The Case for High School Activities

Found another study that highlights the relationship with extracurricular activities and success at school -

Everyone Gains: Extracurricular Activities in High School and Higher SAT ® Scores
College Entrance Examination Board, New York, 2005

From the report -

This report presents evidence that links participation in extracurricular activities (ECAs) in high school with higher SAT Reasoning Test™ (SAT®) scores. Using structural equation models (SEMs) with latent means, we analyzed data from a national sample of college-bound high school students. A series of structural equation models—isolating the influence of ECAs on SAT verbal and mathematics scores—were fit simultaneously to eight subgroups (disaggregated by both gender and ethnicity) of high school students. The SEMs analyses suggest: (1) that
often observed group differences in SAT scores shrink, and (2) that students’ levels of participation in ECAs in high school are related to meaningful gains in SAT scores, once the influences of socioeconomic background and academic achievement are controlled statistically. These analyses suggest that participation in ECAs benefits minority and socioeconomically disadvantaged students as much as, or more than, economically advantaged white students. These findings support the conclusion that supplementary education programs benefit minorities and disadvantaged high school students who are often ill-served by traditional academic curricula. [My emphasis]

There is little debate that public high schools in the United States need improvement. Student achievement suffers in many high schools, and innovation and change are required to address the challenge of improving learning across the curriculum, particularly when it comes to the achievement gap between minority and nonminority students. The contributors to this report offer a variety of alternative approaches, all under the heading of supplementary education programs. But do these programs and interventions actually lead to increases in student achievement? What is the quality of the evidence in support of these programs and activities? Indeed, if these activities are to be expanded, as some have argued elsewhere in this report, then rigorous scientific evidence will have to be developed and made available to policymakers, parents, students, and other stakeholders.

Marsh and Kleitman (2002), writing in the Harvard Educational Review, present a persuasive case for the efficacy of extracurricular activities. They conclude, for example, that

Whereas most school activities exacerbate the already substantial gap in academic outcomes between socioeconomically advantaged and disadvantaged students, ESAs (extracurricular school activities) appear to actually reduce this inequality gap. Although the ESA benefits generalize widely, the benefits tend to be larger, certainly not smaller, for more disadvantaged students (p. 508).

Others (see, for example, Camp, 1990; Gerber, 1996; Holland and Andre, 1987; Holloway, 2000; Marsh, 1992) have reached similar conclusions.

Despite these efforts, policymakers may be constrained in the current environment because many of these studies may not meet the standard of rigorous scientific evidence promulgated by the U.S. Department of Education.

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