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2008 - NFHS Updates The Case For High School Activities. Sports and co-curricular activities develop better students and only costs one to three percent of a school's budget.
2008 - Click Here for Participants In Activity Programs Do Better In Classroom by Don Showalter, NFHS High School Today, September 2008, page 8 (reporting on correlation between sports and GPAs in Wellman, Iowa).
2008 - Click Here For One Class by Will Okun (guest blogging on the Nicholas Kristof On the Ground Blog), New York Times, March 27, 2008. This piece describes Chicago's creative Hoops High program that uses sports video production as a learning tool that decreases absenteeism in inner city schools and stimulates student interest. .
Click Here for The Effects Of Extracurricular Activities On The Academic Performance Of Junior High School Students, Kimiko Fujita.
Click Here for Physical Activity & Sport In The Lives Of Girls, President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports Report, 1997. Extract from page 24, "School administrators are often unaware of the positive interplay between high-school athletics and academic achievement as measured by grade point average, standardized achievement test scores, lowered risk for dropout and greater likelihood to attend college. On average, female athletes fare better academically than female nonathletes ... , Hence, from an interdisciplinary perspective, it is likely that athletic participation is part of a mutually reinforcing array of physical, psychological and social processes that enhance the overall educational experiences and commitments of many girls."
The Relationship Between Participation In High School Athletics and Academic Achievement by Nora O'Donnell. Ms. O'Donnell's research shows that 75% of high school athletes improve their grades while playing. Ms. O'Donnell offers excellent suggestions for further increases.
Survey Provides New Info On High School Athletics by Amanda Personett, The NFHS News, November/December 2006 page 1. An NFHS Survey finds 47% of students participate in high school sports, 65% of schools do not make students pay fees, the schools that charge fees tend to charge less than $100 per student, and sports costs less than two percent of a school's total budget. In short, you get a lot of bang for your buck in a high school sports program.