The Maryland state board of education has voted to recommend that student-athletes maintain a minimum grade point average of 2.0 to remain involved in school athletics, but no schools in the state will be required to adopt this standard.
The board acted Tuesday in response to a state law passed earlier this year, which requires the board to report back to the Maryland General Assembly before the end of 2011 with a set of statewide recommendations for minimum academic standards for high school athletes.
Currently, each Maryland school system can set its own academic standards for student-athletes, so long as they can ensure that the student-athletes “are making satisfactory progress toward graduation.”
Sixteen of the 24 districts in Maryland already require student-athletes to hold a 2.0 GPA to remain eligible, and the other eight have some other lower minimum standard, according to the