Employment and its effects on high school and college students’ grade point averages Essay

Many students, parents, and educators bring in been seek the so-called Holy Grail of learning for many decades. One question that has arisen out of this learning position is that of student employment? Many wonder if working a part-time job will tinct a students grades, and if so, how much? The answer to this seemingly simply question, however, is to a greater extent complex. A transition of factors must be considered when deciding if and to what extent a students grades are falled by his or her employment status.In recent years, the c erstwhilept of the full-time student seems to be disappearing. From intimately maturate sixteen, an everyplacewhelming majority of students, both heights naturalise and college, work while they attend school. This average is about 85% for almost college students (Bradley, 2006). However, high costs everything from apparel to tuition drives these workers into their part-time jobs which are generally sell and service related businesses for a n average of fifteen hours per week (Bradley, 2006).Generally, most studies do identify some differences in donnish performance and attitude, but these differences are non as great as people once whitethorn have believed. Generally, studies find very few basic differences between working and non-working students, especially in college. However, the intensity of the job and the number of hours worked did seem to affect schoolman performance in many students at the high school level.Generally longer hours meant more stressors on the individual and had a negative affect on their grades, which translates into about a half of a grade point average(GPA) point lower than non working students or students who work only a few hours, perhaps on the weekends (Weller et al, 2003). Oettinger (1999) also embed this to be true, and noted that minority students tended to be more affected by the GPA drop than uninfected students. He noted his drop in GPA to be about . 20 points and to be most o bvious in students working more than twenty hours per week.These studies corroborates a convey done nearly 12 years earlier in which the researchers make up, similarly, that students who put in longer hours at their jobs suffered lower grades, higher absenteeism, and slight interest in school in general which was seen in negative behaviors while in school (Perils of Part-time Work for Teens, 1991). At the college level, these differences were less noticeable. Ironically, Bradley (2006) found that the grade point averages were highest for students who did not work AND for students who worked more than twenty hours per week.This seems to contradict the research done on high school students, suggesting that maturity and attitude may also play a part in the employment/grades debate. Research has also been conducted on academic attitude and perception as they relate to grades. In high school, students who worked longer hours did not seem to have much distress about their grades as a result of the employment Those who had jobs displayed no advantage over the others in self-reliance, self-esteem or attitude toward work (Perils of Part-time Work for Teens, 1991).In addition, students who worked unconstipated seemed to root word less school stress, possible because they had less interest in school, as mentioned above. Moreover, researchers explain this more temporal attitude toward schools by the findings that students who worked were more likely to report avoiding difficult classing, cheating on exams, and copying formulation from friends (Weller et al, 2003 Perils of Part-time Work for Teens, 1991). This was not the case for university students.In college, students who worked perceived that their employment DID affect their grades even when the researchers found little or no interest in grades between non-workers and workers at the college level. Both working and non-working college students showed a high level of interest in their grades and expressed an ov erall desire to achieve a high level of academic performance. Students who did not work stated that did not do so in give to focus on their studies, and they believed that their studies benefited from this extra time.Again, though, the studies showed no difference in the GPAs of working and non-working college students (Bradley, 2006). Instead many researchers mull over how college students who work so many hours are able to observe similar GPAs to those that do not work. Bradley (2006) suggests that nonworking students may be spending similar time with other activities such as sports, extracurricular clubs, or even caring for dependents at home. He also proposes that the non-working students and the working students may be approaching homework and study in disparate ways.He notes that non-working students may be most likely to adopt a slurred learning style, characterized by intrinsic interest in the subject content and a desire to increase understanding of this content and t hat working students may be more likely to adopt an achieving style aimed at maximizing grades through the effective use of space and time. These learned differences could certainly account for the way different students juggle the demands of work.It is certainly helpful to note when employment can be an effect socialization cock aimed at building strong character and organizational skills and when it can be a definite academic detriment. Research shows that more differences exist for high school students than for college students, and that the majority of the college differences exist only in perception, not in actuality. This gives rise to the possibility of further research which could focus on the characteristics of working students who do keep their GPAs high.