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Issue 5 I Fall 2024

Are Academic Contests Worth Your School’s Time and Effort?

5 Questions to Help You Consider the Opportunities

How do you know which ones are right for your students and your school? We’ve compiled five questions to help you sort—and perhaps prioritize—educational contest opportunities.

1. What does your school need to do to participate—and succeed?

Before you can determine if a contest is “worthwhile,” you need a clear understanding of what’s required to participate.

• Are there entry fees?
• Do you need specific equipment or supplies?
• Do you need space?
• Is travel required?
• How much class time is required? How much after-school time?
• Do you need adult sponsors, coaches, or chaperones?

You’ll want to quantify monetary costs as well as resource costs. A contest that is free to enter but requires two-hour roundtrip travel on multiple weekdays in a month may be cost-prohibitive for your school community.

Once the baseline cost to participate is established, consider whether it costs more to succeed than it does to simply participate. Is it possible to do well with the time, materials, and volunteers that you have available?

2. Does the contest fit your school’s mission and priorities?

If your school’s mission or strategic plan identifies engineering and emerging technology as its priorities, you might seek different kinds of contest opportunities than a school rooted in classical education. The contest best suited to your mission might not always be the one you’d assume based on its name alone, though.

An academic competition can provide opportunities to talk about why a specific, perhaps even unexpected skill is important. A STEM-focused school might purposefully prioritize participating in a handwriting contest, for example, to encourage English Language Arts growth while simultaneously studying brain scans that demonstrate what areas of the brain are active during reading and writing activities. That’s double the learning opportunities!

3. Who does the contest engage and reward?

Academic contests generally share the same goal of encouraging growth and rewarding achievement in one or more content areas. Consider who grows and gets rewarded as a result of your school’s participation. Is it the same students who typically succeed in the classroom, or does it boost the confidence and skill sets of others, too?

Ideally, a competition gets all students excited and engaged in the subject matter and motivates them to improve from wherever they are now. Contests may even spark some “aha” moments—moments of discovery, accomplishment, pride, surprise, delight—that help students realize the power of learning.

4. Does the competition build community and school pride?

Academic contests—like athletic events—can help students develop important life skills such as collaboration, discipline, and leadership. Preparing together as a team and cheering on representatives of your school strengthen feelings of community and belonging

Winning can magnify these benefits. When schools hold assemblies to recognize academic contest winners, or present them with ribbons and trophies, or even simply mention their names and achievements on the morning announcements, it sends a clear message that academic success is as celebration-worthy as athletic success.

5. Does the contest provide positive publicity opportunities for your school?

It’s appropriate to consider what your school gets out of participating in an academic contest, too. There may be tangible prizes like plaques, trophies, or learning materials. Consider, too, the intangible prizes like publicity and legacy.

• Does participating expose you to new audiences—perhaps families or faculty that you’d like to recruit?
• Do winners and their schools appear in local, regional, or even national news stories?
• Will photos and stories about your school’s participation grab attention on your social media channels?
• Can your school claim a winning tradition across many years?
• Do students in your school look forward to specific contest opportunities as a rite of passage?

So what is the best contest fit for your school and your students?

Competition can be a motivator, a lens for conversation about why you study contest-related subject matter, and an opportunity to honor student achievement. Contests can also nurture growth mindsets by helping students practice important skills like perseverance and responding to feedback.

There is no one-size-fits-all answer to the question about whether the return on your investment of time and effort in academic contests is worthwhile, but there is evidence to suggest contests can be valuable. The details of each unique competition must be weighed against each unique school’s goals, capacity, and students’ needs. The proof may be largely anecdotal, so consider participating to give it a try!

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