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Workshopping Memo:

For our workshopping in class, one other person proofed read and commented on my
paper. I found most of his suggestions to be very helpful and took them into account when
revising my paper. Another set of eyes helped me correct several tone errors and minor flaws
that slipped my mind during the first few times of reading. This exercise was very good in terms
of determining what errors were in my paper and where they took place. I have never done
workshops like this before I entered this class, and I can say that I wish I had. I was delightfully
surprised at the great feedback I was given, and generally love having people provide extra
insight to my paper

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Grant Hughes
Ms. Laura Knudson
UWRT 1103-004
9 November 2016

Research Question: Is high school about learning or making a good grade?

Field, Patrick R. The Influence of Research-Based High School Science Programs on

Undergraduate Students: Do High School Programs Prepare Students for Undergraduate
Assignments? Journal of College Science Teaching, vol. 32, no. 2, 2002, pp. 109113.

In this scientific journal by Patrick R. Field, the author discusses the normal coursework
given by high schools. He also includes the percentages in which you would expect the work
given to prepare that student for the typical college workload. The author believes that certain
programs, the Grant-In-Aid program (GIA) sponsored by the New Jersey Academy of Science a
specific example, can help to further prepare students interested in science majors for the
coursework expected of them in college. To support his hunch, Field discusses GIA and similar
programs while giving survey results and statistics to back his claim. He starts his article by
describing key values that comprise a good scientist, and then lays out how these programs can
instill these values in kids from a younger age. Field does this while also contrasting student
performance of those who do not have access to this program. A great example given in the
article is that a survey of past participants in this program pursued a major related to their studies
at the rate of 73.5 percent. Field concludes with statements and statistics covering the success of

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programs like GIA, and comparing them with the preparedness of similar students have not taken
taking a program such as this. Field states his desire that an increased amount of programs and
interest related schooling should be available for more high school kids, and suggests that more
should be implemented.
This piece was a scholarly article that I was able to obtain on Google Scholar by
searching several key words related to my proposal. I discovered this article to be very well
researched and supported by facts, something I expected from a man with a Ph.D. in both
Anatomical Sciences and Neuroscience. I found Field to be an incredibly reliable and persuasive
writer, but his positive bias towards these programs could be felt at several points. He presented
his argument and information in what is typically expected of scholarly articles, with a summary
at the beginning and a systematic breakdown of the summarized points as the article progresses. I
was very happy to find this source as it pertained to my topic and was written with a high
pedigree; as I read the piece, I found the statistics it used to be potentially helpful for the rest of
my inquiry project.

Geiser, Saul, and Maria Veronica Santelices. "VALIDITY OF HIGH-SCHOOL GRADES IN

PREDICTING STUDENT SUCCESS BEYOND THE FRESHMAN YEAR: HighSchool Record vs. Standardized Tests as Indicators of Four-Year College Outcomes."
Center for Studies in Higher Education, 2007. Web. 1 Nov. 2016

To further support my investigation, I found a research paper written by two California

Berkeley professors in Saul Geiser and Maria Santelices. The article combats the belief that
standardized testing is a better form of predicting college success over high school grade point

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average. The authors believe that common grade point average is a better predictor of success for
students entering college than standardized test scores, stating that test scores are related more
towards a students socioeconomic background. The authors argue that colleges valuing these
test scores are hurting minority groups that may not have the ability to take or prepare for these
exams. With an abstract at the beginning, the authors clearly state their views while summarizing
the points they will cover in the paper. The article has four main sections, with two subsections
for each. At the beginning of each section, the authors overview their arguments and follow
those statements with a surplus of statistics and research to back them. The best statistic the
authors used was from a research study that Geiser performed in 2003, the study showed that
high school GPA was the best four-year predictor of student success for over 80,000 students
admitted into California Berkeley. In the final paragraph, the authors conclude that these college
acceptance tests do have value, but typical high school grade point average offers a fairer and
more accurate predictor into how students will perform in college.
I found this article on Google Scholar by searching several key words related to my topic.
The article was the most unbiased and well researched of all of my sources due to the fact the
research had no ulterior motives behind it. Though I would have preferred the article to perform
research past one university, it can clearly be applied to most high schools and colleges across
the country. Though my inquiry project is focusing directly on how high school grades apply to
college and the real world, the information I learned on testing is something I can use as well.
Both authors are highly educated and have extreme knowledge of the topic in which they are
covering, as well as performing and citing a large sum of further research in addition. I found it
to be well written, easy to read, and very informational as a whole.

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Hyde, John, and Amy Bravo. "Students Think They're Ready For The Real World; Employers,
Not So Much." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 21 Sept. 2015. Web. 05 Nov. 2016.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2015/09/21/students-think-theyre-ready-for-thereal-world-employers-not-so-much/#470151b3e813

This source came from a very reputable website in forbes.com, and was written by two
legitimate writers from the New York Institute of Technology's Office of Career Services in John
Hyde and Amy Bravo. The authors argue that students who exit college with a degree
automatically think they will get a job and will be well prepared to perform that job, but most
employers disagree with these sentiments. In a relatively short article, the authors cover two
main points and write on the changing landscape of what employers look for in future
employees. They explain how employers are no longer basing their hiring on academic
achievements, and how colleges can combat these problems to better prepare their students for
the workforce. A statistic I found particularly interesting was that 70% of college students
believe they have the critical thinking skills to succeed in the workplace, while less than 33% of
college graduates are actually prepared for life in the real world. Another fact I found particularly
fascinating is that less than 2% of employers have grade point average as their top priority in
what they value in an employee. In high school and college, you are continually warned about
how vital it is to keep your GPA up, even though it is not that important in reality. The authors
conclude on a mellow note, stating that colleges need to narrow the gap between what they are
teaching and what employers actually demand in their students.
Though this piece was not a scholarly article by any sorts, I still found it to be very
professional and well written. The authors worked at a college institute for the career services

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branch, so their knowledge on this particular subject would be second to none. The article
presents an opening, two misconceptions revolving around schooling, and a final section on what
colleges can do to fix these problems. There were no glaring holes in this article, as the argument
was rather fair and the authors backed up their work entirely. With this article, just like all my
other sources, I was able to find and glean knowledge of whether grades in high school and
college really matter in the real world after all.

Jacobs, Joanne. "F Is For Valedictorian." Fox News. FOX News Network, 17 Aug. 2003.
Web. 02 Nov. 2016. http://www.foxnews.com/story/2003/08/17/f-is-for-v
aledictorian.html

Joanne Jacobs, an editorial writer, provides me with perhaps my dumbfounding source

and article of all. Published and sponsored by Fox News, Jacobs tracks a young girl who was set
to be the valedictorian at her school but could not even walk at graduation due to the fact she
repeatedly failed her graduation exam. The article covers the story of this girl who was given
good grades for being a good person and not actually earning them. Jacobs begins he article by
briefly discussing the situation as a whole, then further investigates who and what caused her
failure. The most interesting tidbit from this article was that the girl, Bridgette Green, had an A
in Algebra II but could not pass that portion on her final exam. Green pleaded with school staff
to let her take another math class over a gym class to sharpen her skills, but they refused to let
her. This is an example of the arbitrary course requirements students are made to take in high
school, and it is hurting them as a result. In conclusion, the author details how Green plans to
overcome her failure by entering community college and seeing what happens from there.

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The article was clearly written in an investigative and journalistic format, and was posted
in a news story format for Fox. The author, Joanne Jacobs, has a career as a freelance journalist
for major news sites and is a very reputable source. She presents her information as a brief
overview of the situation and then follows it with quotes from school staff and a minor
investigation into the whole situation as well. It would have been nice if Jacobs would have
included some quotes from Green, but it is highly possible that she declined to comment. This
article is perhaps my best source into showing how grades can be based off favoritism and do not
reflect a students intelligence.

Kiester, Edwin. "Secrets of Straight-A Students." Readers Digest. Readers Digest., 23 May
2016. Web. 04 Nov. 2016. http://www.rd.com/advice/parenting/secrets-of-straight-astudents/

This article for Readers Digest by Edwin Kiester depicts how to make good grades in
high school. The purpose of the story is to bring enlightenment to the fact that making good
grades in school is not strictly due to the intelligence of the student. Kiester interviewed two
students who were among the top of their class but also had very rigorous and involved
schedules outside of school; he asked them how they were able to manage all of their tasks with
such great results. After hearing from these students, Kiester finished his opening with a few
quotes from teachers before moving into subsections of suggestions for making good grades.
One of the best points in the whole essay came from a professor of education in Herbert
Walberg, who stated that the top grades do not always go to the smartest students. Walberg
claimed that higher I.Q. students have work come so easily to them early on that they do not pick

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up the key study skills other students have gained by trying. He also states that the intelligent
students suffer for it later in their academic career as a result. Kiester concludes his article with a
subsection about taking good notes, and that proper note taking is a vital skill to performing well
in school.
The article came from Readers Digest, and though this publication does not always
include the most formal writing, I still found this article to be well written and researched.
Kiester is a frequent on Readers Digest, and has a following due to his interesting writing. I
found this article to be very engaging from the beginning with its great opening regarding the
stereotype of the everyday nerd. Overall, the structure was very easy to read and to fully grasp
what he was talking about. Though I highly enjoyed the article overall, it would have been nice
to see more hard statistics and quotes to example how each study tip helps students.

Leal, Fermin. "Survey: Most High School Students Feel Unprepared for College, Careers."
EdSource. EdSource., n.d. Web. 05 Nov. 2016. https://edsource.org/2015/survey-mosthigh-school-students-feel-unprepared-for-college-careers/83752

Straight from a site devoted to student success in EdSource, career reporter Fermin Leals
article covers student opinion on exactly how well they feel their school is serving them. Leals
argument is that schools are not appropriately helping their students get into college and succeed
at the next level, and most students are believing the same thing. Leal uses a student survey
conducted by YouthTruth to present and back his argument. While presenting the survey results
throughout, he also peppers in quotes and suggestions from the executive director of YouthTruth,
Jen Wilka. A survey statistic I found unfortunate was that only 32% of high school students use
counseling for help applying to college. Many schools do not even provide counseling, and the

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others that do kind of brush it under the rug. Leal concludes his article with a quote from Wilka
speaking on the results of her survey, and how she hopes the findings will help schools across the
country better serve their students.
EdSource published this article, and though this website will not get confused for a super
reputable news outlet, they have found their niche as a website dedicated to serving and
enlightening students. The author, Fermin Leal, has been reporting on education for thirteen
years since graduating college with a degree in communications. Leals background on this
subject and experience in reporting make him a very legitimate source. His statistics and polling
make up most of the article in a variety of formats, and he is very clear and concise in his
approach of displaying these facts. I was looking for an easy to read article that displayed student
statistics on how high schools were helping students get into college, and I found one in this
piece.

Parker-Pope, Tara. "School Curriculum Falls Short on Bigger Lessons." The New York Times.
The New York Times, 5 Sept. 2011. Web. 29 Oct. 2016. http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/
2011/09/05/school-curriculum-falls-short-on-bigger-lessons/?_r=0

Tara Parker-Pope, a reporter for The New York Times, decided to tackle the issue of
whether schools are teaching necessary life skills to their students. From the title, the authors
stance on the issue is pretty clear. Parker-Pope believes that schools are not adequately preparing
students for what they will encounter in the real world. She backs her claim with several quotes
and statistics with experts in that field. Over the course of her article, she brings up the
disparities in how schooling does not cohere with parenting. An interesting statement by an

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expert in adolescent medicine states that kids are being made to focus on performance instead of
being praised for their efforts. Kids are terrified of even making a B, and think they are stupid
when they do so. On the other hand, when kids are praised for their effort they believe their
intelligence can be built upon. To conclude her article, Parker-Pope throws in some quotes of
how several mothers try to throw in critical thinking skills while parenting. They view these
skills as one of the most important things to instill in their children.
Coming from The New York Times, one can expect an article to be a good one, and this
piece definitely backed this notion. Parker-Pope is among the most critically appreciated and
well known writers for the newspaper, and wrote for the Wall Street Journal before settling into
her current role. I can see how she achieved her accolades through her work in this article as it
seamlessly glides through quotes and statistics to answer a broad question. She was able to find
experts in professions based on the study of children, and others who have actually raised
children of their own. She did this in order to give their opinions on what is the most important
lesson for these kids to learn. As a whole, her article was easy to read and very informational, a
welcome source for my inquiry project.

Sizer, Theodore R. Horace's Compromise: The Dilemma of the American High School: The First
Report from a Study of High Schools, Co-sponsored by the National Association of
Secondary School Principals and the Commission on Educational Issues of the National
Association of Independent Schools. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1984. Web.

In pursuit of my third scholarly article, I stumbled on a whole book written by Theodore

R. Sizer. Though the book was published 1984, the argument still remains very true to this day.

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Sizer argues that high schools are failing their students in not only their education, but in the real
world as well. He proposed the ideas of smaller classes to create more well educated students,
and wanted rushed classes and mindless tests to reach a premature demise. In 248 pages, Sizer
divides his book into five chapters and subsections for each. He starts with the students before
moving onto the teachers, programs, and structures; all the while highlighting the few things they
do right, and the many places where they fall short. The best examples in the whole book come
from his description of the school system, and how these kids are being hurt through terrible
compromises. Therein lies the whole conclusion of his argument in the pitfalls of education,
these schools are becoming too greedy as the actual education of their students is being placed on
the backburner.
This book was a best-seller and a classic among reformists seeking change. It is one of
the first books to recognize the problems in modern schooling and broadcast them to the general
public. The author and source are as about as credible as they get, as this book was the forefront
into the highlighting of these issues. Though it was written in 1984 and many things have
changed for the better, most of the underlying issues are still prevalent in todays society. For a
quick reader, it would have been nice to see a few pages of statistics and an outline of the major
issues. With this said, this may be the best source I have obtained for finishing out the process of
my inquiry proposal.