The NCAA on Tuesday released its annual Academic Progress Rate report, showing a three-point improvement in scores nationwide.

The APR, now in its eighth year, measures academic progress of athletes in specific sports over a four-year period. Those programs with poor scores can lose scholarships and have restrictions on practice and competition.

“The expectation is that every program will reach a certain level of academic performance, and that level is important," NCAA president Mark Emmert said in a statement. “To this end, the reform effort has been almost immeasurable in its impact.

“So instead of reform, we look to academic success and academic performance as a natural and automatic expectation of being a student-athlete. We need to keep working on that performance, just as a team works to improve its athletics performance, so their academics continue to rise as well.”

The NCAA has handed out penalties this year to 103 under-performing teams at 67 schools. Last year, 137 teams at 80 schools were penalized.