Educators have long known that the qualities it takes to compete successfully on the athletic field — dedication, personal responsibility, self-discipline and hard work — are the same as those needed to excel anywhere, including in the classroom. School athletic programs have been the springboard to success for thousands of kids who later in life drew on the lessons they first learned on the court or the gridiron.

That's why we applaud the Baltimore City school board's proposal this week to raise the academic eligibility requirements for young athletes who want to participate in school sports programs. It's about time. School athletics are supposed to motivate students to be more deeply engaged in their schools and their educations. We need to make sure that's actually what's happening.

The board's proposal would phase in the higher eligibility requirements over the next two academic years. Currently, the rules mandate only that a student have no more than one failing grade to be eligible to participate in school athletic programs. For a system that's been struggling for years to raise academic standards, that's a pretty low bar. No matter how good a kid is at running track or shooting hoops, if the report card shows Ds and an F at the end of the year, that's hardly satisfactory.

It's entirely likely that higher standards will motivate some students to pay more attention to their classwork, if only to maintain their standing on the team. Moreover, allowing athletes to skate by on the current low standard truncates their potential. The National College Athletics Association already requires students to have a grade point average of 2.3 — something like a C-plus — in order to be eligible to play and receive athletic scholarships. Does it really make sense to set the bar in high school so low that they can't compete in college? That's setting them up for failure.

The school board wants to require student-athletes to maintain a grade point average of at least 1.75 (the equivalent of a C-minus) in order to remain eligible to play in the 2017-2018 school year, and to have a solid C average of 2.0 by the following year. The latter is what virtually all the other school districts in the region have set as the minimum academic requirement for participation in school sports. Baltimore is doing its students no favors by settling for anything less, though the planned one-year transition period seems eminently reasonable.

School officials need to keep closer track of their student-athletes' academic progress during the year and make sure they get additional support to keep up their grades. They can also target young athletes for tutoring and mentoring initiatives and encourage them to enroll in after-school and summer school programs to sharpen their skills.

But why stop there? Requiring student-athletes to have a solid C average is certainly a step in the right direction, but it still falls short of the NCAA standard. Over the long term, the goal should be to ensure every student-athlete has the skills to maintain a consistent grade point average of 2.3 or higher throughout their school careers. Baltimore isn't anywhere near being able to guarantee that now, but this is as good a time as any to move in that direction. If you start out with low expectations for what city students can achieve, you're likely to get the results you expect.