Image provided by: Clackamas Community College; Oregon City, OR
About Cougar print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1976-1977 | View Entire Issue (June 2, 1977)
graduates than any other department D program low key' but successful ligh it is keeping low key the Adult Ication/General Educational Deve- BABE/GED) program at Clackamas ty College is perhaps the most [program at the college. BED will have over 100 graduates line 10 graduation ceremonies at It's more graduates than any other pt, according to Dave Simpkins, [itchairman of ABE/GED. basic skills in math and English of [graduating from this program are pie to or better than those of stu- graduating from ordinary high [saidSimpkins. "Some college trans- ctors tell me with surprise that one pest students was in our program." BE program is for those adults who r below grade school levels and jiem those skills necessary to enter ol. [he GED program takes over and student gain skills equivalent to a ol education. 130 day students and 350 night [range in age from 16 to 55 with cent of these reading at an eighth pl or below. They are in the pro puse they dropped out of high [junior high school and now must ducation so they can successfully job market. [of our students are federal, state re agency clients," said Simpkins, [here to get basic skills to qualify job market or to enter vocational Most of them go into occupational And most of those interested in occu pational skills continue at CCC. "A higher percentage of our graduates go to Clackamas than graduates who attend other schools in the district," said Simp kins. "We've had transfers from other pro grams who think most highly of Clackamas and continue here also." The ABE/GED program has a high degree of success, even though most of its students have failed at one thing or another and come from bad school experiences. "I would say that with those students under 17 we succeed with 50 -o 55 per cent of them, with 17-year-olds we succeed with 75 to 80 per cent and with those 18 and over 90 per cent," said Simpkins, "and these are all people who have failed else where." The programs concentrate on teaching students basic skills of reading, writing and arithmetic. They learn math through al gebra and geometry, English grammar and spelling and a core of principles, concepts and terms in literature, social studies and science. ABE/GED has been in operation for 12 years and was started by Helen Myers, who held classes in basements, churches or when ever she could get space. The college picked it up in 1969 and it has been funded since then like any other program at the school with added Federal funding. "The federal funds are used to pay students' tuition which would be the same as any other college student. Not having these funds would prohibit most of these people from taking advantage of the pro gram," said Simpkins. . "We're nothing more than a country school with all the emphasis placed on readin', 'ritin' and 'rithmetic," he said. "We also give lots of individual attention and place most of our ¡emphasis on reading be cause how can a person learn anything if he can't read." Tufts leaving Marlene Tufts, a psychology instructor at Clackamas Community College, will be leaving this August for a year in Hawaii. She has been teaching at CCC since 1969, and will take a leave of absence for her stay in Hawaii, then return to teaching at CCC in the fall of 1978. Tufts is going to start on her doctorate at the University of Hawaii. She received her masters at Sacramento State University in California. Specializing in physiologic; I psychology, Tufts will be studying sex and gender. Her husband and two daughters will be going with her. "They're almost more en- thused than I am about going. I prefer Oregon weather, because I just get sun burned. I just plan to work a lot and learn a lot," said Tufts. Tuft's first priority on the sabbatical list is to get half of her salary paid while she's gone. "I'm sure I'll learn more to benefit Clackamas students," said Tufts. for your books at the CCC Bookstore West Coast Book June 7 and 8 WE BUY TEXTS, PAPERBACKS, MISCELLANEOUS