The Impact of Extracurricular Activities and Attendance on Student Achievement at a Mississippi Community College

The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine the impact of extracurricular activities and class attendance on student achievement in science courses at a Mississippi community college. Public colleges are dependent on state funding for survival, with one main criterion for determining that funding being the number of students enrolled. Students need to be successful in courses to keep up the retention and enrollment rates. Student success is potentially linked to class attendance and student involvement in extracurricular activities. Schools need to look at factors that might be affecting students’ performance in the classroom such as participation in extracurricular activities. There is little research on the effects of extracurricular activities on college students, and a gap in the literature exists on the effects of student achievement in science courses. This quantitative study used a casual-comparative and predictive correlational design to determine the impact of extracurricular activities and class attendance on success by using archived academic records. The researcher used two different independent t tests and multiple linear regression to analyze the data. The science course grade was used as the dependent variable and science course class attendance and extracurricular activity participation were used as the independent variables. Additionally, the data were analyzed with science course grades as the criterion variable, while science course attendance and extracurricular participation were used as predictor variables. It was determined that there was no statistically significant difference in student achievement among students that participated in extracurricular activities and those that did not participate. However, it was determined that class attendance could successfully predict student science scores