Introduction
There are many different extracurricular activities that are been dominated by adolescent youths of the same ethnicity compared to others in public school. There has been an increase in awareness on how children especially those from high school on the way they spend their time when they leave schools and how it affects the children’s development and education. This has caused many people to do researches about the issue. Some of the results found by the researchers are that there are different types of after school activities that students have due to their ethnicity and economic background that end up affecting the performance in schools. The reason for doing this research is so that one can be able to understand and know these various activities.
The researcher will also be able know how the activities affect the student’s performance. The results from the researches that have been conducted have caused the formation of extracurricular activities in schools. This will enable the children to concentrate on those activities rather thinking about things that will affect their lives. In public schools most of the children come from lower class families, therefore, there are many reasons that would cause the children to concentrate on other matters rather than their schoolwork. The research method to be used in this research will be the qualitative research methodology. In looking, through some of the researches that have been conducted. One can be able to get the answers the need for the research to be complete.
Research question
The research question to be used in this research paper will be Why are different types of after school programs/extracurricular activities dominated by a specific ethnic group, and how does it contribute to students’ academic performance?
Literature review
There are many researches that have conducted on this matter. The main reason why these researches have been conducted is so that the government will be alerted in order for them to find solutions that could benefit the children. There are many reasons why the extracurricular activities are been dominated by students. Some of the reasons are because of their race, poverty, social solidarity, teachers influence and peer group influence.
Peer group influence and social solidarity
Caldwell, L. L., &Darling, N. Leisure context, parental control, and resistance to peer pressure as predictors of adolescent partying and substance use: An ecological perspective. Journal of Leisure Research (1999): 57-77.According to the research most of the adolescent age children in high school are sensitive when it comes to their peers. At this age they feel like they are grown ups and are trying to find their own independent identity. This, therefore, makes them want to fit in with a particular kind of group. This causes them to spend more time with friends rather than their parents or family members (Caldwell & Darling 60). Social acceptance for the adolescent is more important to them than their school performance. This is the reason why some children tend to do some certain extracurricular activity because their friends are doing it.
It has been claimed that peer influence has both positive and negative effects on the children (Borden et al. 189). The positive and negative effects will be brought on by the goals the children set out to get in order to get social approval. Some children end being involved in sports activities such as baseball, basketball, lacrosse, netball, soccer, football and swimming. These activities are good for the development of the children. However, there are claims that this sports activities are causing the children not to concentrate on their studies thus causing the drop in their education. Social solidarity is almost the same as peer pressure. This is because the students are influenced by people from the social standings. This is because they want to fit in with the people from the same social standings and environment.
Poverty
According to most researches that have conducted, most public high schools are known for having children who are from middle class families or poor families. The adolescent from this kind of living face a lot of challenges such as health issues, lack of good education, are exposed to neighbourhoods, which are dangerous and are prone to violence (Heng-Chieh & Laurie 593). A survey conducted in 2013, showed that 42 million people a percentage of 13.4% are poor. In the survey, it claims that most of this people have low paying jobs. These youths since they have nothing at home or are helpless always find ways in order to help their families. This is the reason why they always work after leaving school or others drop out of schools in order to work full time and help their siblings and parents.
According to some reports, it states that the men who are in poverty are estimated to be 13.1% (Posner &Vandell 450). The women are stated to be 15.8% (Posner &Vandell 450). The people who are over 65 years of age for men are 6.3% while for women it is 11. 6%. This shows how the people are living in the poverty line together with their children. The estimated people living in poverty are over 45.3 million according to a survey conducted in 2013 in the United States (Carmen & Bernadette). Results show that most adolescent children who are in poverty tend not to participate in the after school activities (Heng-Chieh & Laurie 596). According to most researches conducted, adolescent children from the public schools are more mature and responsible because of the way they live at their homes.
There are some children who are involved in sporting activities or other activities in order they can education. There are some who are involved in educational activities after school like science fare or spelling bee. The reason why they tend to be involved in so many extracurricular activities in schools is that they are trying to get scholarships when they go to colleges. These activities sometimes work out for them but at other times, it destroys their futures because their education performance decline. The reason for the decline is that the youths are more involved with the extracurricular activities that they forget to sturdy for their education. Research claim that the adolescent children who come from the urban area usually face challenges of substance abuse as well as violence in the neighbourhood. The youths from the rural areas are usually faced with isolations from their parents and guardians.
Race
According to most researches, children from public high schools or all schools tend to stick to people of the same ethnicity or race. In schools, it is noticeable that the youths or are Hispanic or Latino stick together as well as blacks, whites and Asians (Borden et al. 203). Even in the modern world, it is still obvious that racism is something that still exists. The truth of the matter is that the African American youths and the Latino continue to go through t a lot due to their ethnicity. According to most researches, the adolescent children who are Hispanic and black are always claimed to be prone to join gangs (Angier).
The reason why this has been stated is because of the number of violence that occur in the poor people neighbourhood. In looking at the statistics, it is very clear that according to most reports the Hispanic and the African American youths in high school come from a background of poor or middle class families. The children always do not have a survey conducted showed the Hispanic and the black population have the highest percentage of people living in poverty (Posner &Vandell 448). The results showed that 39% of the children were African American while 37% were Hispanic (Carmen & Bernadette). Fourteen percent of the results show that of the whites and Asians. The blacks and Hispanic are claimed that they did not spend enough time with their parents due to their busy schedules.
Most of the parents are always working two jobs or more in order to put food in the tables and ensure that the children have clothes on their backs. This is according to the reports that shows that 41% of the poor people work part time jobs thus are able to have more than one job (Carmen & Bernadette). Thirty six percent of the poor people work full time jobs. This might be good for the sake of feeding their children but it is a fact that children need their parents. The courage that the children from the Hispanic and black community causes them to be strong human beings and try harder to make something for themselves or have a name for themselves. This is the reason why most of the African American and Hispanic people tend to be very aggressive in the extracurricular activities.
In looking, at some of the results that have been found it shows that these people are the ones hailing in the sporting activities and others in the educational activities (Heng-Chieh & Laurie 589). The youths are claimed to put a lot of pressure in the activities in that at times it tends to distract them from their education thus their performance declines. There are some youths who alienate their peers from the same culture in order to have success in the world they claim to be for the whites.
There are some public high schools where the ratio of teachers is higher than others are in the nation. The teacher’s ethnicity also will play a role in the education of the adolescent children. In looking at the data information presented about Oakland school, the number of teachers who were black teachers was 26 while for the whites was 48 (Carmen & Bernadette). The numbers showed that the black and the white teachers were more compared to the Asian and Hispanic teachers. The homework programs introduced by teachers have proven to have positive and negative effects (Huang & Cho 387). Some researchers have shown that teachers tend to drill children by giving them extra homework. This drilling sometimes proves not to be effective, as the children tend to concentrate on finishing the assignment rather than learning the assignment. The homework program can be very effective if there is good communication between the teacher and the adolescent children. This will come in handy in improving the child education.
Research Methodology
Introduction
The research methodology part is very important because it contains processes that are needed in conducting researches and getting the information needed in a research. This will enable the researcher to get the information they need about how extracurricular activities are done due to peoples ethnicity or background and whether it affects their education performance in the public high schools. The processes used in the research methodology are data collection, the research designs that are going to be used in the research such as qualitative or quantitative designs and the participants that are going to be involved in the research. The methodology will also look at the type of instrument that will be used in conducting the research which in this case will be the questionnaire.
Overview and predictions
The research will look at the previous works that have been by other researchers in order to compare with the research conducted to see whether their findings are the same with the current research. This will, therefore, mean the qualitative design will be used in the research. In the qualitative research methodology, it looks at the past researches that have been conducted and comparing the results in order for one to be able to come up with a conclusion on the problem. The other research design that will be used in this research is the quantitative research design. The main reason for this design to be used is that it involves the usage of data found in the findings. The research will be conducted for a period of one year. This will enable the researcher to see to look at the performance of the selected students.
Sampling size
Random students will be selected and used in this research. The students will come from the Oakland, Berkeley and Piedmont high schools. The random sampling size is the one that will be used for the research. The reason why random students will be used is that it will help the researcher to be able to have good data that will be used in the quantitative research design.
Participants
The participants for this research will be the public high school students from Oakland, Berkeley and Piedmont high schools. The other participants will be parents of the students as well as the teachers.
Data collection
One instrument that will be used is the questionnaire for the students, teachers and the parents. The reason for using the questionnaire is that the researcher will be able to have the point of view from all the parties involved in the extracurricular activities of the adolescent child.
Conclusion
There are many extracurricular activities that occur in high school for different reasons. In those activities, the high school students tend to participate on activities due to their ethnicity. The other factors that cause the children to do some certain extracurricular activities are poverty, peer influence, social solidarity, race and teachers influence. In looking at the results poverty, seem to be the key reason that causes the high school students from public high schools to separate and be in different groups which forms bonds and join the same extracurricular activities. The activities have proven to have negative and positive effects on the student’s performance in class. The research methodology used in this research will be the qualitative and quantitative research methodology. The reason for doing this will be because in the qualitative design the researcher will look at previous researches conducted on the matter while in the quantitative it will look at the data collected. The instrument to be used in the research will be the questionnaires. The participants of the research will be the students, parents and teachers of the local public high school. At the end of the research the researcher expects to see whether the extracurricular activities affects the students and what causes them to join certain activities.
Work cited
Angier, Natalie. Do Races Differ? Not Really, Genes Show. New York Times, 2000.
Borden, Lynne, et al. Challenges and opportunities to Latino youth development: Increasing meaningful participation in youth development programs. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences (2006): 187 - 208.
Caldwell, Linda & Darling, Nancy. Nancy. Leisure context, parental control, and resistance to peer pressure as predictors of adolescent partying and substance use: An ecological perspective. Journal of Leisure Research (1999): 57-77.
Carmen DeNavas-Walt and Bernadette. 2013 Poverty Data. U.S. Census Bureau Released September 2014.
Heng-Chieh, Jamie, Wu, & Van Egeren, Laurie.Voluntary participation and parents' reasons for enrollment in after-school programs: Contributions of Race/Ethnicity, program quality, and program policies. Journal of Leisure Research (2010): 591-620.
Huang, Denise., & Cho, Jamie. Academic enrichment in high-functioning homework afterschool programs. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, (2009): 382-392.
Posner, Jill &Vandell Deborah, Lowe.Low-income children's after-school care: Are there beneficial effects. Child Development (1994): 440-456.
