Last monday 3/22 I went to the writing lab to get some extra help and feedback on my second draft. I thought I had a lot of the ideas down already but I needed help making sure the structure and format was clear and the way I wanted it. The person that helped me was able to assist me in my paragraph placement. This is something that I've always been bad at so she helped me figure out where each paragraph should go and the transitions that lead into and out of each paragraph. After my session with her I felt like it helped a little but I was still worried that my points wern't clear enough or that something was just off so I made another appointment with someone new for today 3/29. For this one I really focused on making sure the revisions I made after my last appointment were good and contributed to my paper. When I sat down and read it out the writing center staff helped me see which paragraph transitions were working well and what could have been added upon and they helped me see that some of my paragraphs were too long and we worked together to figure out where to break them up.
After having the opportunity to sit down and talk about my paper I think it really helped the flow and voice of my paper. I think it's a lot better then my first draft and I can't wait to hear what others have to say about it!
Monday, March 29, 2010
Monday, March 22, 2010
Rogerian Reflection 2.2
For this second draft of the paper I really had to look at the big picture and see what my main points were because I needed to find some credible sources and in order to do that I needed to find some academic merrit in my paper. I had to think about how I could find some scholarly information about my topic even though I'm talking about Snooki. I was able to think about how we all see the situation differently and how our brains are all different and thats why we can never agree on one solution or outcome. I went and found some research that was conducted on the college student's brain and how it's changing in those 4-5 college years. It showed that the brain is very evolved but still changing, however by the age of 18-25 we are able to make independent choices and thats what I really stressed in my paper. I showed that we each make choices but they are all different and thats what brings us to where we are now.
It was a lot harder to write this second draft then the first paper but I"m going to the writing lab today and hopefully that will help clear things up a little too.
It was a lot harder to write this second draft then the first paper but I"m going to the writing lab today and hopefully that will help clear things up a little too.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Essay 2.2 Snooki
Snooki’s Appearance
Today pop culture strongly drives the teenage and adult population and has the ability to influence every aspect of our lifestyles. Many celebrities come and go depending when it’s their time to shine, but the problem they face everyday are the lovers and the haters constantly on their case. I dare you to find one celebrity that every person in the world likes and agrees that they are a positive attribute to society. Many young girls would agree that Miley Cyrus is their favorite singer and they love having her to look up to, but their parents may disagree saying that she’s trying to grow away from her Disney Channel character in all the wrong ways. There are a lot of people who think Brad Pitt is a wonderful actor and a great family figure, but others view him as a horrible man living in sin for having a huge family without getting married. Even Betty White has some lovers and haters on her case, but it’s not Miley, Brad or Betty that I’m talking about. Right now all eyes are on Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi as she grows more and more popular thanks to her reality show, Jersey Shore, which debuted on MTV this past fall. This show was a huge hit across the college student population. Many see Snooki as nothing more than a party addicted fame seeker who is taking advantage of all the perks that come with being a celebrity. However, others just find her and her Jersey Shore cast mates entertaining and they don’t take her too seriously.
This issue has recently divided our JMU community in regards to Snooki coming to campus. Some students and faculty think that her coming has no educational value, wastes students money, and only fuels her unwanted fame. One student, Joshua Kalaher, said "Snooki is a cast member of the Jersey Shore - a show that depicts a deplorable image for impressionable youth, and essentially provides no redeeming qualities whatsoever." (Uproar Over Snooki's College Visit Reignites, par. 4). In contrast, many supporters wanted her to come and applaud the University Program Board (UPB) for bringing her to campus to allow students to see their favorite reality show star in person, something others could only wish for. One JMU sophomore Stacey Sulko said “Snooki is a stamp on our culture, it’s entertaining to watch” (Foster, par. 9).
I think that people on either side of this argument can agree that Snooki doesn’t have any intellectual value. She’s good at partying and could maybe teach you some cheerleading moves from when she was a cheerleader in high school, but she doesn’t carry any academic worth. We all can also distinguish the main reason UPB brought her to campus which was purely for entertainment purposes. A press release given by UPB said “this is a purely entertaining event which reminds us all not to take our time [at JMU] too seriously and have some fun” (Sutter, par. 4). She was a good choice for “safe” entertainment and drew a huge excited crowd for the event. She’s almost like a guilty pleasure, you want to hear about and watch the crazy things she does but you don’t want anyone to know you’re watching. I mean who doesn’t love a good laugh?
Students have been saying that employers are not going to take JMU graduates seriously because we brought Snooki to campus, but I believe this won’t have an impact on their hiring strategies in regard to JMU grads. In the past employers have used Facebook and Myspace to check up on prospective recruits but the talk of a supposed bias of JMU students because of Snooki is outrageous. Recently I have gone to talk to some employers of local business, such as spas and fine dining restaurants, in my hometown of Sykesville MD, who often hire college students, to see if they would discriminate against JMU students because they had Snooki on their campus and many of them thought I was joking. Many of their responses were along the lines of “there is a proper time in life for everything and if college students don’t go to these types of events and enjoy themselves when it’s appropriate to, then they run into a huge crisis later in their life”. This really helped me see that bringing to Snooki to campus was absolutely the right decision. College students are given these opportunities because you are only young once and you’re expected to go out, be safe, but also enjoy yourself.
Also, multiple scientists are currently conducting research on how the aging adolescence’s brain is functioning and they said that it’s still developing but decision making skills are very close to their optimum level (Santrock p.118). They are learning that adolescence’s decision making skills, which come primarily from the frontal cortex in the brain, are close to optimal functionality and people aged 18-25 have the ability to make independent decisions regarding a situation. This age group is primarily made up of college students, meaning that JMU students do have the brain power to choose who they want or don’t want to see. So, it was truly a matter of liking whether or not to attend Snooki, not a matter of ethics or emotions. In another study conducted by Dartmouth College studied the changes occurring in a college student’s brain and it showed that there are marginal changes in emotion and cognition development (Knapp, par. 7). The study showed that since our brains are rapidly changing in regards to emotion and perception we take our experiences and individual interpretation of things and apply that to everyday situations. Our brains right now are actually taking in every emotion we feel and everything we experience and channels that into future experiences. This may be why this issue is such a heated debate on campus, because each student's experiences are different, therefore we can’t agree on this issue or many others for that matter.
Another popular misconception was that tuition money was used to bring Snooki to campus, when in fact this isn’t completely true. The University Program Board is funded half by the SGA and half by student fees. UPB doesn’t release the amount they paid for specific entertainment brought to campus for security and liability reasons, but the revenue made through ticket sales went well over $5,000 and was able to pay off most, if not all, of Snooki’s asking price. Now the money still owed came from either the SGA or student fees meaning that if any, a very small amount of money from student fees would go to Snooki.
When UPB announced that Snooki would be coming to the university they created a Facebook page to invite all students who were fans to attend. This page soon turned sour after students flooded the wall with racist remarks and negative comments forcing the Program Board to disable the wall. Students comments were still welcomed, they just had to be sent to a private UPB e-mail so they didn’t offend or ignite anymore harmful feedback. Some students even created a Facebook page called “Stay off My Campus Snooki” and even got over 700 followers. Now this may seem easily refuted but I think it’s important to point out the perks of having a large campus like we do. JMU has the ability to be a very diverse but successful school because we are large enough to express and support our individual point of views, but small enough to hear everyone else’s concerns. Multiple JMU students have spoken out in many forms saying that they don’t approve of Snooki coming to our campus and yet the university still has enough students to fill a 1,045 seat auditorium. They were even able to gain 3000+ followers on Facebook saying they would attend the event had the venue allowed it. One Harrisonburg resident said “Obviously if the students didn’t want to see this [event] the show wouldn’t have sold out in 3 days!” (Sager, par. 9). It’s amazing and unique that a college is able to have this outpour of strong emotions yet still be able to come together and hold an awesome event without hurting the opposing sides’ views.
When I asked students who didn’t approve of Snooki coming what they propose UPB should do, and they responded “have a different celebrity come to campus”. This is a completely reasonable response to the question and it shows that students do value entertainment on campus, just maybe not Snooki. There are many celebrities students wish UPB would bring but are too expensive such as Dane Cook, The Black Eyed Peas, Metro Station, etc. but with Snooki they were actually able to afford her. They were able to book an up-and-coming artist before her rates were totally out of UPB’s price range. Another proposal from the student body was to still have Snooki on campus but to have her privately funded. Anti-Snooki students said that if there were people on campus that wanted her to come so badly then those students should have funded her to come, instead of a student funded organization. The only problem with this is that many celebrities’ agents won’t even talk to you until you have an event coordinator or professional in charge. Therefore, it would have been nearly impossible and much more expensive for individual students to fund Snooki to come and then no one would have been able to enjoy the event that was made possible because of UPB.
With every conflict across campus there are always choices, but the question for this event was how to please everyone. Now obviously it’s impractical to please everyone in this situation, but when my GWRTC class was asked to use compromise to make everyone happy they did suggest that maybe the event could have still happened, but simply be moved off campus so that students could still go, but it wouldn’t be directly associated with JMU. I thought this was a great idea and I think it would have solved a lot of problems that students had with the event. Many were worried about the university’s image and reputation, but if it were off campus they wouldn’t have to worry about this.
Even though a lot of students are able to agree on some aspects of this event there are still many problems with their arguments as I see it. In regards to this particular Snooki event I am a lover. I do not condone her behavior when she is on the Jersey Shore but I do understand that the show was put on the MTV network for entertainment purposes and it’s been very successful with this endeavor. Bringing Snooki to campus was purely for entertainment purposes. UPB has submitted multiple press releases saying that this is not meant to offend or anger anyone but was geared towards the humorous entertainment genre. UPB mission statement “we strive to enhance the overall JMU experience by providing a variety of creative, educational and entertaining programs that appeal to diverse audiences” (UPB Mission Statement, par. 1) really shows that they make every effort to bring a mixture of events to campus and Snooki just happened to fall into the entertainment category.
Foster, Torie. Snooki Brings Fist Pumps, Poofs to JMU. The Breeze. 4 Mar. 2010.
James Madison University. Web. 10 Mar. 2010.
Knapp, Susan. Brain Changes Significantly After Age 18, Says Dartmouth Research.
Dartmouth College Office of Public Affairs. 6 Feb. 2006. Web. 12 Mar. 2010.
Sager, Sarah. Snooki Visits JMU. WHSV3. 3 Mar. 2010. WHSV. Web. 9 Mar. 2010.
Santrock, John W. A Topical Approach to Life-Span Development. New York: McGraw Hill, 2007. Print.
Sutter, John. UPB Has One Hand In the Snooki Jar. The Breeze. 18 Feb. 2010. James
Madison University. Web. 10 Mar. 2010.
UPB Mission Statement. University Program Board. 15 Sept. 2009. UPB. Web. 9 Mar. 2010.
Uproar Over Snooki's College Visit Reignites. RadarOnline. 26 Feb. 2010.
RadarOnline. Web. 9 Mar. 2010.
Today pop culture strongly drives the teenage and adult population and has the ability to influence every aspect of our lifestyles. Many celebrities come and go depending when it’s their time to shine, but the problem they face everyday are the lovers and the haters constantly on their case. I dare you to find one celebrity that every person in the world likes and agrees that they are a positive attribute to society. Many young girls would agree that Miley Cyrus is their favorite singer and they love having her to look up to, but their parents may disagree saying that she’s trying to grow away from her Disney Channel character in all the wrong ways. There are a lot of people who think Brad Pitt is a wonderful actor and a great family figure, but others view him as a horrible man living in sin for having a huge family without getting married. Even Betty White has some lovers and haters on her case, but it’s not Miley, Brad or Betty that I’m talking about. Right now all eyes are on Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi as she grows more and more popular thanks to her reality show, Jersey Shore, which debuted on MTV this past fall. This show was a huge hit across the college student population. Many see Snooki as nothing more than a party addicted fame seeker who is taking advantage of all the perks that come with being a celebrity. However, others just find her and her Jersey Shore cast mates entertaining and they don’t take her too seriously.
This issue has recently divided our JMU community in regards to Snooki coming to campus. Some students and faculty think that her coming has no educational value, wastes students money, and only fuels her unwanted fame. One student, Joshua Kalaher, said "Snooki is a cast member of the Jersey Shore - a show that depicts a deplorable image for impressionable youth, and essentially provides no redeeming qualities whatsoever." (Uproar Over Snooki's College Visit Reignites, par. 4). In contrast, many supporters wanted her to come and applaud the University Program Board (UPB) for bringing her to campus to allow students to see their favorite reality show star in person, something others could only wish for. One JMU sophomore Stacey Sulko said “Snooki is a stamp on our culture, it’s entertaining to watch” (Foster, par. 9).
I think that people on either side of this argument can agree that Snooki doesn’t have any intellectual value. She’s good at partying and could maybe teach you some cheerleading moves from when she was a cheerleader in high school, but she doesn’t carry any academic worth. We all can also distinguish the main reason UPB brought her to campus which was purely for entertainment purposes. A press release given by UPB said “this is a purely entertaining event which reminds us all not to take our time [at JMU] too seriously and have some fun” (Sutter, par. 4). She was a good choice for “safe” entertainment and drew a huge excited crowd for the event. She’s almost like a guilty pleasure, you want to hear about and watch the crazy things she does but you don’t want anyone to know you’re watching. I mean who doesn’t love a good laugh?
Students have been saying that employers are not going to take JMU graduates seriously because we brought Snooki to campus, but I believe this won’t have an impact on their hiring strategies in regard to JMU grads. In the past employers have used Facebook and Myspace to check up on prospective recruits but the talk of a supposed bias of JMU students because of Snooki is outrageous. Recently I have gone to talk to some employers of local business, such as spas and fine dining restaurants, in my hometown of Sykesville MD, who often hire college students, to see if they would discriminate against JMU students because they had Snooki on their campus and many of them thought I was joking. Many of their responses were along the lines of “there is a proper time in life for everything and if college students don’t go to these types of events and enjoy themselves when it’s appropriate to, then they run into a huge crisis later in their life”. This really helped me see that bringing to Snooki to campus was absolutely the right decision. College students are given these opportunities because you are only young once and you’re expected to go out, be safe, but also enjoy yourself.
Also, multiple scientists are currently conducting research on how the aging adolescence’s brain is functioning and they said that it’s still developing but decision making skills are very close to their optimum level (Santrock p.118). They are learning that adolescence’s decision making skills, which come primarily from the frontal cortex in the brain, are close to optimal functionality and people aged 18-25 have the ability to make independent decisions regarding a situation. This age group is primarily made up of college students, meaning that JMU students do have the brain power to choose who they want or don’t want to see. So, it was truly a matter of liking whether or not to attend Snooki, not a matter of ethics or emotions. In another study conducted by Dartmouth College studied the changes occurring in a college student’s brain and it showed that there are marginal changes in emotion and cognition development (Knapp, par. 7). The study showed that since our brains are rapidly changing in regards to emotion and perception we take our experiences and individual interpretation of things and apply that to everyday situations. Our brains right now are actually taking in every emotion we feel and everything we experience and channels that into future experiences. This may be why this issue is such a heated debate on campus, because each student's experiences are different, therefore we can’t agree on this issue or many others for that matter.
Another popular misconception was that tuition money was used to bring Snooki to campus, when in fact this isn’t completely true. The University Program Board is funded half by the SGA and half by student fees. UPB doesn’t release the amount they paid for specific entertainment brought to campus for security and liability reasons, but the revenue made through ticket sales went well over $5,000 and was able to pay off most, if not all, of Snooki’s asking price. Now the money still owed came from either the SGA or student fees meaning that if any, a very small amount of money from student fees would go to Snooki.
When UPB announced that Snooki would be coming to the university they created a Facebook page to invite all students who were fans to attend. This page soon turned sour after students flooded the wall with racist remarks and negative comments forcing the Program Board to disable the wall. Students comments were still welcomed, they just had to be sent to a private UPB e-mail so they didn’t offend or ignite anymore harmful feedback. Some students even created a Facebook page called “Stay off My Campus Snooki” and even got over 700 followers. Now this may seem easily refuted but I think it’s important to point out the perks of having a large campus like we do. JMU has the ability to be a very diverse but successful school because we are large enough to express and support our individual point of views, but small enough to hear everyone else’s concerns. Multiple JMU students have spoken out in many forms saying that they don’t approve of Snooki coming to our campus and yet the university still has enough students to fill a 1,045 seat auditorium. They were even able to gain 3000+ followers on Facebook saying they would attend the event had the venue allowed it. One Harrisonburg resident said “Obviously if the students didn’t want to see this [event] the show wouldn’t have sold out in 3 days!” (Sager, par. 9). It’s amazing and unique that a college is able to have this outpour of strong emotions yet still be able to come together and hold an awesome event without hurting the opposing sides’ views.
When I asked students who didn’t approve of Snooki coming what they propose UPB should do, and they responded “have a different celebrity come to campus”. This is a completely reasonable response to the question and it shows that students do value entertainment on campus, just maybe not Snooki. There are many celebrities students wish UPB would bring but are too expensive such as Dane Cook, The Black Eyed Peas, Metro Station, etc. but with Snooki they were actually able to afford her. They were able to book an up-and-coming artist before her rates were totally out of UPB’s price range. Another proposal from the student body was to still have Snooki on campus but to have her privately funded. Anti-Snooki students said that if there were people on campus that wanted her to come so badly then those students should have funded her to come, instead of a student funded organization. The only problem with this is that many celebrities’ agents won’t even talk to you until you have an event coordinator or professional in charge. Therefore, it would have been nearly impossible and much more expensive for individual students to fund Snooki to come and then no one would have been able to enjoy the event that was made possible because of UPB.
With every conflict across campus there are always choices, but the question for this event was how to please everyone. Now obviously it’s impractical to please everyone in this situation, but when my GWRTC class was asked to use compromise to make everyone happy they did suggest that maybe the event could have still happened, but simply be moved off campus so that students could still go, but it wouldn’t be directly associated with JMU. I thought this was a great idea and I think it would have solved a lot of problems that students had with the event. Many were worried about the university’s image and reputation, but if it were off campus they wouldn’t have to worry about this.
Even though a lot of students are able to agree on some aspects of this event there are still many problems with their arguments as I see it. In regards to this particular Snooki event I am a lover. I do not condone her behavior when she is on the Jersey Shore but I do understand that the show was put on the MTV network for entertainment purposes and it’s been very successful with this endeavor. Bringing Snooki to campus was purely for entertainment purposes. UPB has submitted multiple press releases saying that this is not meant to offend or anger anyone but was geared towards the humorous entertainment genre. UPB mission statement “we strive to enhance the overall JMU experience by providing a variety of creative, educational and entertaining programs that appeal to diverse audiences” (UPB Mission Statement, par. 1) really shows that they make every effort to bring a mixture of events to campus and Snooki just happened to fall into the entertainment category.
Foster, Torie. Snooki Brings Fist Pumps, Poofs to JMU. The Breeze. 4 Mar. 2010.
James Madison University. Web. 10 Mar. 2010.
Knapp, Susan. Brain Changes Significantly After Age 18, Says Dartmouth Research.
Dartmouth College Office of Public Affairs. 6 Feb. 2006. Web. 12 Mar. 2010.
Sager, Sarah. Snooki Visits JMU. WHSV3. 3 Mar. 2010. WHSV. Web. 9 Mar. 2010.
Santrock, John W. A Topical Approach to Life-Span Development. New York: McGraw Hill, 2007. Print.
Sutter, John. UPB Has One Hand In the Snooki Jar. The Breeze. 18 Feb. 2010. James
Madison University. Web. 10 Mar. 2010.
UPB Mission Statement. University Program Board. 15 Sept. 2009. UPB. Web. 9 Mar. 2010.
Uproar Over Snooki's College Visit Reignites. RadarOnline. 26 Feb. 2010.
RadarOnline. Web. 9 Mar. 2010.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
2.1 Refletcion
When writing the rogerian argument I had to do a lot more thinking. It took me longer to get out all of my thoughts on the issue and I really had to think about my motives behind each point I was making because I didn't want to sound too objective or stuck to one side. It was a lot different from writing a rebuttal becuase in the last paper I could take one side and get all of the facts I needed to boost my personal argument. I feel like on the last paper I was really geared towards being "better" then the other side so I was able to focus all of my agression into that. However, with this paper I had to take my time and cut out some of my points to make room for the other side of the argument. So overall i think this paper was a but harder just because I wasn't able to just rant about my point of view. Instead I had to make time for the other side.
I think in my next draft I am going to finish my works cited and also have either one of my friends look over it or go to the writing lab and see what I really need to work on. I think for the last paper the writing lab really helped a lot so I'll be going back there again. I think mostly I will be looking at my main points and making sure they're clear to my audience. This is always something I can improve on because when something is clear to me it's not always clear to my audience.
I think in my next draft I am going to finish my works cited and also have either one of my friends look over it or go to the writing lab and see what I really need to work on. I think for the last paper the writing lab really helped a lot so I'll be going back there again. I think mostly I will be looking at my main points and making sure they're clear to my audience. This is always something I can improve on because when something is clear to me it's not always clear to my audience.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Essay 2.1 Snooki
Rogerian Argument
Today pop culture strongly drives the teenage and adult population and has the ability to influence every aspect of our lifestyles. Many celebrities come and go depending when it’s their time to shine, but the problem they face everyday are the lovers and the haters constantly on their case. I dare you to find one celebrity that every person in the world likes and agrees that they are a positive attribute to society. Many young girls would agree that Miley Cyrus is their favorite singer and they love having her to look up to, but their parents may disagree saying that she’s trying to grow away from her Disney Channel character in all the wrong ways. There are a lot of people who think Brad Pitt is a wonderful actor and a great family figure, but others view him as a horrible man living in sin for having a huge family without getting married. Even Betty White has some lovers and haters on her case, but it’s not Miley, Brad or Betty that I’m talking about. Right now all eyes are on Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi as she grows more and more popular thanks to her reality show, Jersey Shore, which debuted on MTV this past fall. This show was a huge hit across the college student population. Many see Snooki as nothing more than a party addicted fame seeker who is taking advantage of all the perks that come with being a celebrity. However, others just find her and her Jersey Shore cast mates entertaining and they don’t take her too seriously. This issue has recently divided our JMU community in regards to Snooki coming to campus. Some students and faculty think that her coming has no educational value, wastes students money, and only fuels her unwanted fame. One student, Joshua Kalaher, said "Snooki is a cast member of the Jersey Shore - a show that depicts a deplorable image for impressionable youth, and essentially provides no redeeming qualities whatsoever." (Radaronline par 4). In contrast, many supporters wanted her to come and applaud the University Program Board (UPB) for bringing her to campus to allow students to see their favorite reality show star in person, something others could only wish for. One JMU sophomore Stacey Sulko said “Snooki is a stamp on our culture, it’s entertaining to watch” (Foster par, 9).
I think that people on either side of this argument can agree that Snooki doesn’t have any intellectual value. She’s good at partying and could maybe teach you some cheerleading moves from when she was a cheerleader in high school, but she doesn’t carry any academic value. We all can also distinguish the main reason UPB brought her to campus which was purely for entertainment purposes. A press release given by UPB said “this is a purely entertaining event which reminds us all not to take our time [at JMU] too seriously and have some fun” (Sutter par 4). She was a good choice for “safe” entertainment and drew a huge excited crowd for the event. She’s almost like a guilty pleasure, you want to hear about and watch the crazy things she does but you don’t want anyone to know you’re watching. I mean who doesn’t love a good laugh? Also, it is clear that everyone in the JMU community cares about the college’s image, but they also recognize the importance of pop culture in college students’ world. Some are just starting to realize other pros of this situation. JMU was the first college to recognize that Snooki was a hot commodity and capitalize on the opportunity to have her on campus before she got too popular and no university could afford her. The Snooki event was something that a lot of people had to come together for to make it happen and that’s a very important aspect of the event. Another common ground on the issue is that there was probably a better use for the funds that went into the Snooki event, but there are many aspects that flow into that and at least students were able to have a good time and relax from the stress of school for one night.
Students have been saying that employers are not going to take JMU graduates seriously because we brought Snooki to campus, but I believe this won’t have an impact on their hiring strategies in regard to JMU grads. In the past employers have used Facebook and Myspace to check up on prospective recruits but the talk of a supposed bias of JMU students because of Snooki is outrageous. Recently I have gone to talk to some employers of local business in my hometown of Sykesville MD, who often hire college aged students, to see if they would discriminate against JMU students because they had Snooki on their campus and many of them thought I was joking. Many of their responses were along the lines of “there is a proper time in life for everything and if college students don’t go to these types of events and enjoy themselves when it’s appropriate to, then they run into a huge crisis later in their life”. This really helped me see that bringing to Snooki to campus was absolutely the right decision. College students are given these opportunities because you are only young once and you’re expected to go out, be safe, but also enjoy yourself.
Another popular misconception was that tuition money was used to bring Snooki to campus, when in fact this isn’t completely true. The University Program Board is funded half by the SGA and half by student fees. UPB doesn’t release the amount they paid for specific entertainment brought to campus, but the revenue made through ticket sales went well over $5,000 and was able to pay most of, if not all, of Snooki’s asking price. Now the money still owed came from either the SGA or student fees meaning that if any, a very small amount of money from student fees would go to Snooki.
When UPB announced that Snooki would be coming to the university they created a Facebook page to invite all students who were fans to attend. This page soon turned sour after students flooded the wall with racist remarks and negative comments forcing the Program Board to disable the wall. Students comments were still welcomed, they just had to be sent to a private UPB e-mail so they didn’t offend or spark anymore harmful feedback. Some students even created a Facebook page called “Stay off My Campus Snooki” and even got over 700 followers. Now this may seem easily refuted but I think it’s important to point out the perks of having a large campus like we do. JMU has the ability to be a very diverse but successful school because we are large enough to express and support our individual point of views, but small enough to hear everyone else’s concerns. Multiple JMU students have spoken out in many forms saying that they don’t approve of Snooki coming to our campus and yet the university still has enough students to fill a 1,045 seat auditorium. They were even able to gain 3000+ followers on Facebook saying they would attend the event had the venue allowed it. One Harrisonburg resident said “Obviously if the students didn’t want to see this [event] the show wouldn’t have sold out in 3 days!” (Sager par 9). It’s amazing and unique that a college is able to have this outpour of strong emotions yet still be able to hold an awesome event without hurting the opposing sides’ views.
When I asked students who didn’t approve of Snooki coming what they propose UPB should do and the responded “have a different celebrity come to campus”. This is a completely reasonable response to the question and it shows that students do value entertainment on campus, just maybe not Snooki. There are many celebrities students wish UPB would bring but are too expensive such as Dane Cook, The Black Eyed Peas, Metro Station, etc. but with Snooki they were actually able to afford her. They were able to book an up-and-coming artist before her rates were totally out of UPB’s price range. Another proposal from the student body was to still have Snooki on campus but to have her privately funded. Anti-Snooki students said that if there were people on campus that wanted her to come so badly then those students should have funded her to come, not a partially student funded organization. The only problem with this is that many celebrities’ agents won’t even talk to you until you have an event coordinator or professional in charge. Therefore, it would have been nearly impossible and much more expensive for individual students to fund Snooki to come and then no one would have been able to enjoy the event that was made possible because of UPB.
With every conflict across campus there are always choices, but the question for this event was how to please everyone. Now obviously it’s impractical to please everyone in this situation, but when my GWRTC class was asked to use compromise to make everyone happy they did suggest that maybe the event could have still happened, but simply be moved off campus so that students could still go, but it wouldn’t be directly associated with JMU. I thought this was a great idea and I think it would have solved a lot of problems that students had with the event. Many were worried about the university’s image and reputation, but if it were off campus they would have to worry about this.
Even though a lot of students are able to agree on some aspects of this event there are still many problems with their arguments as I see it. In regards to this particular Snooki event I am a lover. I don’t condone her behavior when she is on the Jersey Shore but I do understand that the show was put on the MTV network for entertainment purposes and it’s been very successful with this endeavor. Bringing Snooki to campus was purely for entertainment purposes. UPB has submitted multiple press releases saying that this is not meant to offend or anger anyone but was geared towards the humorous entertainment genre. UPB mission statement “we strive to enhance the overall JMU experience by providing a variety of creative, educational and entertaining programs that appeal to diverse audiences” (UPB 1) really shows that they make every effort to bring a mixture of events to campus and Snooki just happened to fall into the entertainment category.
Today pop culture strongly drives the teenage and adult population and has the ability to influence every aspect of our lifestyles. Many celebrities come and go depending when it’s their time to shine, but the problem they face everyday are the lovers and the haters constantly on their case. I dare you to find one celebrity that every person in the world likes and agrees that they are a positive attribute to society. Many young girls would agree that Miley Cyrus is their favorite singer and they love having her to look up to, but their parents may disagree saying that she’s trying to grow away from her Disney Channel character in all the wrong ways. There are a lot of people who think Brad Pitt is a wonderful actor and a great family figure, but others view him as a horrible man living in sin for having a huge family without getting married. Even Betty White has some lovers and haters on her case, but it’s not Miley, Brad or Betty that I’m talking about. Right now all eyes are on Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi as she grows more and more popular thanks to her reality show, Jersey Shore, which debuted on MTV this past fall. This show was a huge hit across the college student population. Many see Snooki as nothing more than a party addicted fame seeker who is taking advantage of all the perks that come with being a celebrity. However, others just find her and her Jersey Shore cast mates entertaining and they don’t take her too seriously. This issue has recently divided our JMU community in regards to Snooki coming to campus. Some students and faculty think that her coming has no educational value, wastes students money, and only fuels her unwanted fame. One student, Joshua Kalaher, said "Snooki is a cast member of the Jersey Shore - a show that depicts a deplorable image for impressionable youth, and essentially provides no redeeming qualities whatsoever." (Radaronline par 4). In contrast, many supporters wanted her to come and applaud the University Program Board (UPB) for bringing her to campus to allow students to see their favorite reality show star in person, something others could only wish for. One JMU sophomore Stacey Sulko said “Snooki is a stamp on our culture, it’s entertaining to watch” (Foster par, 9).
I think that people on either side of this argument can agree that Snooki doesn’t have any intellectual value. She’s good at partying and could maybe teach you some cheerleading moves from when she was a cheerleader in high school, but she doesn’t carry any academic value. We all can also distinguish the main reason UPB brought her to campus which was purely for entertainment purposes. A press release given by UPB said “this is a purely entertaining event which reminds us all not to take our time [at JMU] too seriously and have some fun” (Sutter par 4). She was a good choice for “safe” entertainment and drew a huge excited crowd for the event. She’s almost like a guilty pleasure, you want to hear about and watch the crazy things she does but you don’t want anyone to know you’re watching. I mean who doesn’t love a good laugh? Also, it is clear that everyone in the JMU community cares about the college’s image, but they also recognize the importance of pop culture in college students’ world. Some are just starting to realize other pros of this situation. JMU was the first college to recognize that Snooki was a hot commodity and capitalize on the opportunity to have her on campus before she got too popular and no university could afford her. The Snooki event was something that a lot of people had to come together for to make it happen and that’s a very important aspect of the event. Another common ground on the issue is that there was probably a better use for the funds that went into the Snooki event, but there are many aspects that flow into that and at least students were able to have a good time and relax from the stress of school for one night.
Students have been saying that employers are not going to take JMU graduates seriously because we brought Snooki to campus, but I believe this won’t have an impact on their hiring strategies in regard to JMU grads. In the past employers have used Facebook and Myspace to check up on prospective recruits but the talk of a supposed bias of JMU students because of Snooki is outrageous. Recently I have gone to talk to some employers of local business in my hometown of Sykesville MD, who often hire college aged students, to see if they would discriminate against JMU students because they had Snooki on their campus and many of them thought I was joking. Many of their responses were along the lines of “there is a proper time in life for everything and if college students don’t go to these types of events and enjoy themselves when it’s appropriate to, then they run into a huge crisis later in their life”. This really helped me see that bringing to Snooki to campus was absolutely the right decision. College students are given these opportunities because you are only young once and you’re expected to go out, be safe, but also enjoy yourself.
Another popular misconception was that tuition money was used to bring Snooki to campus, when in fact this isn’t completely true. The University Program Board is funded half by the SGA and half by student fees. UPB doesn’t release the amount they paid for specific entertainment brought to campus, but the revenue made through ticket sales went well over $5,000 and was able to pay most of, if not all, of Snooki’s asking price. Now the money still owed came from either the SGA or student fees meaning that if any, a very small amount of money from student fees would go to Snooki.
When UPB announced that Snooki would be coming to the university they created a Facebook page to invite all students who were fans to attend. This page soon turned sour after students flooded the wall with racist remarks and negative comments forcing the Program Board to disable the wall. Students comments were still welcomed, they just had to be sent to a private UPB e-mail so they didn’t offend or spark anymore harmful feedback. Some students even created a Facebook page called “Stay off My Campus Snooki” and even got over 700 followers. Now this may seem easily refuted but I think it’s important to point out the perks of having a large campus like we do. JMU has the ability to be a very diverse but successful school because we are large enough to express and support our individual point of views, but small enough to hear everyone else’s concerns. Multiple JMU students have spoken out in many forms saying that they don’t approve of Snooki coming to our campus and yet the university still has enough students to fill a 1,045 seat auditorium. They were even able to gain 3000+ followers on Facebook saying they would attend the event had the venue allowed it. One Harrisonburg resident said “Obviously if the students didn’t want to see this [event] the show wouldn’t have sold out in 3 days!” (Sager par 9). It’s amazing and unique that a college is able to have this outpour of strong emotions yet still be able to hold an awesome event without hurting the opposing sides’ views.
When I asked students who didn’t approve of Snooki coming what they propose UPB should do and the responded “have a different celebrity come to campus”. This is a completely reasonable response to the question and it shows that students do value entertainment on campus, just maybe not Snooki. There are many celebrities students wish UPB would bring but are too expensive such as Dane Cook, The Black Eyed Peas, Metro Station, etc. but with Snooki they were actually able to afford her. They were able to book an up-and-coming artist before her rates were totally out of UPB’s price range. Another proposal from the student body was to still have Snooki on campus but to have her privately funded. Anti-Snooki students said that if there were people on campus that wanted her to come so badly then those students should have funded her to come, not a partially student funded organization. The only problem with this is that many celebrities’ agents won’t even talk to you until you have an event coordinator or professional in charge. Therefore, it would have been nearly impossible and much more expensive for individual students to fund Snooki to come and then no one would have been able to enjoy the event that was made possible because of UPB.
With every conflict across campus there are always choices, but the question for this event was how to please everyone. Now obviously it’s impractical to please everyone in this situation, but when my GWRTC class was asked to use compromise to make everyone happy they did suggest that maybe the event could have still happened, but simply be moved off campus so that students could still go, but it wouldn’t be directly associated with JMU. I thought this was a great idea and I think it would have solved a lot of problems that students had with the event. Many were worried about the university’s image and reputation, but if it were off campus they would have to worry about this.
Even though a lot of students are able to agree on some aspects of this event there are still many problems with their arguments as I see it. In regards to this particular Snooki event I am a lover. I don’t condone her behavior when she is on the Jersey Shore but I do understand that the show was put on the MTV network for entertainment purposes and it’s been very successful with this endeavor. Bringing Snooki to campus was purely for entertainment purposes. UPB has submitted multiple press releases saying that this is not meant to offend or anger anyone but was geared towards the humorous entertainment genre. UPB mission statement “we strive to enhance the overall JMU experience by providing a variety of creative, educational and entertaining programs that appeal to diverse audiences” (UPB 1) really shows that they make every effort to bring a mixture of events to campus and Snooki just happened to fall into the entertainment category.
Friday, March 5, 2010
Prewriting Essay 2
Possible Sources.
http://www.examiner.com/x-40516-Jersey-Shore-Examiner~y2010m3d4-Snooki-gives-fist-pumps-lesson-to-sell-out-crowd-at-JMU
http://breezejmu.org/2010/03/04/snooki-brings-fist-pumps-poofs-to-jmu/
http://www.whsv.com/news/headlines/86300352.html
http://www.whsv.com/news/headlines/86162977.html
http://www.radaronline.com/exclusives/2010/02/uproar-over-snookis-college-visit-reignites <-- 700+ people for stay off campus, 3,000+ for attending the event (groups of facebook)
http://breezejmu.org/2010/02/25/controversial-snooki-event-sells-out-in-three-days/
When writing this paper I'm going to have to do a little bit of backgroud info on Snooki. I don't watch the show so I might have to go back and review some of the episodes and see what everyone was talking about. I think there is definately a lot of information on her because she is a new star and there is going to be a lot of info and history coming out about her. Also, it was really helpful to hear some of my classmates views on her coming to campus. I will probably end up using some of this information in my paper, primary research. I can also use my personal experience from the event.
http://www.examiner.com/x-40516-Jersey-Shore-Examiner~y2010m3d4-Snooki-gives-fist-pumps-lesson-to-sell-out-crowd-at-JMU
http://breezejmu.org/2010/03/04/snooki-brings-fist-pumps-poofs-to-jmu/
http://www.whsv.com/news/headlines/86300352.html
http://www.whsv.com/news/headlines/86162977.html
http://www.radaronline.com/exclusives/2010/02/uproar-over-snookis-college-visit-reignites <-- 700+ people for stay off campus, 3,000+ for attending the event (groups of facebook)
http://breezejmu.org/2010/02/25/controversial-snooki-event-sells-out-in-three-days/
When writing this paper I'm going to have to do a little bit of backgroud info on Snooki. I don't watch the show so I might have to go back and review some of the episodes and see what everyone was talking about. I think there is definately a lot of information on her because she is a new star and there is going to be a lot of info and history coming out about her. Also, it was really helpful to hear some of my classmates views on her coming to campus. I will probably end up using some of this information in my paper, primary research. I can also use my personal experience from the event.
Reflection 1.3
I personally enjoyed writing this paper. I wasn't expecting to really enjoy GWRTC because it's a gen ed and I'm not very into writing, but this paper really opened my eyes to writing and I enjoy it more then I thought I would. In previous writing classes that I've taken we wern't given a lot of time to write our papers and then we only had one due date, no revisions or time for outside help. So, I think thats one reason that I enjoyed this paper so much, because I was able to submit one draft and then work with it, get some feedback, and then have another draft. I felt like I could really work with my writing and think about it a lot more. Also, JMU makes a lot of resources available to the students. I was able to use the writing center to my advantage and also talk to other students about my writing process.
I'm really proud of this final draft of my paper. If you ask my roommate she'll tell you that as I was writing I was really excited about how I just "owned" the author and called him out on a lot of his points. She kept telling me to stop using the word "owned" because I sounded stupid and like I really hated this guy, but really I was just happy that my main points were all coming together and I was proud of my work.
I'm looking forward to the next paper and I can't wait to see where my writing will take me.
I'm really proud of this final draft of my paper. If you ask my roommate she'll tell you that as I was writing I was really excited about how I just "owned" the author and called him out on a lot of his points. She kept telling me to stop using the word "owned" because I sounded stupid and like I really hated this guy, but really I was just happy that my main points were all coming together and I was proud of my work.
I'm looking forward to the next paper and I can't wait to see where my writing will take me.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Essay 1.3
Saving Children’s Futures One Test at a Time
Dear Mr. Carlos Mariani,
High school systems expect a lot of their students, but without high expectations, what would be driving the majority of students to perform on a high academic level? High schools across the country are enforcing standardized tests in order to receive your diploma. This is leaving many students frustrated and stressed and their parents outraged. There are a multitude of debates published on this issue, but I will focus is on your editorial, “Opposing View: Keep Students’ Dreams Alive”, published in the USA Today on February 1st of this year. As a Minnesota politician and member of the Minnesota House of Representatives you should want what’s best from your public school students, but you have taken the stance that making high school students pass such tests is outrageous. You’re writing to appeal to the average American that was held to these standards and you’re trying to gain their support in your attempt to not “water down [the] standards,” but to make passing the tests more achievable. However, I believe that high school assessments should be used to evaluate students’ academic capabilities upon graduation to ensure that the student will be successful after commencement. Any attempt to lessen the standard to which students are held is offensive to the scholar.
From personal experience I believe these tests are highly passable. Each state has the liberty to use the test of their choice but many, 34 to be exact (Achieve 4), are in the process of adopting HSAs to evaluate their students’ academic capabilities before they graduate. If this many state-wide school systems can enforce this sort of test with an 87%-95% passing rate (WCBE 3), then why would any school system alter the test to make it “achievable” when the majority of students are already successful? Some students just need to understand that they’re in school for a reason, to get an education, and they need to step up their game whether they like it or not. Any student that is an engaged academic learner would have no problem passing these exams.
I agree with you that “A high school diploma is a requirement for success in adulthood” (Mariani par 7), but how can we trust those diplomas without first assessing the graduates on basic education skills needed for survival in the “real world”. We live in a world that is growing and will not stop because educators in America aren’t teaching their students what they need in order to pass straightforward high school assessments. In our grandparents’ school days they were lucky to finish high school, and that was acceptable because many had to go into the workforce to support their families. However, in today’s world if you don’t have at least a high school diploma there are limited jobs available to you. So it is more important now than ever that high school students be given a strong background in at least English and math so they can excel in college and the workforce. The U.S. Department of Education found “for [students] who go straight from high school into the workforce, some 60% of employers rate the graduates' English and math skills as fair or poor” (Bryant par 5). There is no reason for this high percentage of incompetent workers. There is a highly accessible public school system for a reason. It was developed to give every child the chance of having a good basic knowledge in subjects that they will continue to use for the rest of their life.
Therefore, the “No Child Left Behind act” (ED) was passed by the Bush administration in 2002 to help high school students across the nation be adequately prepared when they exit secondary school. This issue is obviously a concern in our world today and is so deserving of our attention that in a February 22 press release in the L.A. Times said that “Obama [is challenging] states to come up with standards and measurements that would better prepare public school children for college and careers” (Parsons par 6). Clearly this problem has stayed the same since 2002, if not escaladed, and is now prompting additional attention from the Obama administration. It’s apparent that without skills in English and math students are unable to communicate efficiently and perform basic calculations. These tests are only mediums of communication to prove to the school system that students are able to be successful after school. Educators need a way to be sure that their graduates are going to flourish post graduation, and assessments are the best way to prove that. States don’t want to send an undereducated student into the workforce only to have them fail because they were unable to have an intelligent conversation with a customer or employer.
Here at James Madison University academic assessment sites have rated JMU’s undergraduate program in business number 35 nationally (BusinessWeek), best value for your money in the nation (Forbes), and one of the best masters-level universities in the South (U.S. News and World Report). The way we get these reputations and honors is because the school is determined and successful in preparing the student body for professional jobs during school and after graduation. The school board puts students though general education courses and rigorous testing to ensure that their graduates will be successful.
High schools should take the same pride in their academic guidelines. You said that “Because we wanted to keep the education dreams of our students alive … we chose to delay the requirement of a high-stakes math test” (Mariani, par 3). What student’s “dreams” are going to be satisfying if they don’t properly pass through high school assessments and truly earn their high school diploma? Schools shouldn’t just pass students because it’s the “normal” thing to do. Recent high school graduation rates and research conducted by the U.S. Department of Education have shown that “even though the number of kids getting a high school diploma has climbed to 75%, close to half take remedial classes in math, writing, or reading when they get to college, [and] half drop out” (Bryant par 3). High schools that don’t enforce these tests don’t have any fair and standardized way of ensuring their students are ready for the real world. Students that are just being passed on from grade-to-grade have to pay large amounts of money to go to college and obtain the skills they should have learned in high school; and many of them never make it to their college graduation because they are so far behind from the start. State schools should take pride in the fact that they only pass students that are ready for more extensive education, not just advance students to get higher graduation rates.
For most of my academic career I was in private school. Sophomore year I made the switch to a public school education only to learn that I was already 2 years behind all of my peers in the field of High School Assessments. It was up to me to now pass a test in Algebra I and English I, commonly taken by students after their 8th grade year, Government, taken in 9th grade, and Biology, taken sophomore year. When tests were offered that spring I was able to take and pass all of my required assessments. These evaluations were extremely realistic and highly passable. Teachers really stressed information that was going to be on these exams and they made sure to adequately prepare students for these tests. I personally ended up taking my government class junior year and my teacher made us extremely aware of the specific aspects of the U.S. government that would be on the HSA and he structured his individual tests to resemble the government administered exam so we would be familiar with the HSA format. Teachers are advised on how to prepare students for these tests. They know every student has to take the assessments and they set you up for success. Educators want you to succeed in high school and beyond so, they are going to do all they can to prepare students for these tests and guarantee that they walk at their high school graduation.
However, if a student was unable to pass a test, they were registered, by the school, to take an HSA preparatory course that was built into their regular day school schedule. Then the student was given as many tries as needed to pass the HSA. However, in some cases there was a second option, the Bridge Plan, which can replace the tests for special needs circumstances. Most students take these tests in plenty of time to pass them and the Bridge Plan isn’t necessary. Ultimately the school systems set students up for success in high school and beyond in whatever path they choose.
There are endless advantages to testing students on their skills needed for advancement in the working world and higher education. The problem faced now is how to make these tests passable for students that actually possess these skills and challenging for those that don’t have adequate knowledge in the areas tested. You bring up the point that there are multiple students in your school system that were exceptional students but were unable to pass these tests and were therefore ineligible to graduate. The test which you are describing is one specific test used in Minnesota last year. You stated that these tests were causing much controversy and therefore they were retracted and pushed back until 2014 when the board of education could hopefully come up with a more practical test.
However, if each state that choose to give tests would just adopt the HSA standardized test then the majority of their problems would be resolved. In Maryland the Board of Education found that 9 out of 10 students that were required to pass the HSA in order to graduate did so successfully (Achieve 3). They found that when students are obligated to meet these demands by graduation they were successful. The Board of Education proposed that high success rates were attained because of the reinforcement, classes offered, and the opportunity to earn graduation status if you got a 1602 combined on all your tests vs. getting passing scores on each individual test. With these high passing rates and growing popularity there are few reasons to want to design a completely new test that has proven to be too challenging when the HSA is proven effective and already in use across the nation.
As an academically driven student I can personally say that tests are ordinarily a pain and frowned upon, but an exam like the HSA is extremely important. If the HSA can help locate and define one student unable to be successful in basic educational skills then I would say it’s worth it. That test may have just saved one high school adolescent’s career. By alerting the school system that that child wasn’t ready to move into higher education or the workforce the school was able to help the student in the areas that needed to be addressed. After receiving the help they needed and passing a simple test they’ve shown themselves and the school board that they are ready for the real world. They will be able to succeed in the path that they choose because they were able to get the help they needed. That one test that seemed like such a burden saved them time, money, resources, and embarrassment.
High school assessments are always going to be followed by controversy due to rare and individual cases, but they are the answer to general student body assessment problems. HSAs need to be implemented into all U.S. school systems to ensure that educators are producing successful, academically competitive students who are going to be able to communicate, plan, and act efficiently. Nothing is more valuable than a solid education, and to ensure this vision for all high school graduates I say assessments are unavoidable and necessary.
Achieve. Achieve. January 2010. Board of Education. Web. 5 February 2010.
Bryant, Web. “Our view on education: To boost graduation rates, states water down standards.” USA Today. 1 February 2010. Web. 5 February 2010.
ED.gov. ED. February 2010. United States Department of Education. 5 February 2010.
Mariani, Carlos. “Keep students’ dreams alive.” USA Today. 1 February 2010. Web. 5 February 2010.
Parsons, Christi. “Obama to Announce New Effort to Improve No Child Left Behind.” Los Angeles Times. 22 February 2010. Web. 24 February 2010.
Washington County Board of Education. “High School Assessments: Analysis of Implementation.” 20 March 2007. Web. 5 February 2010.
Dear Mr. Carlos Mariani,
High school systems expect a lot of their students, but without high expectations, what would be driving the majority of students to perform on a high academic level? High schools across the country are enforcing standardized tests in order to receive your diploma. This is leaving many students frustrated and stressed and their parents outraged. There are a multitude of debates published on this issue, but I will focus is on your editorial, “Opposing View: Keep Students’ Dreams Alive”, published in the USA Today on February 1st of this year. As a Minnesota politician and member of the Minnesota House of Representatives you should want what’s best from your public school students, but you have taken the stance that making high school students pass such tests is outrageous. You’re writing to appeal to the average American that was held to these standards and you’re trying to gain their support in your attempt to not “water down [the] standards,” but to make passing the tests more achievable. However, I believe that high school assessments should be used to evaluate students’ academic capabilities upon graduation to ensure that the student will be successful after commencement. Any attempt to lessen the standard to which students are held is offensive to the scholar.
From personal experience I believe these tests are highly passable. Each state has the liberty to use the test of their choice but many, 34 to be exact (Achieve 4), are in the process of adopting HSAs to evaluate their students’ academic capabilities before they graduate. If this many state-wide school systems can enforce this sort of test with an 87%-95% passing rate (WCBE 3), then why would any school system alter the test to make it “achievable” when the majority of students are already successful? Some students just need to understand that they’re in school for a reason, to get an education, and they need to step up their game whether they like it or not. Any student that is an engaged academic learner would have no problem passing these exams.
I agree with you that “A high school diploma is a requirement for success in adulthood” (Mariani par 7), but how can we trust those diplomas without first assessing the graduates on basic education skills needed for survival in the “real world”. We live in a world that is growing and will not stop because educators in America aren’t teaching their students what they need in order to pass straightforward high school assessments. In our grandparents’ school days they were lucky to finish high school, and that was acceptable because many had to go into the workforce to support their families. However, in today’s world if you don’t have at least a high school diploma there are limited jobs available to you. So it is more important now than ever that high school students be given a strong background in at least English and math so they can excel in college and the workforce. The U.S. Department of Education found “for [students] who go straight from high school into the workforce, some 60% of employers rate the graduates' English and math skills as fair or poor” (Bryant par 5). There is no reason for this high percentage of incompetent workers. There is a highly accessible public school system for a reason. It was developed to give every child the chance of having a good basic knowledge in subjects that they will continue to use for the rest of their life.
Therefore, the “No Child Left Behind act” (ED) was passed by the Bush administration in 2002 to help high school students across the nation be adequately prepared when they exit secondary school. This issue is obviously a concern in our world today and is so deserving of our attention that in a February 22 press release in the L.A. Times said that “Obama [is challenging] states to come up with standards and measurements that would better prepare public school children for college and careers” (Parsons par 6). Clearly this problem has stayed the same since 2002, if not escaladed, and is now prompting additional attention from the Obama administration. It’s apparent that without skills in English and math students are unable to communicate efficiently and perform basic calculations. These tests are only mediums of communication to prove to the school system that students are able to be successful after school. Educators need a way to be sure that their graduates are going to flourish post graduation, and assessments are the best way to prove that. States don’t want to send an undereducated student into the workforce only to have them fail because they were unable to have an intelligent conversation with a customer or employer.
Here at James Madison University academic assessment sites have rated JMU’s undergraduate program in business number 35 nationally (BusinessWeek), best value for your money in the nation (Forbes), and one of the best masters-level universities in the South (U.S. News and World Report). The way we get these reputations and honors is because the school is determined and successful in preparing the student body for professional jobs during school and after graduation. The school board puts students though general education courses and rigorous testing to ensure that their graduates will be successful.
High schools should take the same pride in their academic guidelines. You said that “Because we wanted to keep the education dreams of our students alive … we chose to delay the requirement of a high-stakes math test” (Mariani, par 3). What student’s “dreams” are going to be satisfying if they don’t properly pass through high school assessments and truly earn their high school diploma? Schools shouldn’t just pass students because it’s the “normal” thing to do. Recent high school graduation rates and research conducted by the U.S. Department of Education have shown that “even though the number of kids getting a high school diploma has climbed to 75%, close to half take remedial classes in math, writing, or reading when they get to college, [and] half drop out” (Bryant par 3). High schools that don’t enforce these tests don’t have any fair and standardized way of ensuring their students are ready for the real world. Students that are just being passed on from grade-to-grade have to pay large amounts of money to go to college and obtain the skills they should have learned in high school; and many of them never make it to their college graduation because they are so far behind from the start. State schools should take pride in the fact that they only pass students that are ready for more extensive education, not just advance students to get higher graduation rates.
For most of my academic career I was in private school. Sophomore year I made the switch to a public school education only to learn that I was already 2 years behind all of my peers in the field of High School Assessments. It was up to me to now pass a test in Algebra I and English I, commonly taken by students after their 8th grade year, Government, taken in 9th grade, and Biology, taken sophomore year. When tests were offered that spring I was able to take and pass all of my required assessments. These evaluations were extremely realistic and highly passable. Teachers really stressed information that was going to be on these exams and they made sure to adequately prepare students for these tests. I personally ended up taking my government class junior year and my teacher made us extremely aware of the specific aspects of the U.S. government that would be on the HSA and he structured his individual tests to resemble the government administered exam so we would be familiar with the HSA format. Teachers are advised on how to prepare students for these tests. They know every student has to take the assessments and they set you up for success. Educators want you to succeed in high school and beyond so, they are going to do all they can to prepare students for these tests and guarantee that they walk at their high school graduation.
However, if a student was unable to pass a test, they were registered, by the school, to take an HSA preparatory course that was built into their regular day school schedule. Then the student was given as many tries as needed to pass the HSA. However, in some cases there was a second option, the Bridge Plan, which can replace the tests for special needs circumstances. Most students take these tests in plenty of time to pass them and the Bridge Plan isn’t necessary. Ultimately the school systems set students up for success in high school and beyond in whatever path they choose.
There are endless advantages to testing students on their skills needed for advancement in the working world and higher education. The problem faced now is how to make these tests passable for students that actually possess these skills and challenging for those that don’t have adequate knowledge in the areas tested. You bring up the point that there are multiple students in your school system that were exceptional students but were unable to pass these tests and were therefore ineligible to graduate. The test which you are describing is one specific test used in Minnesota last year. You stated that these tests were causing much controversy and therefore they were retracted and pushed back until 2014 when the board of education could hopefully come up with a more practical test.
However, if each state that choose to give tests would just adopt the HSA standardized test then the majority of their problems would be resolved. In Maryland the Board of Education found that 9 out of 10 students that were required to pass the HSA in order to graduate did so successfully (Achieve 3). They found that when students are obligated to meet these demands by graduation they were successful. The Board of Education proposed that high success rates were attained because of the reinforcement, classes offered, and the opportunity to earn graduation status if you got a 1602 combined on all your tests vs. getting passing scores on each individual test. With these high passing rates and growing popularity there are few reasons to want to design a completely new test that has proven to be too challenging when the HSA is proven effective and already in use across the nation.
As an academically driven student I can personally say that tests are ordinarily a pain and frowned upon, but an exam like the HSA is extremely important. If the HSA can help locate and define one student unable to be successful in basic educational skills then I would say it’s worth it. That test may have just saved one high school adolescent’s career. By alerting the school system that that child wasn’t ready to move into higher education or the workforce the school was able to help the student in the areas that needed to be addressed. After receiving the help they needed and passing a simple test they’ve shown themselves and the school board that they are ready for the real world. They will be able to succeed in the path that they choose because they were able to get the help they needed. That one test that seemed like such a burden saved them time, money, resources, and embarrassment.
High school assessments are always going to be followed by controversy due to rare and individual cases, but they are the answer to general student body assessment problems. HSAs need to be implemented into all U.S. school systems to ensure that educators are producing successful, academically competitive students who are going to be able to communicate, plan, and act efficiently. Nothing is more valuable than a solid education, and to ensure this vision for all high school graduates I say assessments are unavoidable and necessary.
Achieve. Achieve. January 2010. Board of Education. Web. 5 February 2010.
Bryant, Web. “Our view on education: To boost graduation rates, states water down standards.” USA Today. 1 February 2010. Web. 5 February 2010.
ED.gov. ED. February 2010. United States Department of Education. 5 February 2010.
Mariani, Carlos. “Keep students’ dreams alive.” USA Today. 1 February 2010. Web. 5 February 2010.
Parsons, Christi. “Obama to Announce New Effort to Improve No Child Left Behind.” Los Angeles Times. 22 February 2010. Web. 24 February 2010.
Washington County Board of Education. “High School Assessments: Analysis of Implementation.” 20 March 2007. Web. 5 February 2010.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)