City Coaches Welcome the Demise of No-Fail Rule

City Section coaches on Tuesday greeted the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education’s decision to drop the no-fail stipulation of its eligibility requirements for extracurricular activities with a near-unanimous sentiment: It’s about time.

Coaches who had strongly opposed the measure when it was introduced in 1982 rejoiced after the board voted 5 to 2 Monday to discontinue barring students who receive even a single failing grade from participating in extracurricular activities, as long as they maintain a C average.

The measure puts the district in line with the C-average rule that was adopted statewide in 1987. For Valley high schools belonging to the Los Angeles district, the measure will take effect in the spring semester, which begins Feb. 5.

According to City Section Commissioner Hal Harkness, the district never has counted the number of students ruled ineligible because of the no-fail rule. Harkness, who studied the effects of the rule in 1985, estimates student ineligibility in the district’s high schools at 50%; he also estimated that 10% of all ineligibilities are attributable to the no-fail rule.

Harkness and Valley coaches contacted by The Times in an informal poll Tuesday argue that the no-fail rule has failed to motivate students--as it was designed to do--and instead punishes them. Although coaches warned that the change will not help the inferior student, they claimed the marginal student will benefit; they also said students will be more likely to take demanding classes. In addition, they said that opposing the rule does not represent a stance against academics.

“I’ve always been against the no-fail rule and not because I’m anti-academic,” said Darryl Stroh, Granada Hills High’s football and baseball coach.

“The C average is a good enough rule. If a kid takes a fail and the rest of his grades are good enough to absorb it, then there’s no justification for denying him eligibility.”

But Cleveland basketball Coach Marc Paez, a former teacher and dean of students at St. Bernard High in Playa del Rey, defended the rule.

“As educators, we have to maintain standards,” he said. “If our standards are lowered, kids sink to them. If we strive to the lowest common denominator, we’re not doing our job as educators.

“I’m in a position to benefit from the change and I’m not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. But my feelings as a coach are the same as an administrator.”

Still, nearly every Valley coach contacted told of an athlete he lost because of the no-fail rule. Worse, coaches claim, is the impact that ineligibility has on team sports. Stroh said the rule should be taken a step further to allow athletes who become ineligible to complete a season before the period of ineligibility begins.

The problem is acute during football season when the 10-week grading period often coincides with the start of the playoffs, coaches said.

“If you go into the playoffs with a great year and then lose two to three key kids, 60 kids go down the drain,” Stroh said.

“That’s not educationally sound. If you start something, you don’t quit in the middle.”