Effect of Work Hours, Homework, and Brothers on High School GPA
Academic performance in high school is the ticket to enter the most prestigious universities. A grade point average (GPA) enables a student to get accepted in his or her chosen university and may also hinder such student to obtain a college degree and a decent occupation. It is important to bank on a good academic performance while still in high school since a student’s reputation may also depend on his or her scholastic achievements. For this particular study, there will be a determination of factors that may affect the academic performance of students and the people and environment can influence their GPAs. For this study, the focus is on the relationship between GPA and work hours, homework, and the number of siblings that a student has, and other possible factors.
Work Hours
There are some students who work on part-time jobs while attending high school. The report of Singh et al. (2007) showed that there is a minimal effect between work and the students’ academic achievement in high school. Some of the factors that can influence the students’ academic performance are motivation, participation in extra-curricular activities in school, socioeconomic status, and parental involvement (Singh et al., 2007). The weekly number of hours worked may bear a significant effect on the student’s performance (Kalenkowski & Pabilonia, 2011).
A student who worked up to 13 hours per week showed an increase in the GPA. For those students who work beyond 13 hours in a week received lowered GPA. While working 15 hours raises the possibility of high school students’ dropping out of school (Kalenkowski & Pabilonia, 2011). Other studies show no relationship between part-time work and GPA for high school seniors, however for high school juniors, GPA dropped slightly for those who worked part-time (Singh et al., 2007).
The main reason why there is a significant drop in the GPA of the student is lack of time to study. Thus, working and student achievement have a direct relationship since it was shown that students who work part-time are less engaged with school activities, than those students who do not work at all. To avoid the lowering of GPA, it was suggested that students should lessen the amount of hours worked, particularly if it exceeds 20 hours in a week (Sing, et al.,2007; Kalenkowski & Pabilonia, 2011). Other factors that can decrease the GPA is lack of sleeping time since can affect school performance. This can result to lesser time students to do their homework, which can result to poor academic performance. The more time spent working will prevent the students to use the computer, which has been proven to have increase academic achievement (Kalenkowski & Pabilonia, 2011). However, valuable work experience earned by high school students bears a positive effect on their future employment. There is a positive correlation between working part-time, and graduation of the student, and the subsequent employment thereafter (NSTTAC, 2011).
Homework
The value of homework to student achievement led to conflicting conclusions where some studies show a positive correlation, while others show a negative correlation, and some are inconclusive (Center for Public Education, 2007). While it has been perceived by society that homework carried the effect of causing too much stress for students, there are other research studies that confirm a positive relationship between homework and academic achievement since it can improve the learning life skills and responsibility to increasing motivation and time- management skills (McMullen, 2007; Center for Public Education, 2007).
As greater time is spent by the students on homework, there is a greater probability that it may result to higher test scores due to a latent variable (Center for Public Education, 2007). By increasing the amount of time students doing homework and the volume of homework can increase the students’ GPA and improve their academic achievement (McMullen, 2007). Other possible factors of higher student performance are the number of students inside the class room and increases in the salary of the faculty salary. For some low-performing students, increasing the volume of homework will help improve the academic performance, and is a cost efficient approach at the same time (McMullen, 2007).
Brothers/Siblings
The studies show that having older siblings have positive effects younger siblings’ academic achievement; but having several younger siblings bears no effect on older siblings. During adolescence, the older siblings serve as a model, both positive and negative, for younger siblings (Dagys Pajoluk, 2013). The rationale behind this is the social learning theory which explains that learning is achieved through observation of the younger siblings.
For this particular case, another factor that was analyzed is the number of brother that a student has that may affect his or her GPA. It was shown that the if a student has a brother who is a good role model and achiever in school, it is highly probable that the younger sibling will imitate such behavior of the older brother and exert effort to achieve academic excellence. Thus, having an older brother influences the younger siblings to do better in school. In effect, it is one factor that can increase the GPA (Nicoletti and Rabe, 2014).
Other aspects of the sibling relationship can also affect the academic performance of the younger siblings based on sibling intimacy, support for academic plans, social and emotional support (Dagys Pajoluk, 2013).
Results
The data sampling was taken from Beyond High School from the years 2000 to 2010. Beyond High School Project (UW-BHS) was sponsored by University of Washington and in this study, three of high schools among the 16 lowest income in Washington State had been chosen ().Using survey to gather data, a total number of 9652 survey forms were distributed. The response rate was about 70% of all the survey forms distributed using the project website and manual codebook. The unit of analysis of individual will be the answers provided by each student.
For the analysis of variables, the multiple regression analysis will be used to test hypothesis that was derived from each research question. The purpose of using the multiple regression approach is to be able to learn more about the relationship that arise using independent or predictor variables, as well as a dependent or criterion variable (Hirschma & Almgren, 2000). For this particular study, the results show that the work hours and the number of siblings has a negative effect on the GPA of high school students. However, the volume of homework and the time spent working on these homework can enhance the GPA of high school students.
In the scatterplot using least squares, this particular study shall use an independent or X variable, and a dependent or Y variable. In this specific case, these variables represent the factors affecting the GPA such as work hours, homework and siblings which shall be measured using the survey data; and the other variable is the school achievement of the student or the Grade Point Average (GPA) (Hirschma & Almgren, 2000). Each point in the plot shall represent one student, pertaining to the effect of work hours, homework and siblings and GPA. The objective of linear regression procedures is to fit a line through the points, wherein the program shall compute a line in order that the squared deviations of the observed points from such line will be reduced. Such general procedure is known as the least squares estimation.
The results revealed that the work hours and the number of siblings/brothers has a negative effect on the GPA of high school students. The lack of time to study caused by the part-time work of the students lowers the GPA. This conclusion was validated based on the original data that was derived from the three high schools that are among the 16 low-income schools in Washington. The original data that was derived from the three poor districts showed that only 17 percent of the students working part-time represent the age group of at least 18 years, as the minimum age requirement for a working student. Some of the part-time jobs performed by these students are baby-sitting for a family members and friends. In effect, some of the students who are working have the tendency to have low GPA for lack of time to study. However, the amount of homework may enhance the GPA of high school students.
Other questions that were included in the survey deal a broad range of questions that covers family background, educational plans, acts of encouragement from the teachers, friends and family members, and standard scales to be able to see the effect of self-esteem, self-efficacy, and other social psychological dimensions that may increase or decrease the GPA
(Hirschma & Almgren, 2000).
References:
Anderson, E. S., & Keith, T. Z. (1997). A longitudinal test of a model of academic success for at-risk high school students. Journal of Educational Research, 90(5), 259.
Center for Public Education. (2007). What research says about the value of homework: Research review. Retrieved from http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org/Main-Menu/Instruction/What-research-says-about-the-value-of-homework-At-a-glance/What-research-says-about-the-value-of-homework-Research-review.html
Dagys Pajoluk, N. (2013). Sibling relationship predictors of academic achievement in adolescents. UC Berkeley: Education. Retrieved from http://escholarship.org/uc/item/8db6b27b
Hirschman,C& Almgren,G.(2000). Beyond High School Project . Retrieved from https://depts.washington.edu/uwbhs/project.shtml
Kalenkoski, C.M. & Pabilonia, S.W. (2011) Time to work or time to play: The effect of student employment on homework, sleep, and screen time. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved from http://www.bls.gov/ore/pdf/ec110080.pdf
McMullen, S. (2007). The impact of homework time on academic achievement. Retrieved from https://www.unc.edu/courses/2007fall/econ/994/040/2007fall/mcmullen.pdf
National Secondary Transition Technical Assistance Center (NSTTAC). (2011). Predictors of In-School and Post-School Success. Retrieved from http://www.azed.gov/special-education/files/2014/05/f1.7-predictors.pdf
Nicoletti, C. & Rabe, B. (2014). Sibling spillover effects in school achievement. Institute for Social & Economic Research. Retrieved from http://ftp.iza.org/dp8615.pdf
Singh, K., Chang, M., & Dika, S. (2007). Effects of part-time work on school achievement during high school. Journal of Educational Research, 101(1), 12-22. doi:10.3200/JOER.101.1.12-23
