Members of the Rotary Club certainly know fellow Rotarian Jeff Johnson as dean of the Huey P. Long campus, Central Louisiana Technical Community College. Some may not have realized that he is also director of CLTCC’s eight-parish Adult Education program.
Johnson gave the Winnfield club an update on the program when he brought with him Dr. Kimberly Liner, assistant director of the system’s Adult Education. This educational track helps individuals attain their high school equivalency diplomas, theirs through HiSET while the earlier, familiar GED is another route.
Dr. Liner explained that their program entails not only what might be considered “book-learning” skills such as digital literacy; remediation in reading, writing and math in preparation for further learning; as well as English language acquisition, often to help immigrants become productive citizens; but they also include teaching of personal job-readiness skills such as paying attention to details and the “soft” skills of working with others.
Winn Parish, she explained, has a percentage comparable to Louisiana-wide figures of residents with at least a 9th grade education. And perhaps oddly, the percentage of college-level individuals is about the same. But in between, Winn has a higher percentage of residents lacking high school equivalency.
Rotarians heard the usual route for those seeking their high school equivalency diploma is to first come in to take pre-tests in reading, mathematics and language. Then 40 hours of instructional time would follow, at which time the individual would take post-tests. If the results show that the person is ready, they would take the HiSET.
“When they are successfully finished, we want them to be able to go directly into the workplace,” she said. “We’re proud of our students.”
Johnson pointed out that most of the education at the local college campus is done through in-person class sessions although other options are in place as a backup. Jarrett Gibson, instructor of Adult Education at the Rod Brady Campus in Jena oversees online operations. Gibson and Liner recently attended a COABE (Commission on Adult-Based Edition) conference in Texas where online (live-streaming), tutoring, financial literacy (teaching students responsibility with their money) and reading intervention were explored.
The Huey P. Long Campus is a great community resource, Johnson concluded. “One of the challenges we still face is letting people know that we are here.”
Students from Winn will join with those from the other CLTCC campuses at the Coliseum in Alexandria for graduation ceremonies May 20.