Improving Student Athlete Academic Success: Evaluation of Learning Support Tools Utilized by Academic Advisors for Athletics
In higher education today academic support staffs are presented with a toolbox from which they must determine how to best support the academic goals of the student athlete (Comeaux, E. Harrison, C. K. (2011) A conceptual model of academic success for student athletes. Educational Researcher, 40, 235 245) There are multiple ways to approach the individual academic challenges presented by student athletes, however what is not known is what the best approach to remedy the academic shortcomings of the at risk student athlete. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of learning support tools used by academic advisors for athletics by measuring the impact on semester and cumulative GPA when study tables, weekly academic advisement meetings and objective based learning were implemented. The secondary purpose of the study was to devise a model to assist Division I athletic departments that have at risk student athletes on teams that are predicted to score below a multi year 930 APR, so that they may score at or above 930 in future years.