HANCEVILLE – Wallace State Community College is recognizing Sept. 23-29 as Adult Education and Family Literacy Week. The week is held during National Literacy Month and raises public awareness about the need for and value of adult education and family literacy.
The goal is to leverage resources that support access to basic education programs for the 36 million U.S. adults with low literacy skills. Advocates across the country use this opportunity to elevate adult education and family literacy nationwide with policymakers, the media, and the community.
According to the National Skills Coalition, adult education gives individuals vital foundational skills that help them to succeed economically.
The National Coalition for Literacy (NCL) reports that 30 percent of adults with household incomes at or below the poverty level do not have high school credentials. Furthermore, individuals with high school credentials earn about $10,000 more annually than those without.
Children of adults with low literacy are also affected. According to the NCL, research shows that focusing on educating children without also address their parents’ needs for basic education and training will not solve the academic age gape. Children of low-literate parents are more likely to get poor grades, display behavioral problems, have high absentee rates, repeat school years, or drop out. Low-literate parents who improve their own skills are more likely to have a positive impact on their children’s educational achievements and have children who stay in school longer.
The Adult Education program at Wallace State is a nonprofit program to assist individuals who have discontinued public education enrollment or who did not have a high school diploma when their high school class graduated. Adults who need to improve academic skills for work or college enrollment as well as gain basic job skills for employment purposes are also eligible to enroll.
Today most jobs and postsecondary education programs require a high school diploma or equivalent to enroll. Classes are offered free of charge on the Wallace State campus and at affiliated sites throughout Cullman, Blount, Morgan, and Winston counties.
Wallace State offers these Adult Education services both in class and online:
- Academic Assessment: All adult education students will be administered a nationally recognized standardized assessment to determine academic strengths and weaknesses. Results will also be used by the teacher to develop the student’s individualized instructional plan.
- Adult Basic Education Classes:Reading, writing, and computing mathematically for learners functioning at or below the 8.9 grade equivalency.
- Transition Programs: Instruction specifically designed to prepare adult learners to enter postsecondary education, higher education, training programs, and/or to improve their employability.
- GED Preparation Classes: Reading, writing, computing mathematically, social studies, science, literature, and the arts for learners functioning at the 9.0 –12.9 grade equivalency to prepare them to earn the State of Alabama High School Equivalency Diploma.
- College Preparatory Classes: Remedial instruction in the areas of reading, writing, and computing mathematically that is designed to prepare learners who are high school graduates, but performing below the 12.9 grade equivalency.
- Workplace Education: Workplace education programs shall provide the opportunity to build the capacity for the teaching of literacy skills in the technologically sophisticated workplace.
- English Literacy/Civics Education Classes: Classes providing integrated English literacy and civics education services to immigrants and other limited English proficient populations so that they may effectively participate in the education, work, and civic opportunities of this country.
Free English as a Second Language (ESL) and English Language Learner (ELL) Classes are also available.
Contact Wallace State Adult Education at 256-352-8078, toll free at 866-350-9722, ext. 8078, or email adulteducation@wallacestate.edu.
