Journey

During the last five years of my administrative career (from 2005 to 2010), I was the
principal of an amazing Chicago North Shore high school. In my first year as principal, I started
making small changes in order to demonstrate to the students and staff how we could improve
our school. Our school’s incredible diversity and student involvement in helping others created a
school culture that was amazing. However, I also pointed out to staff where we needed to
improve our academic rigor and performance. Our school had not made adequate yearly progress
(AYP) for the past two years; furthermore, the school’s composite ACT (American College Test)
score had fallen from 22.3 to 21.9 over the previous three years. I explained to our staff that our
school’s demographics were shifting and that our newly enrolled students had many more needs
than we had previously experienced. Several staff members wanted to know what we should do
and what course of action I was going to take to reverse these trends. So I outlined the

following plan:

1. All students would work harder to raise their GPA. They would do this by being placed
in more rigorous classes that would challenge them to do better academically.
2. Students would be able to take advantage of our recently created Academic Literacy
Center staffed with student tutors and teachers, known as “the Point.” Students could
come to the Point before, during, and after school for academic assistance. Located next
to the Point would be the Instructional Resource Center (library), where students could go
for research and help with books and articles.
3. I began a new program called “Head North” and put a sign with the slogan next to every
clock in the school to remind everyone to try and raise the ACT school composite score,
to aim higher … to head north!

Significance of the Study

The importance of the study is to give some information on how the ECA affects the
student’s performance on the aspect of academics. The researchers want to know if ECA affects
the student’s academic performance positively, or negatively. It is important to know what are
the effects of extracurricular activities to the academics of the Junior High students because it

to gain a better understanding of student performance and to determine if there was a correlation
between academic performance and involvement in extracurricular activities.

Purpose of the Study

Although there have been many studies done on extracurricular activities, much of the
past research has centered on specific areas of participation and did not address whether there
was any improvement in academic achievement. The purpose of this study was to determine the
relationship between extracurricular activity participation and academic achievement among
suburban Chicago high school students as measured by ACT composite scores and individual
grade point averages. This study examined student involvement and noninvolvement in
extracurricular activities including athletics, fine arts, and clubs and their GPAs and composite
ACT scores.

Importance of the Study

This study is very personal to me, as I have been struggling for more than 30 years with
the question of whether a relationship exists between extracurricular activity and academic
achievement. I have observed students in my art classes do better in school when they became
involved in extracurricular activities. If there is indeed a positive correlation between student
involvement in extracurricular activities and academic performance, then I would like to share
these findings with other educators. In education we often try to design some new initiative or
program to raise test scores or help students with their academic performance. It would be
wonderful if there were a solution to that problem as simple as connecting them to school
through a club, activity, sport, or fine art in order to increase their academic performance.

I also wanted to conduct this study, because to date it had not been performed in a
demographically diverse high school. Students come to the school from all over the world; more
than 90 languages are spoken. This distinctive and incredibly diverse educational setting did not
appear in any research I have examined. If a correlation exists between extracurricular activity
participation and academic achievement at our diverse high school, then that same correlation
could be found in other high schools across the nation.

Hypotheses

The outcome of this study will depend on the variables being studied. The effects of the
ECA in academic performance of the students hypothesize that H0 (null), there is an evidence
that ECA affects the academic performance of the selected Students in Region Mercado Night
High School.

Scope and Limitations of the Study

The scope of this study is only selected students of the Region Mercado Night High
School specifically students from the Junior High School Department, where students are chosen
randomly. The researchers’ study only covers the effects of the ECA to the student’s
performance on the aspect of academics. The research is qualitative, thus, the researchers only
used interview specifically semi-structured interview.

Definition of Terms

Student a person who attends a school; a person who studies something

Extra-curricular Activities – used to describe extra activities (such as sports) that can be done by
the students in school but that are not part of the regular schedule of classes

Review of Related Literature

According to Craft (2012), ECA may be a beneficial factor to the academic program of a
student. In the research of Craft, ECA are beneficial but there are some ECA or non-academic
programs that affects the student’s performance on the academics specially on the High School
and College students. Based on his research, the benefits of engaging to ECA are making a
student more attending to his/her school, increases also the test result in school and etc.
 Based on the research of O'Dea.(1994), ECA has an important role in today’s high school
programs. When one considers the large number of activities available, one realizes the variety
of the programs. Included in ECA are athletics, publication, student government, fine arts,
academic clubs, and many more. There is a huge amount of research focused on studying the
relationship between student involvement in activities and student academic achievement.
Although a positive relation has been shown in many of these studies, there is still a competitive
battle among educators concerning the need of ECA.

Extracurricular Activities

Extracurricular activities are defined as the activities in which the students

participate after the regular school day has ended (Cadwallader, et al., 2002). Among
those activities considered to be high school extracurricular activities include high
school athletics, school clubs, marching band, chorus, orchestra, and student leadership
organizations. For the purpose of this study, the researcher will make a distinction between
extracurricular activities and co-curricular activities. Co-curricular activities
are activities that occur during the normal class time (Frame, 2007), such as high school
band, chorus, and orchestra where students spend countless hours outside of the normal
structure of the school day for practice and performances. This involvement includes
participation in sports and other school sponsored activities. It has been noted that
students who are consistently exposed to music perform better academically in school than
students who do not engage in music training or performances (Cash, 2009). Cash
(2009) also shared that most states do not place academic requirements on participation
in student clubs, band, chorus, or orchestra. However, academic clubs such as National
Honor Society, Key Club, and Beta Club do mandate certain levels of academic
achievement to be allowed to become a member. In some states, the marching band
might have to meet the same requirements that athletes are required to meet in order to
participate in competition (Cash, 2009).

Importance of Extracurricular Activities

 Extracurricular activities are a key component of many schools. Reynolds
(1996) explained that schools stress many different pillars in trying to create a well rounded
education. Many of these pillars include academics, service and leadership,
fine arts, and athletics. Principals recognize the importance of providing many
opportunities for their students to find success. These activities allow students to
develop leadership, create lasting friendships, give back to their community, belong to
the school family, and find success outside of the classroom. Extracurricular activities
can enhance a student’s life, and they can give the students additional skills that they
will use for the remainder of their lives (Reynolds, 1996). Kelsey (1994) found that there was a
positive relationship between participation in extracurricular activities and
success in high school, college, career, and the community. He shared further that
many students need these extracurricular activities to motivate them to be successful in
the classroom. Some students earn college scholarships based on their extracurricular
activities (sports, fine arts, etc.). Many of these students would not have the opportunity
to attend college unless they had enjoyed remarkable success in these activities (Kelsey,
1994).

Structured Extracurricular Activities Versus Non-Structured Fujita (2005) suggested that

it is very important to divide extracurricular activities between structured and non-structured
activities. These can also be classified as formal versus informal activities. The formal or
structured activities could include team sports, school clubs, marching band, chorus, or any other
school activity. The informal activities would include watching television or hanging out with
friends (Fujita, 2005). According to Marsh and Littman (2002), students who participate in
formal or structured extracurricular activities have higher academic test scores and grade point
averages. Students who spend a great deal of time with informal extracurricular activities
demonstrate poorer work habits and lower test scores than those who participated in formal
activities (Marsh & Littman, 2002).

Importance of Participation in Extracurricular Activities

Before studying the relationship between participation in extracurricular

activities and student achievement, it is important to review why sports and
participation in activities are important to students. As Principals in high schools and
middle schools are expected to balance budgets and possibly cut programs,
consequently they are interested in investigating the relationship between participation in
extracurricular activities and student achievement before cuts are mandated. Fujita
(2005) reported that since the introduction of public schools, children have always been
encouraged to participate in some type of physical activity or get involved in some type
of extracurricular activity, like (school sports, marching band, chorus, and school clubs.
The trend of encouraging students to participate in extracurricular activities really
started to grow in the early 1900s (Fujita, 2005). Recently, educational researchers
have adopted a more positive perspective in regards to students participating in
extracurricular activities. Marsh and Littman (2002) noticed positive impacts in the
areas of student achievement for students involved in extracurricular activities. In most
school districts in the state of Georgia, middle school children are required to attend
band classes, chorus classes, and art classes (Georgia Department of Education, 2010a).
In the state of Georgia, students in elementary schools, middle schools, and high
schools are also required to complete physical education requirements (Georgia
Department of Education, 2010a). These classes are required before the students are
allowed to graduate in the state of Georgia. Students in elementary schools and middle
schools are also encouraged to engage in physical activity during recess during the
school day. As the students grow older, the importance of physical activity increases.
The state of Georgia requires these classes to help the students become healthier adults