Predicting High School Student Success From Extracurricular Activity Participation: A Logistic Regression Analysis

Abstract

There is a large number of students who do not finish high school, and there is an even larger number of students who do not go on to college (Chapman, Laird, Ifill, Kewal Ramani, 2011). School officials are challenged with the task of implementing programs to help at risk students stay in school. Although there are many factors that are out of our control, school districts play a role in creating a supportive environment that promotes successful high school completion and college readiness. It is imperative that school officials make meaningful changes to current systems in order to better meet the needs of students while increasing the focus on high school graduation and preparing students for a successful college experience.This study attempted to determine if involvement in athletics, fine arts, or the AVID program have an effect on successful high school completion and/or college readiness when grade point average and socioeconomic status are held constant. The study examined involvement in athletics, AVID, and Fine Arts as predictors of successful high school completion and/or college readiness. It also examined how much each of these independent variables add to the likelihood that a student will complete high school and/or become college ready. Lastly, the study attempted to discover if different programs are more successful for at risk students than others.To answer the four research questions, logistic regression was used to assess the association between the dependent variables (high school completion and college readiness) and the independent variables. The independent variables are: semesters involved in AVID, athletics, fine arts, socioeconomic status, GPA, and attendance. Based on the findings of this study, each of the independent variables had different levels of predictability of the dependent variables. Involvement in Fine Arts was the strongest predictor of high school completion. None of the independent variables significantly predicted college readiness for all students. Some of the variables also showed that they had significant predictive ability, but a weak strength of association.