Progress Remains Strong for Jayhawks in the Classroom

LAWRENCE, Kan. – Five Kansas teams achieved perfect one-year scores and two – men’s basketball and volleyball – posted four-year perfect scores as Jayhawk student-athletes achieved well above the minimum requirement in the latest NCAA Academic Progress Rate (APR) data released by the national governing body Wednesday.

The latest NCAA Academic Progress Rates show overall improvement among Division I programs, with the combined national tally rising two points to 976. In order to compete in the 2014-15 postseason, teams must achieve either a 930 multi-year APR or a 940 average over the most recent two years – a total each Kansas program was well above.

KU men’s basketball and volleyball each achieved a four-year APR score of 1,000, the highest score attainable. For Bill Self’s Jayhawk basketball team it was the eighth-straight, single-year perfect score, leading a 2012-13 perfect class that included men’s golf, women’s basketball, tennis and volleyball. Men’s basketball and volleyball were honored earlier this month with the NCAA Public Recognition Award for achieving scores among the top-10 percent of their respective sports.

The APR provides a real-time look at a team’s academic success each semester by tracking the academic progress of each student-athlete on scholarship. The APR accounts for eligibility, retention and graduation, providing a measure of each team’s academic performance.

All of Kansas’ teams that had qualified for 2013-14 NCAA postseason play as of Wednesday logged multi-year scores of at least 980 – volleyball (1,000), men’s basketball (1,000), softball (985) and women’s golf (980).

The KU women’s cross country team saw its streak come to an end after posting a perfect score in each of the first nine years the NCAA has published this data. The 2012-13 squad recorded an APR of 969, but the team has the third-highest, four-year APR in the department at 994.

The Jayhawks have had a total of 24 teams honored with Public Recognition Awards (for multi-year academic success) and have had 44 teams achieve perfect single-season APRs in the first decade of the statistic designed to help stimulate academic reform.

The most recent multi-year APRs are based on scores from the 2009-10, 2010-11, 2011-12, 2012-13 academic years.

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