The correlation between playing team sports and academic success

Multiple studies have shown that college athletes do not perform as well in the classroom as their nonathletic peers. For example, according to Michael Maloney in the article An Examination of the Role that Intercollegiate Athletic Participation Plays in Academic Achievement, he states that “SAT scores of athletes are, on average, 150 points below non- athletes. Similarly, athletes come to college with inferior high school preparation in academics. Their high school rank is 20 percentage points below nonathletes.”

The impact of preserving sports in high schools has been surrounded by much controversy as people suspect that it is the reason behind the poor academic achievement of students. Opponents to high school sports feel that allowing athletics to be a part of schools sidetracks the focus of the student body, which goes completely against the main purpose of schools. Indeed, this assertion is completely true and based upon plentiful evidence. High school sports undoubtedly come at the expense of student academic achievement since they divert the attention of students away from academics and they come with far too many financial costs, both of which incur negative impacts on the academics within a school. The bottomline is that sports are harming the education of students, so a school must make the decision between composing quality sports teams or providing high level academics; both of these choices simply cannot occur simultaneously.

Also sports help kids with their grades.” According to a 2013 evaluation conducted by the Crime Lab at the University of Chicago, Becoming a Man--Sports Edition creates lasting improvements in the boys’ study habits and grade point averages. “ (“ Bowen & Hitt”). Sports are the number one reason for a kid who is thinking about dropping out to stay in school. Think about it if you need a 2.0 to stay in sports and you struggle in school but, you love sports and want to do it in college you will stay in school to achieve your dream. Also with sports that helps me is you don’t get time to procrastinate because if I know I have a game tomorrow and I have a big essay do the day after that I will do it tonight because I know I can’t do it after the game. Which is why most people who aren’t in sports struggle with procrastine. “Neish (1993) that found positive correlations between high, medium, or low levels of involvement in extracurricular activities and students’ GPAs and involved students attained higher GPAs than did students who were not involved.”(“ Lumpkin & Favor”). This proves again that sports truly do help are kids in school.

Differences between athletes and non-athletes were found for males and females across all academic performance measures, with females contributing more to the differences between athletes and non-athletes on GPAs and not dropping out of school.

“Sports teaches you character, it teaches you to play by the rules, it teaches you to know what it feels like to win and lose-it teaches you about life.”(Billie Jean King) Most students from first grade to twelfth grade say that sports are a big part of their life and make them who they were meant to be in a positive way. Some people might argue that students in sports or extracurricular activities have lower grades than the other students, but it's the opposite way around. Sports improve your performance in school because they strengthen your concentration ability and leadership traits.

The analysis of the data in this study showed that there was a statistically significant difference in the grade point average of high school junior student-athletes when compared to non-athletes. During their participation in an athletic season, the mean GPA of the athletes was 3.11 and the standard deviation was .73, when the athletes were not participating in an athletic season, the mean GPA was 3.20 and the standard deviation was .90.

As a student, I have intimate knowledge of the subject as I engage with education frequently. I experience how athletics affect students’ lives and what the alternative to athletic participation results

How can sports help a student’s performance in school?  To be able to play sports in school, students need to maintain their grades, thus motivating learners to do well in school (Harris). In addition, a sport allows a person to come out of their comfort zone to meet new people and build up their self-image. Athletes also experience positive health benefits. Especially at a young age, playing sports can help to reduce diabetes, heart diseases, and other sickness that could be very harmful to students (Morris). Sports is something all students should participate in because of its positive effects. Therefore, schools should require students to join at least one sport. Participating in sports will help students build their academic success, develop character and improve their

When researching papers that could help determining if there is a casual link between sports in postsecondary schools and male attendance, the only thing that was found of interest was that “High school athletic participation was significantly related to educational progress among suburban and rural white males.” (Sabo, pg. 50) Since it seems that there is some data and research suggesting that male students who participated in sports during their high school careers went on to college and had success. One could argue that since these students had participated in sports during their high school career and went on to succeed in college, there would be an increase in male students when more sports or present. It is logical to think that if a male student is highly interested in sports and even participates in the sport, that they would prefer to attend a school that has sports. This is the only article that I could find that had a discussion between male college attendance and sport. I feel that I am contributing to the research, instead of looking at student’s

Each and every year, millions of students will participate in high school sports. In the same year, there will be millions of people questioning whether or not sports will benefit the students education. “The number of participants in high school sports increased for the 25th consecutive year in 2013-2014 with a record total of almost 7.8 million, according to the annual High School Athletics Participation Survey conducted by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS)”. High school sports are a huge part of a student’s education, but many believe that they will take away from the student’s academic education. We all have to take in and understand the full affect of

Analysis: The information in the article can be portrayed to support an argument because the author conducts a study on the topic with real evidence and facts from an active college. Evidence that Gaston- Gayles incorporates into her study are the GPA’s and ACT scores of college athletes from eight different varsity sports. ACT scores and ethnicity have been found to have a huge impact on academic success, but athletics have no impact to the success the athletics have in the classroom. The data was taken from transcripts of college students that cannot be manipulated, giving the data credibility to support an argument. The author also includes different races of athletes giving the study diversity and a wider range of data. The author appeal

When the students were asked about how being involved in sports affected their academic performance, they answered to being “too exhausted to study effectively, that they are unable to devote enough time to both their academics and tests, and that athletic stress negatively impacts their academic focus” (Toporek). Northwestern quarterback Kain Colter testified two years ago in a National Labor Relations Board hearing about having to log fifty to sixty hour long weeks during training camps. This commitment prevented him from being able to attend medical school or studying abroad. Athletes are also finding it hard to get an adequate amount of sleep due to the lengthy hours of practices, games, camps, etc. Seventy-one percent of students said sleep is the main thing athletics has taken away from them, fifty-one percent of those people said that if they had an extra hour to do anything, it’d be dedicated to

Sports programs have been an integral part of all schools. They support the academics of the school and therefore foster success in life. These programs are educational and help produce productive citizenship. They help students experience and build skills that may help them in their future, like interpersonal and time management skills. Education may kindle the light of knowledge, but sports help to maintain the proper physique. Sports are also an important means of entertainment and a use for energy after long hours of study. Sports increase a student’s performance not only in the classroom but also in their life.

Sports and the general physical activities have been associated with a plethora of benefits. Not so much in correlation with education though. The debate on sports and academic performance relates as to whether sports affect academic performance positively or negatively. Mostly, academics, especially in high school and colleges, require an enormous time commitment. In the same way, sports demand time commitment. Apparently, academics and sports run linearly and either would consume the time of the other. Such would be the argument put forth by the claimants of the negative effects of sports on academic performance. The opponents to the positive correlation of sports and academic performance ground their arguments largely on the time commitment that the two require claiming that sports would consume a student’s time for study hence affecting their academic performance. Proponents of a positive correlation between sports and academic performance summon an extensive range of evidence showing that students who participate in sports perform well in academics. The proponents’ arguments are fetched from the proven benefits of exercise which improve a student’s overall well-being and motivate their academic performance. Opponents would, however, argue that the studies that find athletes and sports persons good at academics do not show how such correlations occur in that other factors could be the actual causes of the correlation and not sports in themselves. Regardless, opponents to the claim that sports affect academic performance positively cannot deny that sports affect the overall well being of any human being. As such, there is no denying that sports affect academic performance positively where a balance among the two is maintained.

Being in an American school begins a student’s search to find who they are considered in the system. From a nerd to a punk, many academic ties are also involved with this identity. The one group of students who get the most academic ties with his or her extra-curricular activity is the “jock”. As having the title as a jock, a child learns that many people look at someone who plays football or basketball doesn’t have the ability to learn as fast or as well as someone who just studies and doesn’t have extra-curricular activities. Studying this topic is not as stressed as it should be, even when many programs claim to get more physical activity in students. The articles that have been reviewed were testing whether the athlete gets good grades