A Students’ Involvement Encourages Good Grades

A Students’ Involvement Encourages Good Grades

The Purpose of this Report

The purpose of this report is to illustrate that teens that are involved in extra-curricular activities generally get higher grades than those who are not involved in activities. Some of the research for this report was acquired through the Internet and some of it was obtained through surveys of 120 high school students, grades ten through twelve (see Appendix A). All of the sources that talked about this subject suggested that there is a strong positive correlation between extra-curricular activities and good grades. Although some students are different, this has proven true in the general classroom as well as in a high school talented and gifted class, a high school English class, and a high school art class. The main reason that this correlation exists is because of organization skills, parents’ involvement, and the need these students have to excel.

Results in the General Classroom

It used to be believed by experts that one should study and not play. This is no longer the case, according to Mr. R. Griffin in his article Helping Athletes Excel in Sports and School (23). He suggests that it is important to encourage both academic and extra-curricular performance. In most instances, involvement in extra-curricular activities leads to better grades. According to the University of Michigan, teens that are involved in activities during high school are more likely than teens that didn’t participate in any organized activities to have higher grades as high school seniors and to still be in college six years later (Swanbrow 1). These results were produced at the University of Michigan by tracking 1,259 sophomores for six years. These results also proved to be true in the three individual classrooms that were surveyed. The classes that were surveyed were students in art, talented and gifted, and English at Southeast Polk high school. The results are shown in the following three paragraphs.

High School Talented and Gifted Class

A group of students, grades ten through twelve, in the Talented and Gifted program were surveyed to see if the positive correlation between involvement and grades held true. According to this particular survey, it was shown that ninety-six percent of students were involved in extra-curricular activities. These activities ranged from basketball, wrestling, football, swimming and track to National Honors Society, Bible study, speech, drama, and student council. Out of the ninety-six percent of people involved in activities, the average grade point was 3.