Student Voluntary Participation and High School Size

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Student Voluntary Participation and High School
Size

• Phil Schoggen Maxine Schoggen
• Journal of Educational Research Vol. 81(5)
• Shannon Verity Kerrin Fesik
• Matthew Kelley Melissa Johnson
• Lenny Whitten Dave Okenquist

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Purpose for study

• This study was conducted to test previous
  research conclusions that showed as the size of
  high school increases there is a decrease in the
  number of voluntary, extracurricular activities
  in which most students become involved .
• The question of whether the amount of student
  participation in the schools program of
  extracurricular activities is related to the high
  school size bears upon barkers theory of behavior
  settings.
• The present study was undertaken to obtain data
  on the relationship between student participation
  in voluntary, extracurricular school activities
  and the size of their high schools, without
  reliance upon self-report.

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Background

• Behavioral setting theory predicts, and most
  empirical studies have found, strong negative
  relationship between school size and the amount
  of student participation in the schools
  voluntary, extracurricular activities.

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Background

• Other studies have shown that larger schools can
  offer additional courses and especially more
  advanced work that appeals to the more able
  students, but smaller schools participate for
  more educational and social reasons.
• Also previous studies have shown that students in
  smaller schools self-report participating in more
  voluntary activities than those students in
  larger schools.

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Subjects

• The study documents the activities of 10,412 High
  School Seniors in 27 public high schools in
  Central New York
• These areas were chosen because it represented a
  complete range of high school size
• Urban schools were not included. This was to
  avoid the problems of large schools in the
  Metropolitan type areas
• Private schools were also not included. They are
  relatively small and selective.
• Since they didnt want any bias-the Public
  Schools were selected only. The students were
  representative samples.

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Procedure

• School personnel discussed the best method for
  measuring the amount of student participation.
• Self-reports of participation were labeled as
  incomplete and inaccurate
• A questionnaire survey to the students from their
  home room teachers was rejected also because it
  heavily relied on self-report

• Yearbooks from the selected schools was more
  appropriate because it provided a more accurate
  assessment of each individual students activities
• Using a microcomputer, the names of all the
  students in each activity were identified and put
  in alphabetical order and the different
  activities were tabulated individually for all
  senior students in each school

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Procedure Continued

• Only activities that required voluntary decision
  to participate were included
• Some factors produced some variability in the
  amount of information included in the yearbook
  within different years
• To obtain a more stable assessment the study
  included yearbooks from two different years for
  each school
• The data from the two years were averaged for
  each school
• Reliability was not necessary because the
  information came right from the yearbooks where
  the students name, picture, and activity were
  included

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Criterion Variables

• Participation- was measured as mean number of
  participation per student per year, and
  percentage of students with different numbers of
  participation.

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Criterion Variables continued

• Diversity of Participation- was measured in terms
  of behavior-setting genotypes.
• Drop-out rate- was calculated from a report of
  the New York State Education Department.

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Independent Variables

• School size- was a measure of the number of
  students in the senior class rather than the
  total school enrollment as a measure of school
  size.
• Socioeconomic status- was measured as an
  approximation of per-pupil operating expenditures
  by the school district.

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Independent Variables continued

• Distance between home and school- was measured as
  an approximation of per-pupil operating
  expenditures for transportation by the school
  district.
• School Activities- number of activities was
  measured by tabulating the number of different
  activities pictured in each yearbook.

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Results

• Students in smaller high schools participate in
  the extracurricular activities of their schools
  at a higher rate than in the larger high schools
• The larger schools had about five times as many
  available extracurricular activities as the small
  schools
• Thus there was a lower rate of participation by
  large school seniors

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Results Continued

• School Size Illusionthe larger schools offered
  a wider variety of activities, but the students
  did not utilize these opportunities
• Smaller schools do not provide as many
  activities, yet students have a higher
  involvement rate than those of larger schools

• Neither socioeconomic status of families nor
  average distance between home and school
  contributed significantly to the amount of
  participation
• Positive correlation between the size of the
  school and school drop-out rate, shows
  participation is higher in smaller schools

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Results Continued

• Smaller schools tend to encourage participation
  by many students
• Students in smaller schools seem to realize that
  their participation is needed for the successful
  operation of the activities
• Students of larger schools realize that there are
  more people to be involved in extracurricular
  activities, thus the reason why they seclude
  themselves
• They found that participation in school
  activities is related to later cognitive, social,
  and personality development

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Personal Experience

• Kerrin
• Dave
• Lenny
• Shannon
• Matt
• Melissa

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Essay Questions

• What impact does high school size have on
  students participation
• Schoggen states that As the amount of
  population in a school increases, the number of
  behavior settings also increases. Do you agree
  or disagree.