Get in the game: A study of the relationship between participation in extracurricular activities and academic achievement in the Shawnee Mission School District

The purpose of the study was to examine the impact of a student's participation in extracurricular activities in relation to their academic achievement. Archival student data from students who had at least one first semester or second semester grade posted to their transcript in one of the five high schools in the Shawnee Mission School District during the 2014--2015 school year was utilized in this study. Each of the students were identified by the number of extracurricular activities they participated in: no activity, one activity, or two or more activities. In addition to the number of extracurricular activities students participated in, their two-semester grade point average (GPA) from the 2014--2015 school year was collected. Data analysis was employed to examine the difference in GPA of those students who did not participate in extracurricular and those who did participate in extracurricular activities. An additional aspect explored was the difference of GPA between those students who participated in only one extracurricular activity and those students who participated in two or more extracurricular activities. The variables and collected data in this study were examined by utilizing an independent sample t-test at the .05 significance level. The findings of the study suggested that the mean GPAs of students who participated in extracurricular activities was significantly higher than students who did not participate in extracurricular activities and also the mean GPAs of students who participated in two or more extracurricular activities was significantly higher than those students who participated in one extracurricular activity.