Augusta State University Jaguars Men's Basketball Team Heads to National Championships

The ASU Jags and their coach, Dip Metress, celebrate the win that put them into national championship play. Photo courtesy of Augusta State University.

The Augusta State University Jaguars men's basketball team is off to the NCAA Division II national championship.

That's after a win over the University of South Carolina-Aiken on Tuesday.

The Jags, now one of the conference's "Elite Eight," will take on Christian Brothers University of Memphis in the tourney's first game on March 25 in Springfield, Massachusetts.

This is the Jags' second NCAA national tourney.

The team nearly won the championship last year. The Jags had led Winona State University for much of the tournament's last game in 2008, but came in second when they were defeated in the final minutes of nail-biting play.

With the win on Tuesday, the Jags also captured the division's Southeast Regional title.

Study Finds Disparities In Academic Testing and Pass Rates in Georgia High Schools

A new report says high school students in Georgia are failing academic tests each year, but still frequently making good enough grades to pass.

The study raises concerns that students in Georgia are entering college unprepared for the coursework there, and getting state-funded HOPE scholarships even though they may not otherwise qualify for them.

Students must graduate from high school with a B average to qualify for HOPE funding.

"If students are receiving the HOPE scholarship based on inflated grades, they're going to be much more likely to have to give it up," says Christopher Clark, a faculty member at Georgia College and State University who conducted the study. Clark says that based on the study, it appears that school systems are essentially giving passing grades to students who have not mastered the coursework.

"They'll be much more likely lose it, not retain the HOPE scholarship after, say, their first year, and they're much more likely to need to take remedial courses while being funded for the HOPE scholarship," says Clark.

The report compared students' grades and pass/fail rates with their scores on academic testing held at the end of each course in 2007. The tests are supposed to determine if students have mastered the course.

Some examples:

In 11th grade economics classes, about 35.85 percent of students failed testing on the subject matter, but only 5.87 percent failed the course, a gap of about 30 percentage points.

In biology, 41.62 percent of 11th graders failed that test, but only 16.77 percent failed that course, a gap of nearly 25 percentage points.

"The HOPE scholarship places a very, very high economic premium on achieving good grades in high school, and high school teachers themselves are in a situation where it's easier to feel greater pressure than university faculty would feel about the economic consequences of a grade," says Dr. William Bloodworth, the president of Augusta State University.

"Before the HOPE scholarship, there was no particularly direct dollar consequence to a grade, whether the grade was an A or B or C, and now there are such consequences," says Bloodworth. "There's a very strong suspicion that the HOPE scholarship has indeed in one way or another caused the teacher to be a bit more sympathetic to students and, on occasion, give grades that are higher than the grades that might have been given before the HOPE scholarship.

Clark's concern about apparently inflated grades is not new. And the scholarships, funded through the state lottery, have had their share of controversy.

Critics have argued that the scholarships have contributed to lowering Georgia's ranking in the U.S. on SAT scores, and that students who would not normally go to college now do so since it's affordable.

Clark acknowledges that more study needs to be done to determine if school systems are indeed inflating grades. The study only compared the grades and test scores. It provides no qualitative data of what schools are specifically doing in relation to the grades. Nor does it look at scores from previous years, or retention data from the scholarships. Clark also acknowledges that some courses require more subjective grading, which could, in part, explain the disparity.

But in his study, Clark asserts that school systems appear to be inflating the grades. State officials say that's because the coursework and the tests are based on the same performance standards by the state, and that, as a result, both grades and test scores should be consistent. Clark encourages further study on the issue.

The Georgia Association of Educators, however, argues that the coursework and tests don't always match. The association, which represents the state's teachers, also says no empirical data on apparent grade inflation exists and deny that teachers are intentionally misrepresenting student progress.

To see the study on the web, go to www.gaosa.org/research.aspx.

Georgia sports for Monday, March 31st

The Atlanta Braves opened their season on the road last night in Washington D.C. with a loss to the Nationals 3-2. The Braves tied the game at 2 in the 9th, scoring on a passed ball. But in the Nationals' home-half of the 9th inning, Ryan Zimmerman wiht 2 outs launched a solo home run off reliever Peter Moylan for the winning difference. Earlier in the game, Chipper Jones drilled a solo home run, which represented the first HR to be hit in the Nationals' new stadium, getting its debut last night. For Braves' starting pitcher Tim Hudson, after a bumpy 1st inning allowing 2 runs, he settled down to retire the next 19 batters he faced. The Braves are back in Atlanta to open a 6-game homestand--home opener tonight against the Pirates. Tom Glavine gets the pitching call in his first game back in a Braves uniform.

If you missed it from the weekend, Augusta State's run through the Division II men's basketball tournament ended one win shy of a championship. The ASU Jaguars lost to the Warriors of Winona State Saturday afternoon 87-76 in action from Springfield, Massachusetts. For Winona St, it's the second championship in school history. Augusta State had its deepest run ever in the Division II tournament, ending their season 27-7.

Augusta State falls in Div.II title game

Augusta State's run through the Division II men's basketball tournament ended one win shy of a championship. The ASU Jaguars lost to the Warriors of Winona State Saturday afternoon 87-76 in action from Springfield, Massachusetts. For Winona St, it's the second championship in school history. Augusta State had its deepest run ever in the Division II tournament, ending their season 27-7.

Georgia sports for Friday, March 28th

Augusta State has advanced to the championship game of the Division II men's college basketball tournament. ASU topped Alaska-Anchorage 56-50 in one semifinal Thursday. Augusta State's Jaguars will take-on Winona State in the title game Saturday.

The Atlanta Braves have concluded spring training in their month-and-a-half stay in Florida. The club lost to the New York Mets Thursday 9-4. The Braves are back in Atlanta for a pair of exhibitions Friday and Saturday against the Cleveland Indians, before opening the regular season Sunday night in Washington. You can hear a preview on the Braves' 2008 season tonight on Georgia Gazette--GPB's Edgar Treiguts visits with team broadcaster Chip Caray. Georgia Gazette airs at 6pm across the GPB Radio Network--7pm in Athens.

Pro hockey from last night included a win for the Atlanta Thrashers in the waning days of their season, 3-2 on the road at Florida.

Augusta State University Jaguars basketball team advances to national championship

It's another big win for the Augusta State University Jaguars men's basketball team, and a move to the national championship.

The team defeated Alaska-Anchorage 56-50 on Thursday in NCAA Division II tournament play in Springfield, Massachusetts.

It's the biggest win in the history of men's basketball at Augusta State, according to university officials.

They'll take on Winona State University on Saturday in the national championship.

Augusta State University Jaguars advance to NCAA Final Four

The Augusta State University Jaguars men's basketball team advance to the NCAA Division II Final Four tournament in Springfield, Massachusetts.

The Jaguars on Wednesday pulled off a stunning 106-104 defeat of Central Oklahoma in double overtime. It was the tournament's first double overtime since the early 1980s.

The team takes on Alaska-Anchorage in the Final Four tonight.

Staph infection reported in Augusta

Another student has been diagnosed with staph infection, this time in east Georgia. The student attends Augusta State University. School officials say the staph is a skin infection on his leg, and that it's not serious. Nationally, health experts say infections are becoming more difficult to treat because they're resistant to penicillin. The disease is called MRSA. "MRSA itself in a wound is not something that should panic the whole community," says Dr. Charlotte Price, chair of Augusta State's nursing department. "We do watch it, though. The thing about MRSA is it is in our community now. At some point it was just primarily patients in the hospitals." MRSA can be treated with antibiotics other than penicillin. A spokeswoman for Augusta State said employees there had cleaned and disinfected the student's classrooms since his diagnosis. For more information about staph infection, how to treat it, and how to protect yourself from it, go to www.cdc.gov.

Chancellor urges Governor to veto bill

The chancellor of Georgia's university system has taken the rare step of asking the governor to veto a higher education bill. Chancellor Erroll Davis says the veto is necessary to protect academic integrity. The measure would give 24 hours of college credit to high school seniors who complete the two-year International Baccalaureate diploma program offered in some Georgia high schools. But Representative Bill Hembree says the chancellor is just trying to keep students in college longer so they pay more tuition to the system.

Debate tonight for 10th Congressional District

Candidates to replace the late northeast Georgia Congressman Charlie Norwood debate tonight in Augusta. The debate starts at 7PM at Augusta State University. A special election is scheduled for June 19th. Norwood passed away in February after a long battle with cancer.