First 2 Annotated Bibliographies

Rocky, Barker. "Job Corps Expands Curriculum into Green Jobs." voices.idahostatesman.com, 18 March 2010. Web. 6 Mar 2011. . Rocky Barker states in his article about the improvements that Job Corps is making to their program to keep it up to date and in sync with the work force and also with today’s economy. I wouldn’t take this as a credible source because even though it may be posted on The Idaho Statesman’s website it is still on a blog and has no links to show where the author got his information. If there was some resources he showed that he got his information from I feel like this would automatically become a reliable source. In the article, the author talks about how the Obama administration hopes to give the kids a hand up because the up coming jobs in this economy will be in a greener direction. I could use this in my paper if I was writing more on the training programs that Job Corps offers or also if I was writing about what type of job training does Job Corps offer and how it relates to the jobs that the students get after they have finished the Job Corps program.

"Job Corps: Links with Labor Market Improved but Vocational Training Performance Overstated." gov.us.fed.congress.gao.reports. Google Groups, 6 Nov. 1998. Web. 6 Mar 2011. . The author of this article talks about the success that Job Corps has stated they had with their program in the year1998. It then goes and talks about the questions they had when they looked into Job Corps, their method of reviewing the data, and the results they came up with. I would be skeptical with this websites credibility because it is on a Google Groups blog but it also has a letter to Christopher Shays who is in the House of Representatives and is also the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Human Resources Committee on Government Reform and Oversight. Due to the formality of the text and the reasons why it was posted all point to this being a reliable source. I think one way to improve the reliability is for the group to share the link that they got this article/information from. This source illuminates my essay topic because it gives me some statistics about the success that Job Corps actually has with its program as a whole.

Annotated Bibliography

Schochet, Peter Z., John Burghardt, and Sheens McConnell. 2008. “Does job Corps work? Impact findings from the National Job Corps Study. “American Economic Review.

Right away in this article the authors make a clear statement towards the success of the job corps program they state “Job corps is the only federal training program that has shown to increase earnings of the population.” However shortly after this they talk about her earning drop off after seven years in the younger population of the program. The article talks about the different courses Job corps provides, I would like to talk to students and see what factors make them decide which courses to specialize in.

Charles R. Hayman and Arthur Frank. 2008. “Job Corps experience with health problems”
Public Health Reports.

Job Corps has a health system in place that seems to be working. No real problems or complaints have developed, but no records or evidence of its effectiveness have been recorded. My main thoughts about the health care program is if they offer mental help or counseling to their students that may have been abused or just had life struggles. I think this is just as or more important than there physical health. This directly relates with the essay topic I have chosen In where I want to connect a student’s social skills to their up bringing

Discourse Analysis

It's a little lengthy and I apologize!

Is a General Education Development (GED) good enough to replace a high school diploma? Many colleges, universities, and jobs think that a GED is adequate enough to replace a high school diploma while others don’t think it suffices. The General Education Development exam was originally in a GI Bill to help veterans and returning students obtain enough credentials to get civilian jobs and to also obtain a higher education beyond high school. The minimum age requirement to take the test was 18 years old but has recently been lowered to 16.

Most community colleges will accept GED holders along with a satisfactory score on the SAT or ACT. However, universities are a little more skeptical and need to see that the person applying is able to start and finish a big project; therefore, recommendation letters are required from community members to prove the person applying is motivated enough not to drop out.

In the work force almost every job that has a minimum education requirement of a high school will accept and treat a GED holder the same as a high school diploma holder. I find this interesting because one of the sources I found was against the GED and thought that it shouldn’t be a short cut for teenagers to drop out of high school and jump straight into the work force. A study done in 2002 showed that 42% of everyone that had taken the GED exam was teenagers compared to only 33% in 1991. The sad fact about this is that the students that drop out of high school and plan on getting their GED don’t get around to actually doing it. Of the 60% that dropped out of high school and then got their certificate, most likely a GED, go on to some sort of college; of that sixty percent only 10% actually go on to obtain a degree while the others drop out of college.

What I find ironic about the GED was that originally it was the United States Armed Sources that confronted the American Council on Education for a way of testing veterans and returning soldiers to get a certificate that has the same skill level as a high school diploma and now the Air Force is only permitted to have 1% of its enlistees have a GED and the Army is only aloud to have 10% of its enlistees to have a GED. This is because that most of the people that enlist with a GED typically are expelled or quite after their first tour of duty.

I don’t think that the General Education Development is not an adequate test to give a person the credentials that a person with a high school diploma has. Along with specific skills that are learned in high school, GED holders don’t have a lot of the social skills that high school students do. For example, GED holders don’t have the motivation high school students do to finish large projects or to complete a goal. This is why most universities require satisfactory SAT or ACT scores and recommendation letters from community members. I believe that the age limit for taking the GED should be raised yet again to motivate high school students to finish in school rather than dropping out and taking the short cut. The GED exam shouldn’t be an alternate route for high school; it should be a last resort for those who can’t finish high school for financial or family issues.

Work Cited:

Thornburgh, Nathan. "Does a GED Really do the Job?." Time. 11 April 2006: Print.

"DiplomaGuide.com." Is the GED Enough to Get ME into College?. 2006-2011. Web. 1 Mar 2011. .

"Howard Lee speaks out." YouTube. Web. 1 Mar 2011. .

"General Education Development." Wikipedia, Web.

Discourse Analysis

For this analysis my main focus was the children in the families of the students at Job Corps. Job corps offers this great schooling for the teens and adults that have not had the best education, they are able to get there G.E.D. or study for a benefiting job. There are some students that have children so my question is, " Where do these children stay, is it hard to find child care with no or little income?". I tried to find articles on just the children involved in job corps but came up empty handed, so I then focused on just the ending of my question. I did find some great articles that all had a common topic, Low Income Families and Child Care. It seemed to me that many families that have low income tend to have there children watched by family members or friends instead of the high or medium income families that have a daycare provider.
Another thing I noticed in the article is they seemed to have a harsh bias towards the low income families. One article I read said that children in low income families were more likely not to graduate high school and support their family, and i would have to completely disagree with that statement. I personally have friends in low income families who have worked twice as hard than others due to the state they are in. They want the best for their furture children and want them to feel just as special as everyone else. I feel they sometimes have a stronger motivation to succeed in life because of what they have gone through.
The thing that caught my eye the most in almost every article I read was that many low income families only have one parent which is most likely the mother and the father is not in the picture. Growing up my parents go divorced when I was young and I remember it being hard for my mom and I at times. As I continued to read the articles the tone was informative to allow the reader to understand what is going on. However at the same time it almost seemed like the authors wanted you to be concerned about these kids and families. Which i would say worked because when i finish reading each article it made me be thankful for what I have but at the same time I was thinking aboout ways I could help.

Sources:
Adams, Gina, and Jeffery Capizzano. "Children in Low-Income Families Are Less Likely to Be." Snap Shots of America;s Families. 16 (2003): 1-2. Print.

Campbell, Frances, and Craig Ramey. "Effects of Early Intervention on Intellectual and Academic Achievement: A Follow-up Study of Children from Low-Income Families." Child Development. 65.2 (2008): 684-698. Print

Fuller, Bruce, Sharon Kagan, Gretchen Caspary, and Christiane Gauthier. "Welfare Reform and Child Care Options for Low-Income Families." Princeton University. 12.1 (2002): 96-119. Print.

Wysocki Style Baby!!

Ok so I’m a little confused as to the Wysocki style- and by Text of choice – So I’m doing mine as a practice. – I chose a website I have read several times, I’m interested in , I myself have used it to practice on ( if you read my posts you’ll notice lol) and it has a lot of different styles, and images on it I can use to both analyze like Wysocvki doers or I can incorporate into my post – again like Wysocki does.

So Analysis –
This is a Cite that reviews and talks about Celtic music. New and old. The feature is the Review on The California Celts debut self- titled CD.

The over-all feel of the blog and feature is kind of Eclectic as there are several – not really inconsistencies but contradictions… in example – the site itself feels vibrant and fun. The music playing is a little hard core and intense… almost angry sometimes. And the prose of the writer doing the review is Harsh but intelligent. Its Very well written, this author clearly knows this genera of music very well. His writing style is short, quick and to the point, but he makes clear associations, gives examples, and makes it clear he’s done the research to back up his claims. An example of this is his response to my comment about raggamuffin VS ragamuffin music.

The Site Feels –
The head title is large concise and in green.
The background is of lush vibrant green shamrocks with black boxes behind the white main text. Its good that they chose to put the solid black behind the text rather than the shamrocks or it would be much more difficult to read. As it is the type is very small and written in Arial. I wonder if using a different text would have made it easier to read- or perhaps adding space a double space in-between letters. Links are embedded in the text and are red while other seemingly important names or information is only bolded. Since the text is small and in an unconventional color its hard to notice the bold lettering. The links to other pages are in green and located to the left of the main text. The color is so elaborate and vibrant its difficult to take the site seriously until one starts reading the text.
Most of the ethos is built in the writing of the author.

The images are kept minimal – there’s the image of the cover to the CD

and the logo of the organization providing the review.

(Leprechaun Or Monkey? YOU decide!!)
I think the character is supposed to be a leprechaun but he looks more like a stoned monkey. – so perhaps a better image. The look of the article text itself is very well broken up into min paragraphs which makes it easier to read. - Also I’m sad the author didn’t provide sources or a clearer analogy between the artists. He assumes that the reader already knows who “Ashley Hutchings” is or what raggamuffin style is. This leads to confusion for readers as posted comments clearly show.

I’m glad that the site chooses to allow comments, and indeed responds to them, it shows recent activity and care for the page.

The margins are a little offset but this provides interest and makes the center main text POP rather than letting the background image being distracted. Theres no moving parts on the screen except for the sound.

Again the music plaid is Eclectic going from Celtic that would be associated with “Flogging Molley” as well as Celtic Angry Punk.
The Celtic theme is consistent. With the colors, music, and images.

Check out the site here :)
http://celticfolkpunk.blogspot.com/2010/12/review-california-celts-st-2010.html

Works Cited :
Kinksmarkham. “REVIEW - THE CALIFORNIA CELTS - "s/t" (2010).” Blog-Zine: Celtic-Folk-Punk. Blogger.com. Web. Feb. 23, 2011.

Research Draft Question

My question for the draft is "If the student has children where do they stay, do they stay in the dormatory, or do they have seperate arrangements for them?"

I chose this question because when I went for my orientation I remember Dee Dee saying that a young lady who had three children had just graduated and had a job in Welding. The whole time I was thinking where would the children stay and if they went to school how did they get there. Hopefull this won't be a short question and I can extended it into something good.

Draft Question

Okay I know this has taken me forever to get this posted but hey better late than never! I'm really worried about whether my question is too narrow or to broad.

My question is how many of the students that make it through the Job Corps program go on to college or some sort of higher education. I think that this would be extremely interesting to find out because it could show how many people, with help from Job Corps, can turn their lives around and become successful with a higher education. I feel that this topic could become to broad depending on how in depth you get. You could talk about which type of college they go to whether it is a University or a community college. You could also talk about how they are paying their way through college. There is also the topic about whether they make it through higher education or whether they drop out due to money problems or not good enough grades.

I also think that this topic could be too narrow and be summed up in a couple of sentences.