What is the Curriculum?

The curriculum has been designed to have the flexibility to work in any academic system depending on the needs of the school. It is comprised of 6 main modules (the SB principles) that each have between 6 -9 lessons.  

What are the school requirements?

The individual schools need to have a designated facilitator who can deliver the program to the student athletes. It is recommended that schools begin the program starting with one sport (two at the most) in the initial year as the facilitator becomes more familiar with the materials and has the opportunity to utilize the Scholar Baller team with questions throughout this first year. Upon purchasing the program, materials are sent out for the facilitator(s) to review and an SB training day is set up. An important component of the SB program is the full support and understanding of the coaches and academic personnel that work with these students on a daily basis.   

What kind of training does Scholar-Baller provide?

: SB sends out either one or two presenters who will take a few hours to present Scholar Baller to athletic staff, coaches, administrators, faculty, boosters, students, etc. to give a theoretical overview of the premise behind Scholar Baller, why it works, how it will improve recruitment efforts, and ultimately improve academic performance with student athletes. This presentation is approximately 1 hour depending on the questions and audience in attendance.  After a break the SB trainers then work one on with the designated facilitators presenting several lessons as a facilitator working with your schools represented trainees as the student athletes in a modified role model set up. The SB trainers will provide examples in each of the modules (6) and will go through how the audio and DVD files are to be presented and utilized with the student athletes.  In addition they will go through any questions your facilitators may have identified while going through their materials.  This process depends on the number of questions and facilitators you choose to train for obvious reasons.  

Do they have to sit in a class?  

For many of the modules, specifically those that have an audio or DVD presentation, it will be necessary for the students to be in a setting where these can be presented. However, with the flexibility of the program and the comfort and knowledge of the facilitator there are some lessons/modules that may be delivered in settings outside of a classroom. For example, in one Division I football program that has the program many of the lessons are presented during camp between 2 a day’s outside of a classroom setting. The program was specifically written to allow flexibility in our participating schools.  

Is every athlete eligible to participate? 

The program is designed to be delivered team by team. A particularly important part of the program has to do with setting up an Academic Team Competition which divides the team in half and presents opportunities for them to compete in class attendance, grades, etc. for SB motivational wear and opportunities.   

If you are interested in implementing the curriculum with a specific team(s) in year one as suggested but would like to have the opportunity to provide motivational wear to all student athletes that have a 3.0 or higher that is certainly an option depending on the budget of the school and the number of student athletes that have a 3.0 or better.

How long will it take a student to finish a "module".  

The flexibility of the program allow your facilitators to determine the length of time it takes. On average each lesson plan takes approximately 45 minutes with interaction between student athletes and the facilitator as they go through their student athlete workbook responses. However in some cases not all of the lesson plans may seem appropriate or needed for the student population addressed and the facilitator may eliminate or skip that lesson. For the SB research division we only request that the facilitators keep track of the lessons they do deliver so that our annual report to the athletic department is complete in what was delivered to the student athletes.  

How do you track students to become part of the program-do they come to you or does someone find out GPAs?  

The participating schools provide demographic data on their student athletes to Scholar Baller as part of the agreement and administer a pre and posttest evaluation to student athletes that are participating in the program. All information provided to SB is confidential and will not be identified as coming from your institution. There is a confidentiality provision as part of the licensure that ensures this for all participating schools. This information is utilized by our research division to provide a comprehensive annual report on the student athletes at your institution that are going through the Scholar Baller program. A description of the survey instruments that are provided as part of the program is listed below.  

Scholar Baller First Year Survey

The SB First Year Survey covers a wide range of student athlete characteristics: ethnicity, native language, parental income and education, and other pre-college variables; secondary school activities and achievement; educational goals and career plans; and attitudes and values. The SB First Year Survey is administered to student athletes prior to starting their Scholar Baller intervention program.   

Scholar Baller Exit Survey

The SB Exit Survey covers a variety of factors, including student-athletes’ campus experiences, curricular and extra-curricular activities, academic performance, self-concept, satisfaction, degree aspirations, attitudes and values, and life goals to name a few.  The SB Exit Survey is administered to student athletes at the completion of their Scholar Baller intervention program.  Although the SB Exit Survey can stand as an independent exit-type survey, it is designed to link with the SB First Year Survey to assess and evaluate change during their college years (longitudinal study).  In order to link the two surveys, student athletes are asked to provide their social security or identification number. 

How is the Champs life skills different from the SB program?  

The Champs Life Skills program is an NCAA initiated program that institutions implement that offers programming in five areas (Academics, Athletics, Community Service, Personal Development, Career Development). Most of the programming is skill development based (writing resumes, interviewing, guest speakers on sexual violence, etc).  Scholar Baller is a movement and ideology that focuses on shifting youth and young adults' mentalities and thus shifting their behaviors as it relates to valuing and pursuing consciousness and education.  SB is a culturally relevant ideology that incentives student-athletes in particular to achieve educationally by rewarding them for academic achievement and by educating them through curriculum.  SB is also imagery that reconstructs American society's viewpoint relevant to education through sport and entertainment.   

How does the program work with the athletes current limited schedule; i.e. work study times?  

We have discussed different models for implementation.  It depends on who the intervention is happening with.  Part of SB is incentives and that doesn't take any time at all.  Handing out rewards and having an SB dinner doesn't take time.  The educational component can be delivered at team meetings, during 30 to 45 minute blocks of time to just freshmen, it all depends on who we are working with.   

How do we sign up?  

Schools interested in participating in the Scholar Baller program may contact our Director of Theory and Research, Dr. C. Keith Harrison at keith@scholarballer.org, or the Director of Collegiate Programming, Jean Boyd at jean@scholarballer.org to start the process.  Schools will be invoiced for the program cost and upon receipt of payment all materials are sent to the school with a detailed questionnaire and calendar to determine dates for facilitator training.