Entry Two - Counter Argument

Part one

After I researched the counter argument, I found that there was note very much information on career academies at all. Because of my conference, I was able to switch my topic to Alternative education options. This was a very big change, not only because it broadened my topic, making it easier to find information, and shape my paper into something more sectional, but it also made it much easier to research. Because there are so many alternative options, I have to choose which ones I would like to explore. These may include, but are not limited to: Running start, CEO, career academies, alternative high schools, schools for the visual and performing arts, boarding schools, charter schools, home school systems, and technical training programs. 

Because I have so many options, I can choose to graze over many of them, or go in depth for a few of them. No matter what, I have more options to explore than I did before I wrote my counter argument.

My point for my counter argument is that teenagers already have high school available to them, so it does not make sense that we spend money on programs for these students. It is a very valid point. High school students already have an education opportunity available to them, but high school is not something that works for everyone. The majority of students that go through high school have struggles. Only around 75 percent of students in the united states graduated high school in 2008. There is obviously some gap in the education system, and we need to figure out how to plug this hole.

Part two

I got an article titled “Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges” on Ebscohost, a database available at Bellevue College. This was written by the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges. This board is made up of nine people selected by the governor to provide leadership and coordination for Washington state’s community and technical colleges. In this report, the board explains the statistics provided for Running Start students. All 34 community and technical colleges in Washington state offer Running Start. The percentage of high school students that take advantage of this opportunity is 10%. On average, students involved in Running Start that went to the University of Washington earned a higher GPA than students who didn’t participate in Running Start.

This raised many questions for me. I am wondering if it is a good idea to just focus on Washington state in my paper, because that’s the only state I could find information on for Running Start. The CEO program is also only offered in Washington state too. I wouldn’t be able to use my information on career academies, but because there isn’t a lot of information on them anyway, it wouldn’t completely hinder me.

Entry One - Reflections

My three pieces were the first free-write we had to do in class, 7 steps, and my counter argument essay. These three, in order, have shaped my topic and have made big changes in what will be my quarter-end final paper.

In our first free-wright was a response to a few different prompts. The reason this free-wright was significant to me is because of the second and third promts. The assignment was to write about something that upset us, and then list communities that we consider ourselves a part of. I wrote about how I was upset with the transfer requirements and lack of support San Diego State University has for out of state students. At the time, this really bothered me. Through this, and thinking about college, all of my communities had to do with education. I was a college student, a high school graduate, involved in the CEO program at Bellevue College, and a Running Start Student.

Being someone who had a very hard time getting through high school, I have had a hard time planning for college. This has made it harder for me to get into SDSU than most other students, and it was upsetting me. This gave me a really good idea for my topic. I wished that I had a school to go to that basically taught me how to become what I wanted to be. This got me onto the idea of schools that specialize in specific subject areas. Examples would be a school for the arts, a journalism school, a school that specializes in doctoral sciences, etc. 

My second piece would be our ‘7-steps’ assignment. In this assignment, we were supposed to follow 7 steps to begin our research on our topics. “the term ‘Career Academies’ is more specific than the words that I had in mind”. Through these steps, I discovered the term career academies. It wasn’t exactly what I had in mind, but it was really interesting to me, and I thought I would explore the idea of vocational training. Career academies have agreements with local business and offer high school students jobs right after they graduate.

But this didn’t have a lot of information. 

Our most recent paper was a counter argument, where we have to take the opposing side of our argument, or a different perspective. 

Through this paper, mixed with the conference that I had with my instructor made me change my topic. Now, I have found the topic I really want to do. I am going to be an advocate for alternative education options for teenagers who don’t fit in with the ‘one size fits all’ mindset offered by most high schools. I want to help those that were like me: at-risk youth.