I know I am a little bit late jumping into this discussion. But--as a high
school drop out in the 9th grade and someone who came from an immigrant
family, meaning I spent more years working the fields with my family than
going to elementary school. I had not been able to keep up with the other
students so by the time I hit junior high school I was completely lost.

My father officially signend me out of school at the age of 15, and I then
went to work full time. Well when I had my own children and by this time I
was beginning to understand the value of an education when I couldn't help
my children with their homework and also when two of my boys decided they
didn't want to finish school. Well by this time I knew I had to do something
so I went to the adult education school where I obtained my GED. From there
my oldest daughter talked me into going to the community college.

I started going to a community college soon afterwards and had a really hard
time. But with the help of the Learning Resource Center I was able to catch
up to the other students who had finished all the k through 12 years in
school. Today I am a secretary at a community college and also teach an
ROP/Office Occupations & GED preparation class part-time. I teach 16 to 21
year olds.

My students are at all different levels, some were like me and never really
grasped things at the elementary level others just got side tracked in the
junior or senior years of school. I stress to my students the importance of
learning more than what just the GED teaches. We have a career development
skills section we also teach in our classroom.  Some of my students only
want to get their GED to get a job, others need their GED to go on to higher
education. What ever my students want to pursue that is what we work for.

If they plan on going on to higher education then we study more indepth with
those ones. With the ones who only want a GED for a job, and thats all they
care about getting then we only study the basics to pass the GED and job
skills.

One thing I really stress when they first come into my classroom, is if they
want to go on to higher education they are really going to have to and WANT
to work hard for it. Some of them will have to be tutored in different areas
that  they never grasped during their k-12 years.  We do that with them in
our classroom. I have an awesome case technician that helps me with this. We
do go out of our way to work with our students in what ever they desire. But
they know they have to have the desire if they want to succeed.

We have some students that are coming back to us now after having gotten
their GED but are struggling with a college course they are taking. We make
the time to help them even if we don't get paid for it. I guess for our
classroom it is once our student, always our student!

Okay I have rambled on enough this morning and I hope I made some sense with
all of this.

Gloria

On 9/6/06, Kohring, Aaron M <akohring at utk.edu> wrote:

>

> Greetings all,

>

> I'm forwarding this message from the Assessment Discussion List which

> branched off from our discussion on the GED this past week!  Note the

> references to college prep and standards/skills for going beyond the

> GED...

> Aaron

>

> -----Donna's Message-----

>

> Getting students "college ready" has been an issue for years,

> particularly not knowing exactly what college ready means from state to

> state or from college to college. In Ohio, we are crosswalking college

> readiness standards with our ABLE standards to identify the gaps and

> make needed revisions. I'd be interested to hear from states or programs

> that are currently involved in or have completed this process.

>

> Donna Albanese, Consultant

> Ohio Department of Education

> Adult Basic and Literacy Education

> 25 South Front Street, Stop 614

> Columbus, Ohio  43215-4183

> Phone:  614-466-5015

> Fax:  614-728-8470

> e-mail:  donna.albanese at ode.state.oh.us

>

> -----June's Message-----

>

> For many years prior to my employment with the federal government, I

> directed a university learning center that offered developmental

> classes, ran the university's placement testing program, and offered

> tutoring, ESL classes, and services for those with learning disabilities

> and other physical disabilities.  Over a 20 year period I saw the test

> results for at least 15,000 students and I can say without any doubt

> that having a GED was NOT a guarantee that an entering student had the

> reading, writing, or math skills that were required as the basic skills

> before attempting college-level classes.  We saw many adults enter

> college with a GED who had large gaps between what we anticipated would

> be the skill level of high school graduates and those who just passed

> high school with minimum skill levels.  And, unfortunately, we saw many

> of them leave college in academic difficulty - and with debts for

> tuition. (I was the person, in the end, who interviewed all these people

> and had to send the final letters of

> dismissal.)

>

> Adults who wish to go on for more education need to be advised that

> having a piece of paper that says you have a high school diploma is not

> sufficient.

> There are basic skills and then there are more advanced skills and the

> person who will be successful at the college level has to be able to

> perform competently from the beginning.  Just as about 1/3 of high

> school graduates are not ready for the level of work required at a

> college, the GED does not adequately prepare most students.  If we could

> connect jobs to skill levels and make this clear to students and parents

> and employers and employees, this would be a real boon to the American

> economy and school system.

>

> Perhaps it is time to consider levels of readiness and make it clear to

> high school students and to adults in adult education that there are

> varying levels depending on the end goal.  People need to know how they

> need to be able to perform for the goals they set for themselves.  Paper

> just doesn't do it; performance is the key to success.

> June Crawford

> -------------------------------

> ----------------------------------------------------

> National Institute for Literacy

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>




-- 
Gloria Fuentes
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