Secondary school extracurricular involvement and academic achievement: a fixed effects approach

Recent economic research has investigated the extent to which involvement in school-sponsored clubs and sports constitutes human capital investment. Through instrumental variables, the existing literature focuses on identifying long-term impacts in terms of educational attainment and wages. Instead, I use a fixed effects strategy to test whether activity participation provides an immediate return to student learning. Independent of individual ability, I find that athletic participation is associated with a 2 percent increase in math and science test scores. Club participation is associated with a 1 percent increase in math test scores. Finally, involvement in either type of activity is associated with a 5 percent increase in Bachelor's degree attainment expectations. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.