Friday, April 10, 2009

Education Reform Part 1

The reform I would like to address today is something I suggested to my school district regarding the use of a school campus that is closing at the end of this school year. Unfortunately, the idea was shot down, but at least it was heard.

The idea is this: turn the campus into a community education center. This would involve a college/university to lease space on the campus to hold college classes, but also with the provision that Adult ELL and GED classes would also be held on the campus. In-house day care and preschool would also be added for staff as well as students. Evening homework assistance/tutoring is also suggested, as well as guest speakers during the course of the semester to bring new ideas and thoughts to light.

There are multiple reasons for suggesting this:

1. Some people are a little intimidated about attending classes on a large campus. By using a smaller satellite campus this makes it less intimidating, plus helps to alleviate parking issues on the main campuses.

2. It would make the Adult ELL classes available during the day, which is not something you currently have in local neighborhoods.

3. A lot of people who have been laid off are wanting to attend college classes to add to their job skills and make themselves more employable. The problem is that the college/university campuses are overcrowded as it is, so where are these additional students going to go? By offering classes on satellite campuses, these help reduce the stress of finding classrooms for additional classes that will be demanded.

4. Adult ELL and GED graduates could then step up to the basic English 101 & 102 classes that could be offered on these campuses.

This would be a great opportunity to bring more people from low-income areas into an educational setting where they could get the education they need to improve their lives, unfortunately it looks like those opportunities are going to have to wait a little while longer.

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