You are a principal trying to develop a policy on extracurricular participation at school so as to promote school effectiveness. How would you justify to parents the desire to allow participation even if academics are lagging for an individual student?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

For older grades, there is some evidence that student participation in structured extracurricular activities—settings in which such aspects of the "informal curriculum" as cooperation, fair play, and healthy attitudes toward competition are likely to be stressed—affects school effectiveness. When students are involved in extracurricular activities, and specifically when they (1) are more heavily involved, (2) hold positions of responsibility or leadership, and (3) are satisfied with extracurricular experiences, those effects are amplified (Barker & Gump, 1964; Jacobs & Chase, 1989). A longitudinal study that tracked adolescents from seventh grade through early adulthood found that less competent students with poor social skills were less likely to drop out of school or to be involved in antisocial activities as young adults if they had maintained a voluntary connection to their school environments by participating in one or more extracurricular activities (Mahoney, 2000; Mahoney & Cairns, 1997; see Figure 15.2). Even longitudinal studies that control for self-selection variables consistently reveal that a reasonable amount of participation in such activities as after-school clubs and sports, as well as involvement in other organized extracurricular activities (e.g., volunteerism) does indeed appear to foster such positive outcomes as academic achievement, staying in school, fewer mental health problems, lower levels of alcohol and drug use, and greater involvement in political and social causes in young adulthood—and the benefits of such participation are detectable for students at all ability levels and from all social classes and ethnic groups (Busseri et al., 2006; Fredricks & Eccles, 2006; Mahoney, Harris, & Eccles, 2006).

The implications of these findings are clear: to better accomplish their mission of educating students and properly preparing them for adult life, middle and secondary schools—large and small—might do more to encourage all students to participate in extracurricular activities and not be so quick to deny them these opportunities because of marginal academic performances (Mahoney & Cairns, 1997).