The National Archery in the Schools Program® (NASP®) is a joint venture between state Departments of Education and Wildlife. Several archery equipment manufacturers and organizations are also partners. The program promotes student education, physical education and participation in life long sport of Archery. The programs focus is to provide International style target archery training in physical education classes, grades 4-12. 

Department of Fish & Wildlife Resources Objective:  Declining participation in the shooting sports threatens financial and public support for wildlife conservation. The NASP® has been successful in teaching over 4.6 million students during school hours. We expect many of these young people to make Archery a life sport. 

Department of Education Objective: Engage more students in the educational process to improve classroom performance and reduce dropout rates. The national school dropout rate is 10%. Most students (88%) who drop out of school indicate they were not involved in extra-curricular activities. Archery taught by the NASP® is accessible to all students of nearly all. Educators are reporting that the NASP® engages the unengaged and inspires students to greater achievement in school.

Development History:
The program began in Kentucky with the training of 39 educators on March 3-4, 2002.

March 2002 the 22-middle school pilot project began with teacher training.

1,600 students were surveyed at the conclusion of their 2-week target archery class.

A follow up survey is scheduled and the new results will be available shortly from 10 participating NASP® states.

Before the Class (55% boys and 45% girls)
o 72% did not own a bow & 62% had never shot a bow 

After the Class
o 89% enjoyed the archery class
o 45% wanted to own archery equipment
o 59% wanted to become target archers & 38% wanted to try bowhunting
o 38% want to try bowhunting 

Current Status:
Over 900 Kentucky schools have adopted the program.

2003 NASP® KY Championship attracted 651 student archers.

2004 NASP® Championship, held in Louisville, attracted 1,291 student archers.

2005 NASP® Championship attracted 1,702 student archers.

2006 NASP® Championship attracted 2,164 student archers.

2007 NASP® Championship attracted 1,842 student archers in the 1st Annual stand alone NASP® Nationals. It was previously held in conjunction with the Kentucky NASP® State tournament (40% were girls)

2008 NASP® Championship attracted 2,856 student archers.(39% were girls)

2009® NASP Championship attracted 4,565 student archers     1,751 female (38.4%)
35% Elementary students
32% Middle School Students
33% High School Students
Most represented was 6th Grade Male with 525 shooters
Least represented was female 4th grade with 98 shooters

October 8th - 11th 2009 -1st Ever NASP® World event near Orlando Florida Walt Disney World Resorts - Look out Florida... here we come.

50 states and 14 countries have inquired about the program. Countries include; Iraq, Japan, Spain, Finland, Netherlands, Morocco, and Barbados.
46 States have adopted the program as of September 2008. Australia, Canada & South Africa have also joined the NASP® as well as 5,000 + schools have joined. 4 more US States have agreed to adopt the program.

We expect to add at least 1,000 more schools in 2009.

2008 - 2009 School year has introduced over One million school aged youth to the life sport of Archery via the NASP®.