After School Academic Achievement

Children today don't get involved as much as they used to. This is because the rapid growth of technology and other outliers that have made children, honestly, uninterested. The following research will explore the benefits of extra curricular activities in and outside of school and its effect on student behavior and academic achievement. The paper will explore the effects on not only ethinic minorities but the population as a whole.

Effects on Ethinic Students and Afterschool Programs

Through these eight articles they choose to discuss the impact of afterschool programs/ extra curricular activities and its effect on academic achievement in ethnic groups. The first article discusses afterschool programs and its effects on hispanic elementary school students. This study discusses how school districts face increasing pressures for students to perform well on standardized exams and are unable to release class time for health promotion activities. These after-school activities provide a viable alternative for health promotion. Hispanic children are more likely than the national average to participate in after-school programs (de Heer, Koehly, Pederson, Morera, 2011). This next study describes efforts to apply the principles and strategies of an empirically‐supported treatment for children with disruptive behaviour problems to a park after‐school program serving children in urban poverty. The method they chose to use was collaborating with staff proceeded in stages. First by relationship building,using needs assessment, and resource mapping. Second, using intervention adaptation and implementation and last implementation support, problem‐solving, and sustainability (Frazier, Chacko, Van Gessel, O’Boyle, & Pelham, 2012).

One of the main concerns throughout these studies is connection, peer and adult. Connection to the things around you and your environment helps kids to want to be more involved. Another study explained how violence and substance use disproportionately affects African American youth in urban, disadvantaged communities. One of the conclusions they found is that expanding positive peer and adult connections is a mechanism by which organized activity participation may reduce risk of negative outcomes (Eisman, Lee, Hsieh, Stoddard, & Zimmerman, 2018). Through this next study they assessed that organized activity participation decreases the likelihood of later negative outcomes through expanding positive social connections (Eisman, Lee, Hsieh, Stoddard, & Zimmerman, 2018). Another study assessed how participation in organized after-school activities could be especially beneficial for youth from immigrant backgrounds. This is because those families of immigrants backgrounds often have little knowledge of American school systems (Camacho & Fuligni 2015). The role of extracurricular involvement in the achievement and motivation of students from immigrant families was examined among 468 eleventh grade students, (52.4 % female), Asian American (44.4 %), European American (19.0 %) and Latino (36.5 %). Participants completed questionnaires regarding their extracurricular activities, school belonging, and intrinsic motivation. Through the study they conducted, they found that first generation students were less likely to participate in academic activities than their third generation peers (Camacho & Fuligni 2015). However there were few generational differences in participation. Participation predicted achievement and engagement after accounting for tenth grade levels of educational adjustment. Notably, although all students benefited from participation in activities, the gain in GPA as a function of participation was greater for first generation than third generation students. Results suggest that organized after school activities are particularly important for students in immigrant families, providing them with additional experiences that contribute to academic achievement (Camacho & Fuligni 2015).

Examining the relationships between American and South Korean student's achievement and their time spent in out-of-school activities was another study that meshed well with this topic. The study found differences in students' time spending patterns for out-of-school activities and associations between out-of-school activities and academic achievement in the two countries. Although watching TV and playing with friends were the most common activities in both countries; Korean students spent more than 30% of their out-of-school hours using the internet and playing PC games. Whereas, American students spent about 27% of their out-of-school hours playing sports and working at home or a paid job. The associations between out-of-school activities and achievement resulted in a positive outcome in the U.S. when it came to playing sports,but a negative predictor in Korea. Doing homework however, was a negative predictor in the U.S. but a positive predictor in Korea. In addition, the relationships between achievement and the type of out-of-school activities differed by gender and achievement levels (Seoung Joun Won, & Seunghee Han 2010). Which correlates really well with this next study that assessed participation in extracurricular activities associated with enhanced academic achievement in Latino youth. In the case study of one immigrant adolescent, they used a longitudinal study that found athletic participation is in itself neither a wholly positive or negative influence on Latino school achievement. Rather, effects of extracurricular sports on academic outcomes are mediated by complex factors including but not limited to ethnicity and are more contextually dependent off of individual progress (Chen & Harklau 2017). The last study examined how having friends in extracurricular activities is also a predictor of better academic outcomes in multiethnic middle schools in California. Specifically, the mediating role of school belonging, and interactions by ethnicity and type of activity, were examined in a sample including African American or Black, East or Southeast Asian, White, and Latino youth in extracurricular activities (Knifsend, Camacho-Thompson, Juvonen & Graham 2018).

Extracurricular activity participation is linked to positive development, but it is also a setting for inequality. This article documents patterns and trends in school-based extracurricular participation by race, social class, gender, and age, and their links to academic and substance use outcomes(Meier, Hartmann, & Larson 2018). Findings reveal that there are differences when sorted by race and participation in extracurricular activities. Further, girls are gaining on boys and surpass them in some types of school-based activities. Participation is linked to better academic outcomes and less substance use, affirming the importance of redressing the inequalities revealed (Meier, Hartmann, & Larson 2018).

After school Programs and Achievement

The research presented in these studies shows less of the ethnic diversity side, and more of the general population side.Through this first article this study examines the relationships between after-school activities and student achievement. The study had several ways of presenting its data. First, the study presented five major types of after-school activities. The data on these activities were collected on the same sample of students, permitting to be examined by the unique and relative influence of each activity on achievement (Cooper, Valentine, Nye, & Lindsay, 1999). Second, data was collected from both students and parents. This data examined the consistency of responses across the two groups who most often provided information on after-school activities. Third, the study used three measurements of achievement: standardized achievement test scores, class grades, and residualized class grades controlling for standardized achievement scores. Finally, the study conducted statistical analyses that both controlled for the major background differences between students and looked for relationships between after-school activities and achievement (Cooper, Valentine, Nye, & Lindsay, 1999).

Another article briefly touched on extra-curricular activities affording children opportunities for development and how it can also influence their behaviour. Children's behavior is an important predictor of their future successes or failures. This study investigated the relationship between behaviour and participation in exra-curricular activities in children aged between five and eight years (Simoncini & Caltabiono 2012). Mothers of children from seven schools in middle-to high-SES areas from a regional city participated in the study. Mothers gave details of their child's extra-curricular activities and used the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) (Goodman, 1997) to measure their child's behaviour. Low scores on the SDQ indicate normal behaviour while high scores indicate borderline or abnormal behaviour (Simoncini & Caltabiono 2012). Participation, number of activities, and duration of activities were all associated with children's behaviour. Children who participated in extracurricular activities had lower behaviour scores than those who did not. The results suggest that children benefit from participating in two or more activities for 80-90 minutes per week (Simoncini & Caltabiono 2012).

This last study aims to discuss how participating in school-based activities link to positive academic engagement and achievement, but less is known about how peer relationships within activities affect these outcomes. Extra-curricular activities have been encouraged to support foundation programs! Students’ positive attitude to learning and their smooth transition into the higher education system helps better academic and social performances (Ginosyan, Tuzlukova, & Hendrix 2019). This article discusses and explores the potential benefits of foundation program students’ involvement in extracurricular activities from the perspective of teachers who develop, lead and facilitate them at the Centre for Preparatory Studies of Sultan Qaboos University in Oman. The study focused on how teachers perceive the effects of extracurricular activities on student performance in relation to eight key areas; language skills and academic performance, development of communicative competence, students’ needs and interests, students’ self-esteem and self-confidence, students’ motivation and positive attitudes towards learning, extracurricular activities in the framework of the foundation program curriculum, cross-cultural experiences, and transitional challenges (Ginosyan, Tuzlukova, & Hendrix 2019). The results indicate that extracurricular activities play a valuable role in helping foundation program students adjust to higher education environments and function more easily in English. However, more student involvement and additional assistance to students are needed in order to boost their motivation and increase engagement in their own learning experiences (Ginosyan, Tuzlukova, & Hendrix 2019).

Conclusion

To conclude the research that was found, it suggests that there is a strong correlation between participating in extracurricular activities and academic success. This last study provided information about a private foundation and government funding that markedly increased the number of after-school programs targeting adolescents. The review summarized promising results, it discussed the extent to which after-school programs have achieved their goals, describes characteristics associated with successful after-school programs, and reports on efforts to assess the cost effectiveness of after-school programs (Apsler, R. 2009). As you can see, extra curricular activities have such a positive effect on not only academic achievement but behavioral issues as well. So much so that there is government funding to support more after school programs as such. Whether your local community or local school getting children involved in some type of activity helps for better academically and well behaviored children.