Scholastic Success of Athletes and Non-Athletes in the Beatrice (Nebraska) High School

The purpose of this study was to determine whether participation in inter-school athletics has any effect upon the scholastic success of those participating.This was done by doing two things, first, by bringing up to date a summary of all previously reported studies made in the field as revealed by a search of all available literature, and secondly, by making a comparative study of grade records in four subject matter areas in Beatrice (Nebraska) High School. On the basis of data presented in Chapter III, these are the conclusions resulting from this study: that all athletes received average marks slightly higher than those of either all boys or of non-athletes; that athletes competing and athletes not competing received slightly higher average marks than those of either all boys or of non-athletes; that athletes competing received average marks slightly higher than those of athletes not competing; that in reviewing the average marks in each of the subject matter areas, all athletes, athletes competing, and athletes not competing received slightly higher average marks in English, Social Studies, and Science but lower in Mathematics than did non-athletes; that athletes competing received higher average marks in all subject areas except in Science than did athletes not competing. The five-year summary by subjects and by quarters, and the five-year summary by quarters and by subject average, show that athletes competing rank highest in average grade marks received, followed in order by all athletes, athletes not competing, all boys, and non-athletes. The above findings would make it appear as if athletes are clearly superior to non-athletes, but an inspection of the differences in average grade points reveals these differences to be so small that never was the difference sufficient to make the average grade received by any one group a whole grade higher than the grade received by any other group.Only in a very few cases was this difference sufficient to cause one group to receive an average mark of, for example, a 3 while the other group received a 3-.The small differences show that one group is not so superior to any other group as to make the difference one of great significance. Advisor: K. O. Broad