Project!

So my project is finally underway! Between reading the book and handing out my survey, I have been very busy! So first starting with the book.  When I picked up the novel at Barnes and Noble, I also came across another book which I have decided to read instead. It is called Cutting Class: Socioeconomic Status and Education.  This novel seemed to better fit the novel I had chose to read, after sampling them both.  So during the past week I have read the first four chapters of the book, and it really has opened my eyes.  Social status really does effect the level of education you achieve because your social status effects where you live and the opportunities and influences you receive in regards to your education. This was also reflected in my survey.  I handed out my surveys this week to the parents of the kids in my mom's pre-k class.  Out of 30, only 8 parents have handed the survey back to me so far, but these results are what I expected so far. 5 of these parents said that they lived in low class families and received only up to a high school education.  But these parents also said that they hope to provide their children with college educations.  I am really enjoying this project so far.  While reading the novel, I have also been recording any important facts that catch my eye.  I hope to receive more survey results from these parents so I can continue my research! 

Project Update!

My project is just beginning! I recently purchased the novel I plan to read at Barnes and Noble, and I have composed my survey.  I am excited to distribute my survey and see what results I get and how those results will compare with my predictions. My case study focuses on how social class affects your education level and standardized testing in schools. I am excited to  begin reading the novel as it pertains exactly to what my case study focuses on.  I will take notes and highlight as I read.  There is not much to update since I am just beginning my project, but I am very excited to begin my work!

Planning!

I plan to use  websites and articles, and also a novel I found when beginning my research called Socioeconomic Status and Intelligence: Why Test Scores Do Not Equal Merit.  This novel supports my idea that students from low socioeconomic backgrounds perform worse on standardized tests than other students.  This novel explores specific tests and presents results from multiple tests. For my survey I plan to use my mom's pre school class's parents as my surveyors.  Through this survey, I would like to ask the town they come from, their parents' jobs while they were growing up, and ultimately the education level they received. Through these results I would like to make a connection between the social status they grew up in and the level of education they reached.  The materials I will use are the novel and my computer to take notes on my reading.  I will also use my computer to keep track of the results of the survey. The people I will use in my survey will the parents of my mom's pre kindergarten class and I will also purchase the novel.   I plan to read 4 chapters every week from the book and highlight and take notes after each reading.  The survey will take place the first week of December and I will place a printed copy of the survey in the mailboxes of each child.  Their mailboxes are where all of their schoolwork is placed for their parents to pick up at the end of the day.   I am specifically doing this because I am interested in taking a look at social status affecting education level.  Through the novel, I am going to specifically focus on standardized test scores being affected by social status.  With the survey, I plan on focusing on the broader topic of social status affecting education level reached. 

2nd Quarter Research Project

I am so excited to continue my studying in education! For my second quarter research project, I decided to use the case study research method.  I plan focus my studies on standardized testing and the variation of scores based on a child's social class they were born into.  I would like to research the scores that are present in low income neighborhoods and school districts versus upper class neighborhoods.  I would also like to utilize a survey in my research to exhibit how money and social class standings affect the education received by our nation's youth.  In the survey, I hope to make connections between the education offered to a child and the income of a family.  I am really looking forward to this project because I think it will be interesting to look at the different standardized testing scores that come from  neighborhoods of different social classes.  

It's All About the Money

As upperclassmen in high school, college begins to become the major topic of conversation.  Where will you go? How will you "pass" the SATs? Another not so common conversation is brought up- "How will I pay for college?"  Many kids must resort to student loans in our country since most colleges are too expensive for parents to afford paying 4 years fully.  There's a problem of course- many kids are left in debt for a significant period of their life.  The average student-loan debt of borrowers in the college class of 2011 rose to about $26,500.  This is a 5% increase from the previous year.  About 2/3 of those who earned bachelor's degrees last year had loans.  The effects that student loans have on students are insane!

The fear of debt from student-loans has caused kids to avoid getting the education they need.  There were 64 colleges last year with more than 90 percent of graduates had debt.  These numbers are insane and scare many people away from going to college.  If we are lucky enough to have an ascribed status of entering into an upper class family, student loans aren't an issue. But most families' statuses are achieved through their hard work and sometimes these families aren't able to afford sending their children to college.  It is a shame that some kids are not able to attend a good college because they fear their inability to pay for it.  Not all kids got a fair shot at a good education.  Another factor to consider in analyzing the effects of student loans is location.  In previous years, the high debt states were concentrated in the Northeast and the Midwest.  Low debt states were in the West and South.  It seems that the more populated the states are the more debts it has.  Student-loans are something to fear, but I sure hope it stops holding people back from receiving the education they deserve!

3rd Grade: Make it or Break it

3rd grade: a grade I briefly remember.  But some say that a kid's whole educational career depends on third grade.  (This first seemed very silly to me too).  32 states have recently adopted policies specifically targeting reading skills.  These policies have caused many third grades to be held back from going on to fourth grade.  But does this actually prove to work well? Studies show that 1 in 6 kids who couldn't read at grade level by third grade didn't finish high school by age 19.  Therefore, everyone would conclude that it's better to hold them back while they're young to help them catch up for their future.  This all sounds good...right? 

There is a very negative sanction associated with a child being held back.  Students who are held back are often bullied by their peers and have other very detrimental effects on their overall future.  Studies have shown that children who are held back have less confidence and less attachment to school, which makes them more likely to drop out. So if holding these kids back seems to help the children who don't finish high school by 19, what about the children who drop out or suffer from bullying?  These kids have probably been in the same school with the same kids all the way up to third grade.  Now all of a sudden, they are held back and lose all of their friends.  These old friends begin to make fun of them for being stupid.  This child in third grade is not likely to respond by saying that he or she will be benefited in the long run, instead they are embarrassed and begin to hate school.  This can really counter the intention of holding the child back.  So should third grade really be the make it or break it year?  

Pills to Help in School...for Everyone!

Just a quick story before I talk about how I came upon this topic.  One of softball coaches is a teacher for special education kids in grades 7 and 8.  Last week, I was talking to her about school and she brought up the topic of showing her kids the Presidential debate.  She told me that they did not know what a president was or who the president of the United States was.  The only concept that they knew was that a debate was a type of "fight".  We then got on the topic of the medicine these children take, and she explained to me how so many children take drugs like  Adderall, whether they were diagnosed with a disorder or not.  This week I was inspired to look up an article about this topic.  

The title of the article reads "Attention Disorder or Not, Pills to Help in School".  The article mainly focuses on the drug Adderall, which is commonly used to treat children with ADHD, or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.  More often now, this medicine is used in children who do not have this disorder, but struggle in school and seek aid in this medicine.  Parents who cannot afford tutoring to help their kids, turn to Adderall to help their children succeed in school.  Medicaid pays the full price of the medicine, so basically parents are receiving free "tutoring" for their children. The part of this topic that I do not like though, is that some kids who already receive high grades, use Adderall to boost them even more.  The children who do poorly in school without ADHD have a better justified use than these kids who use the medicine to make them geniuses.  

A cultural universal shared by all parents is the need for their kids to succeed in school! Who would have thought that they would go to such extremes as to putting their kids on medicine to achieve this? The part that bothered me so much about this article was that using Adderall for kids academic acceleration is  becoming a norm in some parts of our country!!! How could our education system be coming to this? I don't think it is morally correct that some kids in school are succeeding with the aid of drugs, while others are succeeding solely on hard work.  

It takes a little more grit...

This week while reading Time magazine I came across an article that automatically caught my eye.  It read "Failure Is Not a Bad Option".  Almost any student cringes at the sound of the word failure.  So how can  failure be a good option? Parents strictly believe that children should get good grades will do well at a university and ultimately be successful in life.  This is the common belief among all parents, but this article challenges that and states that a little more grit is what kids really need.  Grit is a firmness of character which allows kids to actually succeed at a university, instead  of just being qualified based on IQ and SAT scores.  The article also focuses on the mental affects education has on children.  A family therapist named Madeline Levine counsels young kids to emphasis less on grades, more on values, less on homework, and more on sleep.  Levine captures the idea of the article that failure is not bad! To succeed in college, we need to work on skills like the ability to persist, focus, and adapt.  Therefore, unlike most people belief, it's NOT all about the grades!

This article was so appealing because it breaks the social norms of education.  This topic was one that I hoped I could focus on while blogging about education.  I thought that it was interesting to first look at what parents value for their children: great grades, attending a university, and having a successful life.  Our parents' values directly affect our approach towards our education.  We rely on memorization and cramming to achieve the perfect score on a test so that we can get into the best college.  This article challenges these norms though.  Instead, it takes the approach that scores are not what is going to get us through college.  It takes a firmness in character, otherwise known as grit.  SAT scores associate a student with just a number, which is not a very good basis of whether the person is well-rounded or not. I think it was interesting in this article to see how contrasting norms of society are to what is actually valued in the long run in college. The agents of socialization such as our families and peer groups have direct influence on our behaviors in our studies.  Levine shows how we value the wrong things and should focus more on getting sleep and staying healthy! SLEEP...every student's dream (no pun intended).  I loved how I was able to gain a different perspective on the valued aspects of education through this article!

Foreign Sexism

WOMEN BANNED FROM 77 MAJORS ACROSS 36 UNIVERSITIES

Yes, you read that correctly.  Women in Iran were banned from 77 majors including sciences.     Across the world, women's right are said to be expanding so this doesn't make any sense.  The video revealed previous studies in Iran showing that 52% of undergraduates were women and 68% of graduates were women in science.  Women's rights are said to be declining in the Middle East since the 1970's.  Women have gained rights socially, but legally they are getting worse.  The main reason that these bans on the majors occurred were because the Iranian government was concerned that rising educational standards among women may be contributing to a decline in birth and marriage.  One educational leader in Iran was quoted saying that "schools don't need the contributions of women." 

This issue is sexism to the max! The Qur'an states that the man is the protector and the women is to be subservient.  This is not fair to women! Statistics show the major success of women in sciences and high graduation rates, so why are they getting banned? They believe that the decrease in marriages and birth is caused by women getting an education.  I think that men and women deserve equal opportunity, especially when it comes to college.  In America, women are known to have more drive then men to further their education.  So if women in Iran have been discouraged all their life in all aspects of life, why can't they make a life for themselves by receiving a good education? 

                                       WATCH THIS OUTRAGEOUS VIDEO HERE  

Social Networking: Here to Stay

Twitter, Facebook, Youtube: websites that we can't go a day without checking. These sites can be very addicting and have major negative affects on our future children of America.  Every year, the age group of children joining social networking sites gets younger.  So if these children are getting involved with social media at such a young age, what significance does school have in their lives? The article that I read also touches upon the positive ways of social media, but negative affects each make a stronger argument.  One particular affect is that due to social website, kids try to multi-task.  They try to balance refreshing their Facebook and Twitter pages while studying.  There is a proven study that shows reduced academic performance in kids who study on these websites because come on, the test will not be based on your friend Ally's profile who you stalked instead of studying the American Revolution. Another negative affect is spell check.  Everyone relies on spell check! Another study has shown that students lack the ability to write without relying on spell check and other grammar checking features.  I can admit that I am guilty of this habit!

Social media is a scary yet very helpful aspect of today's society.  It teaches us skills we need to survive in the business world and helps us to prepare for the future, which is heading in the direction of more and more advanced technology.  The future of our children's education is in our hands.  We are shaping a society based on technology and not focused on education.  Most parents allow their children to be on these website, but not many monitor how much time their kids spend on the computer.  At IHA, being required to use laptops can cause even more issues regarding this topic.  If we have to do our homework on our computers, the social networking sites are literally calling our names and all they do is distract us.  Social media is definitely an agent of socialization because it has shaped and will continuing changing our society today.  The affects that it has on education is what is so scary about this topic though.  The picture below has a young baby on the computer, symbolizing the younger population being engrossed in social media at such a young age.  If these kid's are put in the corner of the room with an iPad to shut them up, they aren't going to value their future education.  They aren't going to possess the desire to be successful in life and receive a good education.  Instead of these kids posting pictures of their 5th birthday party, maybe they can open a book or do some extra math practice.

Chicago Teacher Strike

Girls, could imagine if all of the IHA teachers went out on strike? Think of all the possible consequences of a strike in our school. No IHA girl could ever miss a whole week of school! During the past week on the news a major headline has been the Chicago teacher strike.  On Sunday night, September 9th 2012, public school teachers called a strike because of the lack of negotiation over public school education reforms.  My eyes automatically lite up today while browsing on the New York Times website when I read the title of an article saying  "Fresh Hopes for End to Chicago Teacher Strike by Weekend." The article expresses hope that the strike will be over by this Monday, and the students will be able to return to classes.  This hopeful article continues on into an upsetting mood.  It discusses the extreme effects the strike has had on all people, not just the kids, that lives have been chaotic this past week.  

Many parents rely on schools as somewhere for children to go during the day and act as a sort of "day-care" for children of all ages. These working parents were conflicted with what to do with their children this week while the teachers were out on strike.  The article reveals a stunning fact that 87% of Chicago public school students come from low income families.  These parents could not afford to stay home with their children while the children were not able to go to school.  In the article, a single mother of three children explains that because of this week her bills have gone over the edge since she could not continue her week at her job of cleaning people's apartments. Another, more serious issue, is the fact that while keeping these children home their safety is at risk. Homicides are up 30% over last year and also a 10% increase in shootings since last year.  These mind blowing numbers are said to be attributed to young gangs in Chicago.  We must take a sociological perspective in examining the factors that have created such issues in the Chicago society. This education strike has "snowballed" into larger issues of the low class not being able to attend work, and the safety of the children to be possibly harmed. I really wish that the strike would end because the issue is far beyond education reforms right now.  These parents and children have suffered one week too long.  Don't you think so? How would you handle the situation if you were a low class parent living in Chicago right now? 

Check out the full article HERE 

My Inspiration

Receiving a great education is a desire instilled upon me by my parents and family. With two parents who didn’t attend college, I have set my goals high to go to the best college and have a successful life.  As an avid reader of Time magazine, I often come across articles about education.  I find myself reading these multiple times and discussing with my parents about the decline of education in America.  Our country is known as a place for hopes and dreams to come true, but if our education system is failing how can we promise these hopes and dreams to our youth? I’m eager to research about our countries education system and also another topic known to many IHA students-memorization.   Most students in our country are only concerned with the grade they receive on a test and often turn to memorization to help them achieve a perfect 100, but is this actually learning? I want to research about where memorized information is stored in the brain and finally settle whether or not it is a good study habit.