They should address this problem by turning NAPS back to its original intent – preparation of fleet sailors and Marines who have demonstrated some smarts and leadership potential for the academic rigors of USNA. It should not be used as a way station for athletics and race-based diversity.
If VADM Fowler has found the curriculum of instruction at NAPS to be inadequate, and taken corrective action along those lines, then Bravo! The next step is to improve the quality of the input material, and stop bringing in those whose only qualification is their skin color or their speed in the 40.

The admissions board of the naval academy has a difficult job. They must determine who is likely to succeed in a physically, morally and mentally challenging environment both while at the academy and upon commissioning. For most applicants this determination is made based of the individuals performance in a high school setting which does not accurately reflect all three aspects of such an environment. While they can predict who is likely to excel, ultimately a candidates success depends on their own initiative and natural gifts.

NAPS should be a place where competitive, though not superior, candidates are sent to refine their personal, professional and academic habits in an environment which closely reflects that of the service academy and the Navy. The largest problem I can see on the part of the academy in running this program is telling midshipman candidates that they will go on to the Naval Academy, and eventually Officership, if they simply meet the minimum requirement (2.0 last I heard). Frankly, following a year at NAPS the admissions board has all the information it needs on an individual (moreso than any other applicant) to make an informed determination of their ability to perform at the Academy and beyond. I imagine that the admissions board would characterize a high-school applicant as non-competitive if their guidance counselor wrote “the student does not know how to do homework” on their application. In short, the SUPT is right-on in ensuring that the prep school is well-organized and properly staffed; it could not do its mission properly without such support. However, given the extra opportunity that NAPS provides, these candidates should compete for the chance to move from Newport to Annapolis.

The Merchant Marine Academy tried ‘supervised homework’ for the first quarter of my plebe year. In short it was a disaster. Nothing worse than throwing a couple hundred students with individual study habits back into classrooms in the evening to ensure that they were all doing homework. Our class did especially poorly that quarter and the resulting school investigation (demanded by Congress) assigned heavy blame to this idiotic experiment.

There were so many distractions in the classrooms that I often went to the library to read the newspaper during that time, instead starting my homework at 10PM each evening once they were done with us for the day.

Pathetic. Nothing but pathetic…