That's the gist of this Washington Post column by Jay Mathews, and was also the gist of a Gadfly column I wrote last summer. Mathews cites a forthcoming paper by Craig Jerald (a friend of mine who is formerly of Ed in '08, Education Trust, and Ed Week 's Quality Counts):
He quotes a 2005 paper by economists Peter Kuhn and Catherine Weinberger for the Journal of Labor Economics: "Controlling for cognitive skills," they said, "men who occupied leadership positions in high school earn more as adults. The pure leadership-wage effect varies, depending on definitions and time period, from 4 percent to 33 percent." A Mathematica Policy Research study also shows that although math had the biggest impact of any skill on later earnings, playing sports and having a leadership role in high school also were significant factors.
Mathews using this point to beg school districts not to cut sports programs in this time of fiscal austerity. I agree, but I would use this point to beg schools not to cut history and literature and art and music from the curriculum in order to make room for ???21st??century skills.??? There is plenty of time for teaching those???after the school bell rings.
