Wealthy high school students are more likely to play sports than low-income students
An increasing number of high school students may be taking up sports in Massachusetts, but a closer look at the data shows that many of these athletes hail from wealthy towns and school districts. Kids in in low-income communities are playing less sports, CommonWealth magazine reported.
In the state’s 10 richest communities, the average sports participation rate in the 2014-2015 school year was 103 percent — a little more than one sport per student, CommonWealth reported. In Massachusetts’s 10 poorest schools, the average athletic participation rate was 44 percent.
While parents in wealthy communities see sports as an asset to college applications and can afford to provide their children with opportunities to participate, parents in low-income communities often don’t have the time or money to support youth sports, CommonWealth reported.
“Fundamentally, this is about fairness,’’ Jeff Riley, an official with Lawrence public schools, told CommonWealth. “We talk about the achievement gap. What about the opportunity gap? Our kids have to have the same access to the American Dream as suburban kids do.’’
Read the full CommonWealth story here.
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