Extracurricular Participation and Achievement [electronic resource] : School Size as Possible Mediator of SES Influence among Individual Students / Craig Howley and Gary Huang.
Studies in New Jersey and California suggest that smaller schools or school districts produce higher aggregate achievement than larger schools or districts, especially in low socioeconomic status (SES) communities. Other studies have found that smaller schools have higher rates of student participat...
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| Format: | Electronic eBook |
| Language: | English |
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[S.l.] :
Distributed by ERIC Clearinghouse,
1991.
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| Summary: | Studies in New Jersey and California suggest that smaller schools or school districts produce higher aggregate achievement than larger schools or districts, especially in low socioeconomic status (SES) communities. Other studies have found that smaller schools have higher rates of student participation in extracurricular activities, and that participation has a positive effect on student outcomes. This paper examines a model in which school size regulates the direct effect of SES on individual achievement, as well as the indirect effect of SES as mediated by participation in extracurricular activities. Information on a weighted sample of 5,209 public school students was drawn from the High School and Beyond (HS&B) data set. Dependent variables were senior-year composite HS&B test score and four variables reflecting senior-year extracurricular participation. Both school size and grade cohort size were used to investigate the hypotheses. The results confirm the generally positive direct effect of extracurricular participation on academic achievement, when other influential variables are controlled. Regression analysis among three categories of school size suggests that SES exerts comparatively weaker direct effects on achievement and participation among students who attend small schools (under 500 students). However, the results of interaction analysis with product vectors fail to confirm the hypothesis that school size systematically mitigates the effects of low-SES background on either the participation or achievement of individual students. This report contains 42 references. (SV) |
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| Item Description: | ERIC Document Number: ED336247. Educational level discussed: High Schools. |
| Physical Description: | 36 p. |