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The primary purpose of this study is to examine the impact of athleticparticipation on academic achievement among high school juniors. More specifically,the study was designed to examine the impact of athletic participation on a student’s GPAand ACT scores. Another purpose of the study was to examine the extent, if any, of thedifference in GPA and ACT scores between male and female athletes. The researchdesign for this study was quantitative. The sample was 332 high school juniors fromDistrict J in the school years 2015-2016, 2016-2017, and 2017-2018.High school juniors were identified for the purpose of this study. As part of thisquantitative study, data were collected to analyze the participation, ACT scores andGPAs over three years. A variety of sources were used to collect the necessary data forthis study including data from Tyler Student Information System which identified gender,ACT score and GPA, and MSHSAA participation rosters which identified studentparticipation in sports. Four research questions and four hypotheses regarding athleticparticipation, gender, ACT scores and GPAs were analyzed using an independentsamples t test.Results of the hypothesis testing indicated a statistically significant difference inGPAs between athletes and non-athletes with the athletes having a statistically significanthigher GPA, however there was no statistically significant difference in ACT scoresbetween athletes and non-athletes. In addition, a statistically significant difference wasfound between male and female athletes in both ACT scores and GPAs with the femaleathletes having a statistically significant higher ACT score and GPA than male athletes. |
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