Gloria,
 
Thanks so much for sharing your story and your experience.
 
This article (below) from the Public Education Network's Weekly
Newsblast relates to our discussion on college preparation/remediation
classes.  Sounds like there is a broader issue of what learners are
expected to know and be able to do in order to be successful in college.
Gloria shared some strategies that her community college is using.  How
are others dealing with these issues?
 
Aaron
 
PAYING DOUBLE

According to "Paying Double: Inadequate High Schools and Community
College Remediation," a new issue brief from the Alliance for Excellent
Education, the United States spends over $1.4 billion each year to
provide community college remediation education for recent high school
graduates who did not acquire the basic skills necessary to succeed in
college or at work. The brief, which was produced with support from
MetLife Foundation, also finds that the nation loses almost $2.3 billion
annually in wages as a result of the significantly reduced earnings
potential of students whose need for remedial reading make them more
likely to drop out of college without a degree. Therefore, by increasing
the number of students graduating from high school prepared to succeed
in college, an additional $3.7 billion annually would flow into the
nation's economy. The brief offers no simple solutions but does point
out that improving the nation's high schools could certainly reduce the
number of students who need remediation in college. It points to "weak
curricula, vague standards, and lack of alignment between high school
content and the expectations of colleges and employers" as reasons for
the need for remediation. It adds that students who take a rigorous high
school curriculum are less likely to need remedial courses than students
whose course load is less demanding. Finally, it suggests that statewide
performance standards for college admission would enable educators to
assess student progress toward readiness for college. To view the
complete issue brief, which includes a breakdown of state-by-state
costs, visit: 

http://www.all4ed.org/publications/remediation.pdf

 

 


________________________________

From: contentstandards-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:contentstandards-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Gloria Fuentes
Sent: Thursday, September 07, 2006 9:45 AM
To: The Adult Education Content Standards Discussion List
Subject: [ContentStandards 262] Re: FW: Re: GED and College Admissions


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

 -- Gloria Fuentes 
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