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Sanford Adults Get a Leg Up to College; The Adult Education Program Will Offer Remedial Math at a Third of the Price of Community College.

Posted on: Friday, 2 September 2005, 15:00 CDT

They're displaced mill or factory workers, headed to one of Maine's seven community colleges in search of new skills and an associate's degree. But it's been years - decades, even - since they took a math class, and placement tests show that the new students will need a few remedial courses before they can handle college.

That's a roadblock that Kathi Medcalf wants to help students clear.

Medcalf, director of the Sanford School Department's Adult Education Program, has aligned the program's curriculum so students can get the remedial work they need before taking math courses at York County Community College in Wells.

Sanford's adult education program offers the preparatory math courses for $75 each, one-third the price of the same classes at the community college.

Because remedial classes don't count toward an associate's degree - but still cost money - Medcalf said Sanford's program could make it a little easier for some Mainers to finish college.

"All the research shows when people run out of financial aid, they stop going to college," she said.

Medcalf's efforts are part of a statewide push for collaboration between community colleges and adult education programs.

College administrators said they hope to someday expand dual enrollment programs, which now are for high schoolers who take college courses, to adult learners in the process of earning their diplomas or GEDs.

"We're creating pathways," said Paula Gagnon, vice president and dean of academic and student affairs at York County Community College. "We have an interest in making things as easy as possible to move from one system to the other."

Maine is one of a handful of states where community colleges do not oversee adult education, said James Ortiz, president of Southern Maine Community College in South Portland. The adult programs, in which non-traditional students earn technical certificates, high school diplomas and GEDs, are run by public school districts.

In 2003, just before the state's technical schools became community colleges, they signed an agreement with the state's adult education association.

Administrators said the agreement gave formal backing to a longstanding belief that the state's adult programs and community colleges should align their curriculum, which spurred change.

As recently as 10 years ago, each community college had its own placement test, said Cathy Newell, executive director of the Maine Adult Education Association.

Newell said the system has since adopted a single placement test, called the Accuplacer, making it easier to design remedial courses to prepare adult students for two-year colleges.

The standardized test also identified the subject area where adult education officials need to concentrate: almost half of prospective community college students need remedial math.

School officials said they also hope to someday increase the number of adult education programs offered at community colleges. Doing so will make it convenient for students who simultaneously take remedial courses at their local adult education program and introductory courses at the community college.

Kennebec Valley Community College in Fairfield recently started using its classrooms for adult education programs. Administrators at both of southern Maine's community colleges said they hope to follow suit.

In York County, Gagnon said her school is interested in a program that would feed students directly from remedial adult education to community college courses, eliminating the need for a second Accuplacer test.

"It's a way to maximize the use of both of our limited resources," she said.

Staff Writer Elbert Aull can be contacted at 324-4888 or at:

eaull@pressherald.com

Source: Portland Press Herald

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