Sports and Education

While research has shown that participating in high school sports has a positive correlation with academic performance, these studies have missed key details regarding high school sports programs, thus skewing the results and portraying sports as far more beneficial for academic and personal success than the evidence actually dictates. Furthermore, these problems are exacerbated when carried into college, and a review of the literature regarding both high school and college sports programs reveals that sports are less effective at encouraging education and carry far more negative side-effects than other comparable, non-athletic extracurricular activities.

When addressing the possible academic contribution of high school and college sports, it is important to investigate not only whether or not sports contribute to education, but whether or not they contribute to education more or less than other comparable extracurricular activities, and furthermore, whether or not sports carry with them attendant negative side-effects...
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