Quantitative Quasi-Experimental Study of Academic Performance During Activity Participation for Educational Leaders to Enact Change

Abstract

Identifying methods of increasing student achievement is a focus of school administrators. The problem was there was a need for academic performance data for suburban public high school students in New Jersey that identify the difference of involvement in extra and co-curricular participation on student academic performance. The purpose of the quantitative quasi-experimental study was to examine whether a difference exists in academic performance among public high school students in New Jersey relative to their participation or non-participation in school-sponsored extra or co-curricular activities of athletics, marching band, and theatre during the academic year. Using a dependent sample t-test and a Welch ANOVA test, conclusions were arrived in response to the research questions and their corresponding hypotheses. Gaps in literature on the topic of the relationship between achievement and participation were based upon studies using two groups to analyze the impact, those that participate and those that do not. The proposed study instead analyzed the academic performance of each student during their time of participation and non-participation to determine if a statistical difference existed. The study incorporated the self-efficacy and sense of community frameworks to provide information for educational leaders to help identify pathways for students to increase their academic performance through involvement in extra and co-curricular activities. Analyzed data included 417 eligible students who had at least one grading period of participation and non-participation during the 2021–2022 school year. By incorporating any eligible student, the results reduced possible bias to report credible results.