Everyone Gains: Extracurricular Activities in High School and Higher SAT Scores

College Board Research Report No. 2005-2 Everyone Gains: Extracurricular Activities in High School and Higher SAT® Scores Howard T. Everson and Roger E. Millsap College Entrance Examination Board, New York, 2005 Howard T. Everson is vice president of Academic Initiatives and chief research scientist at the College Board. Roger E. Millsap is a professor in the psychology department at Arizona State University. Researchers are encouraged to freely express their professional judgment. Therefore, points of view or opinions stated in College Board Reports do not necessarily represent official College Board position or policy. The College Board: Connecting Students to College Success The College Board is a not-for-profit membership association whose mission is to connect students to college success and opportunity. Founded in 1900, the association is composed of more than 4,700 schools, colleges, universities, and other educational organizations. Each year, the College Board serves over three and a half million students and their parents, 23,000 high schools, and 3,500 colleges through major programs and services in college admissions, guidance, assessment, financial aid, enrollment, and teaching and learning. Among its best- known programs are the SAT®, the PSAT/NMSQT®, and the Advanced Placement Program® (AP®). The College Board is committed to the principles of excellence and equity, and that commitment is embodied in all of its programs, services, activities, and concerns. For further information, visit www.collegeboard.com. Additional copies of this report (item #040481375) may be obtained from College Board Publications, Box 886, New York, NY 10101-0886, 800 323-7155. The price is $15. Please include $4 for postage and handling. Copyright © 2005 by College Board. All rights reserved. College Board, Advanced Placement Program, AP, SAT, and the acorn logo are registered trademarks of the College Board. Connect to college success and SAT Reasoning Test are trademarks owned by the College Board. PSAT/NMSQT is a registered trademark of the College Board and National Merit Scholarship Corporation. All other products and services may be trademarks of their respective owners. Visit College Board on the Web: www. collegeboard.com. Printed in the United States of America. Tables Contents 1. SAT® Verbal and Mathematics Scores by Gender and Race/Ethnicity. 2 Abstract . .1 2. Number of Students Responding to the Survey by Gender and Ethnicity. 2 Introduction . .1 3. High School Achievement Variables . 2 Extracurricular Activities . .1 4. Extracurricular Activities Variables . 2 5. Family Socioeconomic Background Variables . 2 Method . .2 6. Fit Statistics for Competing Structural Models . 4 Our Sample . .2 7. Intercept Estimates from Model 4 . 5 Data Source . .3 Figures 1. Measurement model of latent variables. 3 A Model-Based Approach. .3 2. Structural model of relationship among Model Specification. .3 measures of family background, high school achievement, and extracurricular Results . .4 activities on SAT verbal and math scores . 4 3. Path model of effects of family Parameter Estimates . .6 background, high school achievement, and extracurricular activities on SAT Conclusion. .6 verbal and math scores . 6 References . .7 this inequality gap. Although the ESA benefits Abstract generalize widely, the benefits tend to be larger, This report presents evidence that links participation certainly not smaller, for more disadvantaged in extracurricular activities (ECAs) in high school students (p. 508). with higher SAT Reasoning Test™ (SAT®) scores. Using Others (see, for example, Camp, 1990; Gerber, 1996; structural equation models (SEMs) with latent means, we Holland and Andre, 1987; Holloway, 2000; Marsh, analyzed data from a national sample of college-bound 1992) have reached similar conclusions. Despite these high school students. A series of structural equation efforts, policymakers may be constrained in the current models—isolating the influence of ECAs on SAT verbal environment because many of these studies may not meet and mathematics scores—were fit simultaneously to eight the standard of rigorous scientific evidence promulgated subgroups (disaggregated by both gender and ethnicity) of by the U.S. Department of Education. high school students. The SEMs analyses suggest: (1) that Recently, the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute often observed group differences in SAT scores shrink, of Education Sciences released a set of guidelines intended and (2) that students’ levels of participation in ECAs in to help educators identify educational interventions that high school are related to meaningful gains in SAT scores, are backed by strong evidence of effectiveness (U.S. once the influences of socioeconomic background and Department of Education, 2003). Comparison group academic achievement are controlled statistically. These studies using closely matched groups are cited, albeit analyses suggest that participation in ECAs benefits somewhat tentatively, by the Institute of Education Sciences minority and socioeconomically disadvantaged students as providing reliable scientific evidence of effectiveness. as much as, or more than, economically advantaged white The research in this report, which used a matched students. These findings support the conclusion that comparison group design, provides, we argue, strong supplementary education programs benefit minorities preliminary evidence that extracurricular activities—a and disadvantaged high school students who are often not so uncommon form of educational intervention— ill-served by traditional academic curricula. contribute to student performance on important, high- stakes tests such as the SAT. We reached this conclusion by analyzing the SAT verbal and mathematics scores of more than 480,000 high school students matched on a number Introduction of socioeconomic and academic characteristics. There is little debate that public high schools in the United States need improvement. Student achievement Extracurricular Activities suffers in many high schools, and innovation and change are required to address the challenge of improving High school kids call them 3:05ers. There are many of learning across the curriculum, particularly when it them in our nation’s high schools. These are the kids comes to the achievement gap between minority and who fly out the door and away from school as soon as nonminority students. The contributors to this report their last class ends at 3 o’clock in the afternoon. No offer a variety of alternative approaches, all under the after-school or supplemental programs for them. Even heading of supplementary education programs. But if offered, no clubs, no band practices, no athletic teams do these programs and interventions actually lead to or other extracurricular programs keep them past increases in student achievement? What is the quality of the last bell. Many have questioned just how strongly the evidence in support of these programs and activities? these students are engaged with school. But more and Indeed, if these activities are to be expanded, as some more, there is a large and growing number of high have argued elsewhere in this report, then rigorous school students who enjoy staying after school. These scientific evidence will have to be developed and made students participate in any number of extracurricular available to policymakers, parents, students, and other activities (ECAs) including music, art and drama stakeholders. clubs, intercollegiate and intramural athletics, and Marsh and Kleitman (2002), writing in the Harvard other academic and vocational clubs. These activities Educational Review, present a persuasive case for the are voluntary, and students do not receive grades or efficacy of extracurricular activities. They conclude, for academic credit for them (Holloway, 2000). example, that The purpose of the study reported here was to examine the effects of participation in a range of extracurricular Whereas most school activities exacerbate the activities in high school on students’ all-important SAT already substantial gap in academic outcomes scores, while controlling for the effects of other important between socioeconomically advantaged and factors such as socioeconomic background, high school disadvantaged students, ESAs (extracurricular achievement, gender, and ethnicity. In this study, we school activities) appear to actually reduce 1 extend previous research in this area and attempt to Table 1 address some of the methodological issues that would SAT Verbal and Mathematics Scores by increase policymakers’ skepticism about the effects of Gender and Race/Ethnicity extracurricular activities on academic achievement. We Asian African have organized the report to provide detail on our sample White American American Hispanic of college-bound students, to explain our model-based Males analytic approach, describe briefly the data and the model- fitting framework commonly referred to as structural SAT-M 551 577 444 495 equation modeling, and, finally, to present the results SAT-V 537 533 443 484 of our analysis. We conclude with a discussion of the Females implications of our research for educational practice and SAT-M 515 543 427 462 addressing the achievement gap. SAT-V 534 531 448 478 Table 2 Method Number of Students Responding to the Survey by Gender and Ethnicity The analyses we present in this report examined the Males Females Total relationships among and influences of socioeconomic White 170,270 212,412 382,682 background, academic

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