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Wikipedia:

In 2005, Dr. Sabina Kleitman, a psychology professor at The University of Sydney and Herbert W. Marsh, employed at Oxford University for the same profession teamed together. The pair conducted surveys of over 12,000 American students to find a correlation between sports and grades. The following is a quote from their published results:

"Achievement can be measured in many ways—grades, homework, attendance, standardized test scores, and enrollment in college. In all of these areas except standardized test scores, even after controlling for economic status, race, and other background variables, athletic participation was significantly correlated to academic achievement. Even after controlling for academic success in 8th and 10th grade, athletic participation was still associated with positive academic outcomes in 13 out of 21 measures in 12th grade and 2 years out of high school. This suggests that athletic participation itself may be responsible for some academic achievement—the later achievement isn't completely explained by earlier academic success."[6]

I think you can contribute some of the academic success of HS athletes to the fact that you can't play if you're failing. In my school you have at least a C in every class to be able to play. So if you didn't apply yourself at least marginally to class work you didn't get to be on a team.

On the flip side, I've seen teachers give passing grades to good athletes who were as dumb as a bag of rocks so they could stay on the football or basketball teams.

Alfred_E._Neuman wrote:I think you can contribute some of the academic success of HS athletesent to the fact that you can't play if you're failing. In my school you have at least a C in every class to be able to play. So if you didn't apply yourself at least marginally to class work you didn't get to be on a team.

On the flip side, I've seen teachers give passing grades to good athletes who were as dumb as a bag of rocks so they could stay on the football or basketball teams.

Personally, only football caused my grades to go down. They were always lower. First quarter than the rest of the year, and I found a lot of difficulty managing football stress with school. Our school was a serious football and academic school, though.

As a teacher and a coach, though, sports generally made kids better students. There is a caveat in this: most public schools have about a 15-20% student extra curricular participation rate these days. That means, as at our local school, about 200/1000 do things besides show up at school. Most of these kids do multiple things- theatre and track for my son, football and lacrosse, etc.

The participation rate is higher among kids with better grades anyway. The kids in CP or Honors classes always have more involvement, so the research is skewed. But yes- a lot of dumb kids are pushed through for sports, and athletes are treated differently at every school I taught or coached at. The best principal I had said this to me" If a kid is putting himself on the line for our school, we should go a little further for them." He advocated not giving kids grades just to play, but getting them help wherever and however we could. Many times, the only thing kids have is their team or activity.

I dig big chicks wrote:

Alfred_E._Neuman wrote:
Many times, the only thing kids have is their team or activity.

^^ Also why a parent should be measured and not quick to use the taken away of sports or activities for disciplinarian purposes.

They might not seem that important to you but to the kid it could be everything.

Curious to see a similar study on kids who work while in school. Correlates plus or minus?

I worked some in high school, then continuously but for one semester while in college. Had a million jobs too, including card caddy at a professional bridge tournament, snow maker at Killington, pea combine mechanic in Minnesota, runner for a law firm, and waiter in a live music bar.

Also curious about sports during school years but outside of association with the school. So for example karate, extreme sports, bikers, triathaloners. Did they break that out?

All in all it's a bunch of shit and not worthy of discussion. STFU already!