5 Tips to Creating a Home Academic Environment

Attention parents: You are your student-athlete’s home academic advisers for 12-plus years.

Sometimes this truth gets lost in hectic lives coupled with unrealistic expectations of today’s educators. Kids’ grades can become afterthoughts and, when that happens, sooner or later they suffer the consequences.

At National Scouting Report, we urge you to accept this critical responsibility knowing that if you do, you can change your child’s college future.

A’s and B’s in high school core classes translate to two things in college: money and opportunity.

On the money side, the more of these prized marks your athlete gets, the more he or she will be in demand by college admissions offices and the more academic dollars he or she will earn.

In short, the higher your athlete’s core course GPA, the more money colleges will throw at you to enroll. Why? They want graduates and alumni who will appreciate their educations and give back to their institutions for years to come. It is a long-term financial strategy colleges can bank on.

On the opportunity side, schools with lofty entrance requirements are dealing with a diminishing supply of qualified freshman candidates. It is a matter of simple math. With each 10th of a point higher they set as their GPA entrance standard, the fewer kids are available to them. So, when they compete desperately for those applicants who qualify, that means opportunity for high school grads with higher and higher core GPA’s.

Your ultimate goal becomes to raise those C’s and D’s to A’s and B’s, so your athlete will have more choices of schools to attend.

With that in mind, here are five success keys to creating a productive academic environment in the home:

1. Know the destination (minimum core course GPA) and set everyone’s sights on it: Seriously, what is realistic with your athlete? Is it 3.0, 3.25 or is it at or near 4.0?  That is a crucial question that together you and your child should agree to setting as a goal. That becomes your child’s academic destination.
2. Agree to a cooperative spirit throughout the process: A 3.5 GPA, for instance, is not always quickly achieved. If you start this process late, say at the start of the junior year in high school, your child may already be at, say, a 2.8. That 0.7 more rarely happens in only one semester. It may actually take a full year or even three or four semesters. See, he or she has fallen behind for eight semesters. That is good bit of ground to make up. It may then require patience, encouragement and support to reach that 3.5 mark. If that’s what’s needed, so be it. Be there for him or her because what lies ahead may not be easy. Bad habits may have to be overcome both by your child and you.
3. Define rules, roles and responsibilities: Don’t think that the rules, roles and responsibilities are all on your child. You, too, should commit to doing your part in helping him or her succeed. When you have skin in the game, you are truly in it together. Perhaps that means your child committing to X number of hours with all electronics off and their nose at the academic grindstone. And maybe that means that you, too, will make similar sacrifices like vowing to have your electronics turned off as well. Write it all down and sign it, like a legitimate contract. Take it seriously. Do what you say you will do. In other words, be the parent. Whatever you decide, do it together while understanding what lies at the end of the rainbow for your athlete. The key? Listing positive and negative consequences for going off track or falling short of expectations. And that means for you as well as your kid. Nobody likes to suffer bad consequences, but it is part of life. In contrast, celebrating accomplishments is lots of fun, so don’t be shy about that, either.
4. Allow for missteps: All new plans are made optimistically. It’s human nature. We’re gonna do this or we’re gonna do that. Then what happens when your child falls short, or if you fall short? How are the two of you going to respond? Put that in as part of your plan, too. It would be unrealistic to think that every target will be hit or that every timeline will be made. There will be misses. Moreover, perhaps the most important part of this process is committing to how you will each respond when missteps are made. Clear expectations will help get over rough patches. That in itself is a valuable experience.
5. Know when to regroup:  Remember that first part about setting a destination? Sometimes families are more optimistic than realistic. That 3.5 may not be reachable, especially if your child is facing some very tough junior and senior year courses. That’s not to say that giving it a shot is not an option. But if it’s apparent that your child likely will fail, regroup and set a new goal. Your child may be discouraged, but if you are supportive and you both work hard to reach the next destination, the rewards may not be as substantial as the original one, but it will be rewarding nonetheless.

Finally, if you are lucky enough to start this process early — eighth, ninth or 10th grades — plan to reboot every summer heading into fall classes. We encourage you to make it part of your family’s routine, both on the planning and implementation phases.

Good luck and go for it!