June 1995
(NCES 95-741) Ordering information
The NCES Education Policy Issues series is designed to provide the best statistical information available on important policy questions. The series primarily provides responses grounded in statistical findings, but also, as appropriate, provides some information based onsmaller scale research and case studies.
Overview
Almost every high school in the U.S. offers some type of extracurricularactivity, such as music, academic clubs, and sports. These activitiesoffer opportunities for students to learn the values of teamwork,individual and group responsibility, physical strength and endurance,competition, diversity, and a sense of culture and community.Extracurricular activities provide a channel for reinforcing thelessons learned in the classroom, offering students the opportunityto apply academic skills in a real-world context, and are thusconsidered part of a well-rounded education. Recent research suggeststhat participation in extracurricular activities may increasestudents' sense of engagement or attachment to their school, andthereby decrease the likelihood of school failure and droppingout (Lamborn et al, 1992; Finn, 1993). If, indeed, participationin extracurricular activities can lead to success in school, thenthe availability of these activities to students of all backgroundsbecomes an important equity issue. This issue brief examines therelationship between extracurricular participation and studentengagement in school using data from 1992 public high school seniorsin the National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS). The briefalso explores whether the availability of these activities variesaccording to school characteristics, and whether participationdiffers according to student background and school setting.
Is participation in extracurricular activities related tostudents' success in school?
Indicators of successful participation in school include consistentattendance, academic achievement, and aspirations for continuingeducation beyond high school. Extracurricular participation(1)was positively associated with each of these success indicatorsamong public high school seniors in 1992 (table 1). During thefirst semester of their senior year, participants reported betterattendance than their non-participating classmates--half of themhad no unexcused absences from school and half had never skippeda class, compared with one-third and two-fifths of nonparticipants,respectively. Students who participated were three times as likelyto perform in the top quartile on a composite math and readingassessment compared with nonparticipants. Participants were alsomore likely than nonparticipants to aspire to higher education:two-thirds of participants expected to complete at least a bachelor'sdegree while about half of nonparticipants expected to do so. It cannot be known from these data, however, whether participationleads to success, successful students are more inclined to participate,or both occur.
Table 1. Percentage of public school seniors reporting selectedindicators of school success by participation and nonparticipationin extracurricular activities, 1992
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Non-Indicators Participants participants----------------------------------------------------------------------------No unexcused absences* 50.4 36.2Never skipped classes* 50.7 42.3Have a GPA of 3.0 or above 30.6 10.8Highest quartile on a composite math and reading assessment 29.8 14.2Expect to earn a bachelor's degree or higher 68.2 48.2----------------------------------------------------------------------------
* During first semester of their senior year.
Are extracurricular activities available to all students?
Virtually all students in public schools reported that a coreof extracurricular activities was available to them, includingsports, performing arts, publications, and honor societies; andall but a small percentage had access to academic clubs and studentgovernment (table 2). Slightly less available were non-academicclubs, such as vocational/professional clubs, followed by serviceand hobby clubs. Furthermore, despite concerns about scarce resourcesin schools serving poor students, no important differences inavailability of extracurricular activities in relatively lessaffluent and more affluent schools(2) were found. Similarly, regardlessof whether the schools attended were large (750 students or more)or small (less than 150), in rural, urban or suburban settings,or served large (20 percent or more minority) or small proportionsof minority students (less than 20 percent), almost all studentsreported that extracurricular activities were available to them(data not shown in table).
Table 2. Percentage of public school seniors reporting availabilityof selected extracurricular activities, by affluence of school,1992
------------------------------------------------------------------- Students Reporting Availability of Activity (percent) ------------------------------------ All Less More public affluent affluent schools schools schools -----------------------------------------------------------------Any extracurricular activity 99.8 99.8 99.9Publications 99.4 99.3 99.6Performing arts 98.8 98.7 99.1Sports (individual and team) 98.7 98.6 99.1Honor societies 98.1 97.4 98.8Student government 96.5 94.9 97.6Academic clubs 95.9 94.6 97.0Vocational/professional clubs 93.3 93.4 93.7Service clubs 89.2 87.2 90.7Hobby clubs 87.5 85.4 89.2-----------------------------------------------------------------
Who takes advantage of extracurricular activities?
About four of every five seniors said they participated in atleast one extracurricular activity in 1992. Although a range ofextracurricular activities was available to almost all students,students differed markedly in their choice of activities (table3). Sports (either individual or team) had the widest participation,involving 42 percent of seniors in 1992, followed by performingarts and academic clubs. Honor societies, publications, and studentgovernment, which by definition have more limited membershipsthan other activities, each still drew 16 to 18 percent of seniors.
Although differences in availability of extracurricular opportunitiesbetween less affluent and more affluent schools were small ornonexistent, students of low socioeconomic status (SES) were lesslikely to participate in activities than were high SES students(3).Almost three-quarters of low SES students participated in at leastone activity, compared with 87 percent of high SES students. Theparticipation of low SES students was consistently lower thanthat of high SES students in each type of activity, with the exceptionof vocational or professional clubs, such as Future Farmers orFuture Teachers of America, in which low SES students were almosttwice as likely to participate.
Some researchers have suggested that the social context of theschool might have a positive or negative influence on studentbehavior, depending on whether the individual student is in therelative minority or majority in the school (Karweit, 1983). LowSES students, for example, may be more likely to participate inschools where they are in the majority and less likely to participatein more affluent schools where they are in the relative minority.These data include, however, that regardless of their socioeconomicbackground, students' participation was not related to the socialcontext of the school--low SES students participated at the samerates whether they attended less affluent or more affluent schools,and so did high SES students.
If individual socioeconomic factors, rather than school factors,account for differences in participation, what is it about individuals,particularly those from lower SES families, that makes a difference?Researchers have identified several barriers to student participation,ranging from the more tangible, including family or work responsibilities,limited resources for equipment or other expenses, and transportationor other logistical difficulties, to the more complex, such aslack of interest in or alienation from school and its activities(Kleese and D'Onofrio, 1994).
Table 3. Percentage of public school seniors participatingin selected extracurricular activities by SES of student and affluenceof school, 1992
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Low SES students High SES students ----------------- ------------------ Less More Less More *All affluent affluent affluent affluentSelected activity students students students students students---------------------------------------------------------------------------Any activity 79.9 74.7 73.0 86.8 87.6Sports 42.4 34.3 33.2 48.6 53.1Performing arts 27.5 25.0 20.7 32.0 29.2Academic clubs 26.2 20.2 20.5 36.2 32.3Vocational/professional clubs 20.8 29.2 25.6 16.0 11.8Honor societies 18.1 10.3 10.0 30.8 29.9Publications 17.0 17.6 9.5 22.4 20.0Student government 15.5 12.6 9.9 17.5 20.9Service clubs 15.2 10.0 9.4 25.0 21.1Hobby clubs 8.5 8.2 6.9 9.4 9.6----------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Includes students in middle two quartiles.
Discussion
Although it cannot be known from these data whether the relationshipbetween participation in extracurricular activities and successin school is causal, and although degree or intensity of participationis not measured, it is clear that participation and success arestrongly associated as evidenced by participants' better attendance,higher levels of achievement, and aspirations to higher levelsof education. Furthermore, the data indicate that differencesin participation were not related to differences in availability,as extracurricular activities were available to virtually allhigh school seniors regardless of the affluence, size, locationor minority status of the schools students attended. Despite wideavailability of activities, low SES students participated lessthan did their high SES classmates. This participation gap isa cause for concern, especially if extracurricular activitiescan be a means of bringing at-risk students more fully into theschool community, thereby increasing their chances of school success.In spite of the gap, however, low SES students participated atfairly high levels, and they persisted in their participationregardless of the relative affluence of the schools they attended.Neither the gap nor the persistence is explained by these data,but together they suggest the value of further study of the individualconstraints of poverty and family background and the influenceof school community on student engagement.
References
Finn, J.D. (1993). School engagement and students at risk.Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics.
Karweit, Nancy and Hansell, Steve. (1983). "School Organizationand Friendship Selection," in Friends in School, ed.Joyce Epstein and Nancy Karweit, New York: Academic Press.
Kleese, Edward J. and D'Onofrio, Jan A. (1994). Student Activitiesfor Students At Risk. Reston, VA: National Association ofSecondary School Principals.
Lamborn, S.D., Brown, B.B., Mounts, N.S., & Steinberg, L.(1992). Putting School in perspective: The influence of family,peers, extracurricular participation, and part-time work on academicengagement. Chapter 6 in Student engagement and achievementin American secondary schools.
Endnotes
1. A student was classified as a participant if he or she marked"participated" or "participated as an officer"in at least one of the extracurricular activities listed.
2. School affluence was defined by the percent of the studentbody receiving free or reduced price lunches; schools at 20 percentor more students receiving free lunch were considered less affluentand those with less than 20 percent more affluent.
3. Low and high SES are defined at the bottom and top quartile,respectively, of a composite measure of parent education and occupationalstatus and of family income.
Sources
SOURCE: All data in this issue brief are from the U.S.Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics,National Education Longitudinal Study, Second Follow-up, 1992.
This brief was prepared by Eileen O'Brien of Policy Studies Associates and Mary Rollefson of the National Center for Education Statistics. For more information, contact Jeff Owings at Jeffrey.Owings@ed.gov.
