High School Sports Essay

The LA84’s report provides a brief of the understanding of the relationship between interscholastic high school sports participation and educational achievement. It reports reviews of the evidence that has been accumulated over the years which documents the strong and positive correlation between athletic
involvement and the academic success of student-athletes. The second section
summarizes the research into the social sources of this association between
sports and education   as well as the ways in which the relationship
varies for certain social groups, different types of sports, and in different kinds of
school settings. The third and final section of the report highlights implications
for policy formation, program design, and training as well as suggestions for
future research and analysis. The goal and intent is to focus attention
on the educational possibilities and potential of interscholastic athletics. The research was done by Dr. Douglas Hartmann who is a professor at University of Minnesota, Department of Sociology. It primarily deals with recognizing, assessing and utilizing the relationship between high school sport and educational attainment.
The relationship between high school athletic participation and educational
achievement is one of the most discussed, debated, and researched topics in all
of sport scholarship, particularly when one looks at the social scientific research
focused on sport and society interactions and their consequences.
Ongoing for nearly half a century, research and writing on this topic has come from academic disciplines ranging from sociology, psychology, and economics to sport management, kinesiology and education.

First and most important, this research has time and again demonstrated a strong and positive correlation between high school sports participation and academic achievement. Kids, who play sports, on average, tend to perform better
in school than kids who don’t. In fact, it may vary dramatically...