Abstract:
The purpose of the study was to determine whether students who are involved inco-curricular activities perform better on state assessments than students who do notparticipate in co-curricular activities. A review of literature showed co-curricularinvolvement was linked to higher GPA, better school attendance, and lower frequency ofdiscipline. Although previous studies looked at different standardized assessments, thisstudy used scores from the Kansas Mathematics and Reading Assessments as a means ofcomparison.For this study, the researcher examined co-curricular participation and test scoresduring the 2006-2007 school year from the Olathe School District, located in Olathe,Kansas. Four research hypotheses were proposed to explore the influence ofco-curricular participation on 4 assessments (8th Grade Mathematics, 8th Grade Reading,10th Grade Mathematics, and 11th Grade Reading). The data on co-curricular activityinvolvement and the Kansas Assessment results were collected from the Olathe SchoolDistrict’s student data base. Student co-curricular activity involvement was tagged in thecomputer system by the district’s data operators, and the assessment information wasdownloaded from the state of Kansas assessment program database. At the 8th gradelevel, there were a total of 1,807 students with 1,500 who participated in at least oneco-curricular activity. The 10th grade included a total of 1,912 students with 1,256 whoparticipated in at least one co-curricular activity. At the 11th grade, there were 1,795 totalstudents with 1,201 students who participated in at least one co-curricular activity. A ttest for independent means was performed to determine if co-curricular involvementinfluenced student achievement as measured by the designated Kansas State Assessment. The results of this study indicated co-curricular activities had a positive effect onall four assessments studied. For the 8th Grade Mathematics Assessment, the t-testyielded a value of 10.99, followed by a medium effect size (0.63). A t-test for the 8thGrade Reading Assessment yielded a value of 10.85, followed by a medium effect size(0.58). Results from the 10th Grade Mathematics Assessment yielded a t-value of 14.10.It also had a medium effect size (0.66). The final t-test for the 11th Grade ReadingAssessment yielded a t-test of 13.12, followed by a medium effect size (0.59).