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Participation in high school interscholastic athletic programs as an intervention to increase academic success of students in poverty

Froehlich, Jeremy Lee
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5456-6235
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1588162539043128

Abstract Details

2020, Doctor of Education, Miami University, Educational Leadership.
The purpose of this exploratory sequential mixed methods study was to explore the relationship between participation in high school interscholastic athletics and student academic success as it relates to our economically disadvantaged students. There is an apparent difference between how students in poverty function in a public school setting as compared to a typical student. In the school in which this study takes place, nearly 50% of office discipline referrals came from students in poverty, while students in poverty only represented roughly 21% of the total student population in this particular school. In addition this student group performed 25 percentage points lower than their typical peers on the Ohio State Tests. This study found that there is a positive relationship between high school athletic participation and academic success for students in poverty. The research questions chosen for this mixed methods research study evaluated whether there was a positive statistical difference in terms of academic success for students in poverty who participated in high school sports and those students in poverty who did not participate in sports. After determining that a positive difference did exist between these two student groups, a purposeful sample was selected and interviewed to gauge the extent to which the acquisition of social capital may have had on this positive statistical difference. The use of archival data and student interviews provided valuable insight in to this relationship. The results of the quantitative portion of this study found that students in poverty who participated in high school sports had statistically higher weighted and unweighted grade point averages as compared to the students in poverty that did not participate in high school sports. There was also evidence that students in poverty who participated in high school sports had a higher attendance rate as well. The qualitative portion of the study identified five themes related to the acquisition of social capital through athletic participation that may have aided in these students' academic success: access to positive peer groups, competencies, social/emotional health, academic focus, and normative behavior. The quantitative data showed a relationship existed and the qualitative data supported this finding.
Lucian Szlizewski (Committee Co-Chair)
Kathleen Knight Abowitz (Committee Co-Chair)
Sherrill Sellers (Committee Member)
70 p.
Education; Education History; Educational Evaluation; Educational Leadership; Secondary Education; Sports Management
athletics; interscholastic athletic programs; poverty; academic success; intervention

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Froehlich, J. L. (2020). Participation in high school interscholastic athletic programs as an intervention to increase academic success of students in poverty [Doctoral dissertation, Miami University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1588162539043128

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Froehlich, Jeremy. Participation in high school interscholastic athletic programs as an intervention to increase academic success of students in poverty. 2020. Miami University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1588162539043128.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Froehlich, Jeremy. "Participation in high school interscholastic athletic programs as an intervention to increase academic success of students in poverty." Doctoral dissertation, Miami University, 2020. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1588162539043128

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

miami1588162539043128
331
© 2020, some rights reserved.Creative Commons License Participation in high school interscholastic athletic programs as an intervention to increase academic success of students in poverty by Jeremy Lee Froehlich is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at etd.ohiolink.edu.
This open access ETD is published by Miami University and OhioLINK.