Wealthy Parents and College Education - Research Proposal Example

?Running Headers: Does Having Wealthy Parents Pay College Tuition Result in More Failed es? Wealthy Parents and College Education Module Date 1. Introduction: Our society is divided among the different social classes which highlights the fact that all of them do not have the access to the same resources. A good and balanced life style requires a human being to live in a healthy environment, where he has access to quality educational facilities and general equipment that can assist him to become a valuable asset to this society. Unfortunately, we do hear the slogans of all human beings being equal, but that is not the case in real life and one will find this society based on different classes. A community is generally categorized into three classes, first-class (the elite), middle-class, and third class. Although subcategories are also made from the top three but the subject does not allow going this further. All the social classes do not have the access to certain attributes or facilities available in our society, e.g. quality education. Every country has numerous schools, colleges, and universities that are categorized into ordinary or prestigious institutions. A general perception about ordinary institutions is that educational quality is very poor due to lack of resources, and thus the students in those institutions also mostly belong to a middle-class or lower middle-class family in which lack of financial resources does not allow them to study in prestigious institutions. Similarly, as the great institutions have higher fees, so a specific class of first class families, a.k.a. the elite goes there, who can easily bear the expenses. There are absolutely many exceptions to the rules defined above, but majority of us face the same criteria. Just like in many countries, the class-based system is a very controversial issue, where some people call in favor of it and some against, the lack or abundance of educational quality is also absolutely controversial. Leaving out the middle-classed families, let us take a deep look into the rich families who can support their child studying in an expensive academic institution. Most of the people argue that the students who are studying in high class institutions and their expenses are absolutely bore by their parents, have the maximum ratio among all the students when it comes to failing the exams. Lack of financial facilities and then educational quality is one justified reason that a student fails in which one finds many reason for an excuse. Another excuse they could make is they have to make money by doing some job along with the studies and its difficult to manage both in a teenage. What about those students, who belong to rich families, live in healthy and comfortable environment, have access to all resources, are solely taken care of by their parent financially and socially, still fail in most of their exams? Another extreme of the same issue is those students, who belong to underdeveloped families where there are not much resources to get their children into high class institutions, who take the responsibility in their own hands, make money by doing some professional jobs, and get themselves admitted to these prestigious institutions, and most importantly, do perform satisfactory or excellent in all the exams. Some people understand the problem in terms of the lack of vision different ‘classes’ of student have. Students from rich families might already have seen the world as they are financially established, so they might have a lack of vision or aim. Majority of the students from poor families, on the other hand, have some vision or aim to become a business professional etc after getting qualified or graduated from a prestigious institution which can turn their lives into a new dimension. Many opponents of this argument that students from rich families have lack of vision or aim state that every student does have an aim and that is why he is studying in an institution to one day become someone who has respect in the society. They further argue that it’s the fault in the approach their parents use with which they are treating their child. Going further, the parents must make their children responsible of their own being and must give them space to stand on their own feet. Most of the rich parents give a little bit more space when it comes to going out with friends and attending parties. The parents’ attention is the most important tool that keeps the children on the right track, otherwise all the money being invested is going to be wasted. The difference between the students from rich and poor families is that the poor students have already been meeting their responsibilities by doing a professional job and making living for themselves, which also means they are already standing on their feet, as they do not find enough support from their parents. On the other hand, children from the rich families have an extra amount of support that keeps them lacking the ability to do something on their own. Hence, a detailed introduction of the report will help us go further to talk about the central issue concerning why do having wealthy parents pay college tuition result in more failed classes and exams. The introduction has provided enough background to the basic problem that is at hand, as the other extreme of middle class students has also been explained as well as differences mentioned. Therefore, the question apart from the main issue is what is the key difference between students of rich and poor families in terms of psychological approaches? There has been a lot of research established on the issue of reasons of failure in most of the classes by the students whose rich parents have taken the responsibility to pay their dues and fees in educational institutions. Zau and Betts (2008) suggest that the demographic and socioeconomic status of the students is the most important factor in terms of their performance predictions in the class exams. Rich families have the capability to get their children admitted to the higher class schools, but the students have also a greater responsibility to meet the challenges of an enriched academic environment. They further suggest that the socioeconomic status of a student is the basic key to calculate probability of failing or passing the exams in classes. They have aimed to devise new rules about how this trend can be turned around, where the students of higher social and economic values are brighter than the others and are responsible to pay the hard work and dedication back to their parents. The authors have also discussed in their book about the characteristics these students must have in order to give their maximum input to pass all the class exams. Another key dimension they have discussed is the role that the parents must play in order to put their children in the right direction, and they have come to the conclusion that they should double check on the students as well as their activities they do all the day and must make them more prone to the academics rather than general activities. Assoa Ettien (2007) has discussed the independent variables that lead to the students’ failures in class exams. The author has termed all those variables as independent that lead to the students’ failures in exams. These variables are further divided into two categories by him, i.e. individual independent variables, and structural independent variables. The individual independent variables have been concerned with the social class of the students, their parents’ occupations, and their families’ dwelling places. The social class, according to the author, makes the most alarming impact on the academics of the students, as there are three social classes, i.e. rich, middle and the poor. The society and company in which they are living will make a huge impact on their academics as the environment the rich students are going to be provided since they are born is very broad, where they do have intellect and knowledge about things they learn but somehow are not able to manage and execute that in the class room environment. The occupation of the parents is another variable that affects the students learning process. The rich individuals have a handsome salary or are running a large business which indicates their financial status and their social status, and for that reason they can easily meet the expenses of their children for expensive education but are not able to keep the checks and balances into the lives of their children as that is the main concern they should look for, rather than paying the fees and leaving out the rest of the task and responsibility on teachers. There have been different methods that the researchers used while carrying out their research on the topic under consideration. The main focus of most of the researchers was the open-ended or a closed-ended approach in which the researchers were carrying out interviews or questionnaires respectively, and most of their participants were the parents of children from rich families, as well as poor families. The students were also the important participants as well as their teachers. The researches established in the past lead to a number of conclusions. The main argument that has been deduced from those reports has been the lack of self-responsibility demonstrated by the students of rich families who are also not given proper attention from their parents as well. The research findings in the past show the performance of the institutions and staff as satisfactory, i.e. teachers have done a good job according to their surveys, but the lack of attention from parents and dearth of aims and visions thought out by the students was the main reason of their failing in most of the class exams. The researchers have also concluded that the students must concentrate more on to their studies rather than the general activities, and they must consider their academics as the foremost concern which will shape their future. As the ultimate responsibility lies on the students whether they are rich or poor, so they should be active enough to carry out their own tasks with greater responsibility. The report will now present the methods and means through which the researcher has collected data. The data collection process as well as the analysis of the findings will be made in lieu of answering the question about the factors that lead students failing most of their class exams, whose educational expenses are paid by their rich parents. The findings will also incorporate the previous research findings and a comparative analysis will be established. 2. Research methodology: The researcher has established both, qualitative as well as quantitative research methods. The qualitative method of research will include the interviews done with the parents of the students from rich families. The quantitative method of research has included the questionnaires filled by the 50 students from a prestigious college in New York State, US. The interviews as well as the questionnaires prepared were rich full of questions, and the researcher expected to get widespread information that will incorporate all the issues and concerns related to this research. As this is highly a controversial topic so the views of students as well as parents are important, as views from both the ends are necessary to get the opinions and responses of all the actors involved in this issue. The research methods have not included the college teachers in this research investigation as the main issue is related to the parent-child issue and the socio-economic factors that are involved. The interviews with the respective parents were held in their respective residencies or their business locations, whereas the questionnaires were distributed among the students in the college and the participants were all those who have been struggling in the class exams by failing most of them. Additionally, there were five participants in the interviewing process. The significance of both the methods, qualitative and quantitative is that the former is more related to the open-ended approach, whereas the latter one is more concerned with closed-ended approach. Therefore both the types of information will be important when the analysis is done. Many of the questions asked in the interviews as well as in questionnaires were same as to get the responses of parents and students on the similar questions so that the differences of opinions could be seen which will be a useful tool for establishing the analysis. Up till now, the variables or participants have been discussed, as well as the procedure of how the research is going to be carried out for the purpose of data collection. The research has tried to apply those methods that can extract more information and data in a short period of time. Based on the questions that are included in the interviews and questionnaires, the researcher is expecting to build an analysis based on two findings, i.e. responses of parents and students on the authenticity of the argument that the students of rich families whose expenses are paid by their parents are more prone to failing the courses in class, and the role of students in terms of shaping their personalities that can best meet their goals and at least prevent them failing the classes. 3. Research findings, analysis, discussion, and conclusions: The subject on which the researcher is establishing the research is related to the students belonging to rich families whose parents can bear the expenses of their academics, are more prone to failing the class exams in schools or colleges. The research methods were those that have provided enough data to the researcher which will be helpful in deducing an absolute conclusion of a highly controversial subject. This section will discuss the findings from the answers of various questions asked to the parents and students, on the basis of which an analysis and discussion will be established to gain different results. The conclusion will also be presenting the various obstacles that may be faced by the researchers while carrying out research for the similar subject. The most important as well as the basic question asked to parents and students, was about the authenticity of this assertion that the students belonging to rich families mostly fail in class exams. Some of the responses taken in the interviews were positive; as the parents admitted that their children are sometimes perform worse in exams by failing most of the courses. They denied the fact that they do not take care of the academics of their children. One of the interviewees responded that it is the responsibility of the students at the end of the day to do better, and what parents can do is provide them a favorable environment in which they are most comfortable so that they can pursue their studies. In an answer to the question concerning the atmosphere children are provided at home, the interviewees provided similar responses. They stated that the children are provided a very enriched academic environment at homes and they have full opportunity to study and even the parents keep helping them in making them understand the concepts that they are weak in while studying. According to them, the students are also provided tuition facilities at home which can further enrich them in terms of understanding and learning the concepts. They further argued that despite the qualitative academic environment they are provided, students are sometimes not able to catch up with their studies which can be due to various psychological and social tensions they face in daily life, but still they are provided good parenting and an atmosphere in which they can release their stress and concentrate on studies. The responses of the students were to some extent similar to what their parents had stated. Out of the 50 surveyed students, 80% responded that it is really a problem they face in terms of passing the exams in class while their expenses are bore by their parents. 90% of the students answered in favor of the statement that they do fail most of the times in class exams. Additionally, 70% have termed the reason for successive failure as their inability to take greater responsibility in terms of studying. Lastly, almost all the students said yes in favor of the question that if they are really hopeful about their bright future and do they really aspire to take greater responsibility about their studies in future to avoid failures in class exams. The comparative analysis of the research carried out in this report and the one established in the past suggests that throughout the generations, it is really a problem in students of rich families to not cop up with their academics resulting in their failures in most of the courses in class. The main conclusion that has been derived before and of this report is that the students from the rich families are provided a rich academic environment and all the resources that they can avail and which are essential for them to perform better in classroom examinations. But the lack of responsibility shown by the students themselves is the main reason due to which they fail in most of the exams. The data collection process in this type of research where the subject is a bit controversial, i.e. containing more than one strong views and oppositions is difficult. Researchers in the future may face the same obstacles as have been faced in the data collection process in this report. One of the obstacles is the authenticity of the responses given by the students, as this research has carried out questionnaires that were filled by students aged between 15-17 years and they might be amateur in considering the purpose of this research. Another problem faced in this research was the limitation of time due to which the researcher had to interview lesser number of people. The main recommendation would be the establishment of the research on a wider scale so that all the social views are taken before reaching out a final conclusion. References: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2009). The Condition of Education 2009 (NCES 2009-081), Table A-20-2 U.S. Department of Education. National Center for Education Statistics. (2006) Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS). U.S. Department of Education. National Center for Education Statistics. (2007). Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). Padron, E. Presidency. Winter2009, Vol. 12 Issue 1, p18-23, 6p, 1 illustration, 1 color Parental Involvement in Learning: Statistics | Education.com." Education.com | An Education & Child Development Site for Parents | Parenting & Educational Resource. National Institute for Literacy. Web. 2011. . What Research Says About Parental Involvement In Children's Education." In Relation to Academic Achievement (Mar. 2002). Www.michigan.gov. Michigan Department of Education, Mar. 2002. Web. 2011. . Read More