Arkansas Backs Off Extracurricular GPA Requirement

By Kerry A. White

Four years ago, when Arkansas state school board members passed a "no pass, no play" policy requiring secondary school students to maintain a C average to play sports or take part in extracurricular activities, they thought they had found the ideal incentive to get students with less-than-perfect grades to hit the books.

After the new rules were adopted, school board members, administrators, teachers, and, especially, coaches waited for the good grades to start rolling in. And they waited. And waited.

Finally, when it seemed that not only were the low achievers not achieving at higher levels, but that the lowest-performing students who were disqualified from after-school activities were dropping out of school altogether, one lawmaker decided to...