By Mark Schlabach
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, February 16, 2006

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 yesterday 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 closer examined under recommendations made by a 23-member committee formed in December, chairman Kevin Lennon, the NCAA vice president for membership services, said yesterday.

"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 on Sunday 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 Times report. 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 Sunday that Lutheran Christian Academy in Philadelphia, which has produced more than a dozen Division I basketball players, including one each at Georgetown and George Washington, 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 doesn't 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.

In 1993, the NCAA formed its Initial-Eligibility Clearinghouse and hired ACT Inc., the Iowa-based national testing company, to operate it. Lennon said the NCAA asks high schools that want the NCAA Clearinghouse to approve their courses for eligibility purposes a series of questions about curriculum and the instruction the schools provide. But the NCAA does not typically visit schools before certifying their classes as fulfilling requirements for eligibility to play college sports.

"We have relied more on the integrity of the information from the high school principal," Lennon said. "But I think it has become clear over our review of this particular issue that additional scrutiny is going to be necessary. We're going to begin that by basically asking more questions of those schools that we have identified where we need more information. It's possible at the end of the day that those visits could become just a routine part of the evaluation process."

Lutheran Christian registered as a religious school with the Pennsylvania Department of Education on Sept. 1, 2003. Pennsylvania requires schools to submit a notarized affidavit in which the school agrees that students will fulfill the compulsory attendance laws (180 days) and that the school will use mandated academic guidelines.

The most recent Lutheran Christian affidavit (submitted for 2003-04), was obtained by The Post on Monday. It states that the school provided instruction in at least a dozen classes and had the equivalent of nine full-time teachers. It also attested that the school was operated by a "bona fide church or other religious body."

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.

George Washington Athletic Director Jack Kvancz said Monday that the school used the Clearinghouse's certification as the basis for admitting Maureece Rice from Lutheran Christian two years ago.

"All I know is if you go through the Clearinghouse and you're okay, we go forward," Kvancz said.

Georgetown officials declined to comment on the circumstances surrounding the admission of Lutheran Christian's Marc Egerson.

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 around the country is a "dynamic process, one that 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 implementing a limit to the number of core courses students can complete during their senior or postgraduate academic years.

"The fact that we have some students who are not taking courses of academic rigor and they are not legitimate courses, I think the NCAA staff, legal counsel and certainly the task force here believes that in no way should those students be rewarded," Lennon said. "They are not prepared for the college experience. The courses that they took are not going to be used for eligibility purposes and they would have to find other means of completing either their high school degrees or becoming eligible. There was a sense that there's no reason to grandfather those students in; you take action immediately."