U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in September 2023, citing the 1.2 million students that public schools have lost to private schools, charter schools, and homeschooling, “Public schools are approaching a 'make it or break it' moment. “I'm doing it,” he declared.
Texas public schools are following suit. From 2021 to 2022, Texas public schools reported a 2.9% decline in enrollment, while Texas charter schools reported an 8.6% increase, according to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.
Many public school leaders are betting on sports to increase enrollment. They believe sports can stem enrollment declines by engaging students and families and energizing communities. Under an anonymous agreement, the principal of a low-performing school in the Houston area told a group of researchers: “Our community really values sports. We are 'all in' on sports. This is the best way to engage families who have been traumatized by COVID-19. ”
Research shows that physical activity has a small but positive relationship with academic performance. Seeing these results, school and community leaders have increasingly turned to sports as a way to reverse academic decline.
it's not. This causes unconscious teachers and students to fall into a vicious cycle of declining academic performance.
Take the example of Baltimore City Public Schools. Ten of the high schools had no students tested for math proficiency. However, they reported a 98.5% graduation rate for students who participate in sports throughout all four years of high school, compared to a 62.9% graduation rate for students who do not participate in a specific sport. The district's enrollment decreased by 1,812 students from 2022 to 2023. That means $16,000 was spent per student, which equates to a loss of $28.9 million for her. This equates to more than 450 teachers if the district's average salary is her $61,000.
When schools and districts prioritize sports over academics, dissatisfied parents choose competitors such as nearby school districts, private schools, charter schools, online academies, and home schools.
The Parent Voice Survey is a nationally representative online survey conducted among 10,759 parents from November 2022 to October 2023. Each parent agreed or disagreed with her two statements: (1) I prefer schools with strong sports programs, even if they are weak. In academic studies. (2) They prefer schools with strong academics even if they have weak sports programs.
Parents were twice as likely to prefer schools that were academically active compared to schools that were active in sports. Specifically, 68% agreed that they preferred schools with strong academic performance, but only 34% preferred schools with strong athletics.
This strong support for academics over sports was strongly correlated with parents whose children are eligible for free and reduced lunch (they were 1.6 times more likely to prefer strong academics), Black parents (1.7 times), Hispanic/Latinx persisted among ancestry parents (1.8 times) and white parents. (2.2 times). Parents whose children attend public schools (2.3x), charter schools (2.3x), and homeschoolers (1.9x) prefer academic schools over sports. In summary, parents from all walks of life prefer schools with strong academics, even if their sports programs are weak.
The strategic implications are clear. To succeed, Texas public school leaders' strategies must be single-minded in their efforts to excel in meeting parents' most important needs: academics. This does not mean abandoning the sport.
This means Texas public schools must focus purely on strong academics with a clear eye to satisfy students and parents. And keeping parents happy is the best and surest way to grow public schools and strengthen districts.
Vikas Mittal is the J. Hugh Liedtke Professor of Business Administration at Rice University. He is co-author of the 2021 book FOCUS: How to Plan and Improve Execution of Strategies to Achieve Growth.
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