Basketball player Megan Isom

Georgia Tech athletes scored high marks in a new NCAA program aimed at improving graduation rates.

The academic progress rate measures each Division I athlete’s classroom performance and teams that score below 925 — the NCAA’s equivalent of a 50 percent graduation rate — risk losing scholarships.

The men’s basketball team’s 962 score was better than at least 70 percent of Division I programs while the football team’s 942 ranked in the 60th percentile. Overall Tech’s score was 964, sixth best in the ACC. Five Tech programs — men’s golf, men’s tennis, women’s cross country, women’s softball, women’s swimming and women’s tennis — received perfect scores.

Under the NCAA formula, a team is awarded four possible points a year for each player — one point for each semester a student athlete keeps his eligibility and one for each semester he or she returns to school. At the end of the year, the progress rate is calculated as a percentage of the points a school could have earned.

This year, low academic progress rate results earn a warning, but penalties including scholarship reductions, recruiting limits and postseason tournament ineligibility will be imposed next year.