DATE: Monday, September 15, 1997            TAG: 9709130020

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B8   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Editorial 

                                            LENGTH:   36 lines

CHESAPEAKE GRADE STANDARD CHALLENGE STUDENTS

If Chesapeake public schools had required football players to maintain at least a 2.0 grade point average last year, 45 percent would have been benched.

While Chesapeake considers adopting a minimum 2.0 GPA for participation in sports and other extracurricular activities, opponents of the requirement note the high percentage of football players who would be ineligible and warn that those students might drop out of school

But in Portsmouth and Suffolk, where the 2.0 GPA requrement already has been phased in, drop-out rates have not gone up, and athletes have made their grades.

``I think our kids rose to the challenge and did what had to be done,'' said Ken Taylor, football coach at Churchland High School in Portsmouth.

To be fair to students, the higher standard should be phased in, as the other four South Hampton Roads cities have done or are doing. And support has to be provided to students to help them improve their grades.

Wisely, the higher GPA requrement in Chesapeake would be accompanied by after-school study halls that would be voluntary for students with good grades but mandatory for students with grade-point averages under 2.0.

James D. Rayfield, Chesapeake director of secondary curriculum and instruction and also chair of a committee studying the higher standard, said Portsmouth and Portsmouth results are typical of what has occurred nationally.

``It was successful as long as a support system was in place,'' he said.

Having 45 percent of football players carrying sub-2.0 GPAs might be an argument for dropping football, which most parents surely don't want to do. The low grades, in fact, are an argument for challenging the students to do better.

Chesapeake should adopt the tougher standard.

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