former student and his mother told the
Post that the North Philadelphia school does not use traditional
textbooks and has only one teacher -- basketball coach Darryl
Schofield, a former Philadelphia sanitation worker.
A spokesman said the NCAA Clearinghouse will look into the
allegations against Lutheran Christian.
Schofield told The Post last week that the school had one
full-time teacher (himself) and four-part time instructors and
said the school was not affiliated with a church. Among the
classes the school stated that it offered was chemistry, but the
community center where the school is held does not have a lab;
students meet in a banquet hall, according to an employee of the
community center.
Schofield defended the program, saying that students received
rigorous academic instruction and that textbooks were used.
It is unclear what forms were submitted by Lutheran Christian to
the NCAA Clearinghouse. But the Clearinghouse certified 35
classes at Lutheran Christian.
Because Lutheran Christian is a private school, the Pennsylvania
school board can't investigate its practices, spokesman Brian
McDonald said.
Lennon said the proliferation of preparatory schools is
increasing on a weekly basis."
Lennon said a student who is enrolled in a questionable
secondary school risks losing the academic credits earned
there, but that student-athletes who have already been
certified to play at NCAA schools aren't at risk of losing their
eligibility. The NCAA committee also recommended a limit to the
number of core courses students can complete during their senior
or postgraduate academic years.
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