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UNC: Report Discredits Willingham Findings

South Building and the Old Well, UNC Chapel Hill
Dave DeWitt
/
WUNC
South Building and the Old Well, UNC Chapel Hill

An independent review is discrediting the findings of a whistleblower at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Mary Willingham is an academic advisor at UNC-Chapel Hill who first blew the whistle on no-show classes two years ago. More recently she claimed that one-fourth of all Carolina athletes were reading at our below a fourth-grade level.

UNC-Chapel Hill officials disputed the methods she used in making that assertion. The school hired three professors at other institutions to review Willingham’s data.

In a report released this afternoon the outside educators say the 25-question multiple choice vocabulary test Willingham used is not a true reading test, adding that a correlation between results on that test and grade-level reading are not sound conclusions.

Willingham has said called her work a "descriptive analysis." She says the majority of football and men’s basketball are not accurately assessed and has called the degrees they receive worthless.

Willingham has called on Carolina to offer remedial courses for athletes who are not prepared for entry level classes.

Jeff Tiberii is the co-host of WUNC's "Due South." Jeff joined WUNC in 2011. During his 20 years in public radio, he was Morning Edition Host at WFDD and WUNC’s Greensboro Bureau Chief and later, the Capitol Bureau Chief. Jeff has covered state and federal politics, produced the radio documentary “Right Turn,” launched a podcast, and was named North Carolina Radio Reporter of the Year four times.
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