3
Street roots
June 20, 2014
Although Timothy Pool received
his G E D certificate from the
Londer Learning Center this
month, he already has attended
college courses fo r the past few
months. Pool, who described
him self as a former “deadbeat
drug addict, ” made the
President’s List at Portland
Community College in his first
term.
Challenges
ahead for
GED schools
BY JACQUES VON LUNEN
f ' A
: ST A FF W R IT E R '
’
’
>•
he Londer Learning Center is
facing new dual challenges to its
mission of educating adults
transitioning out of prison or drug
treatment - from the loss of federal
money and a new testing standard.
It is unclear yet exactly how these
changes will afreet the program. But they
likely will lead to loss of services to
certain students and to lower graduation
rates among those who remain.
After Myldred Silvia graduated from
the GED program last year, she got a call
from her oldest sqn. He wanted to follow
her example and get his diploma, too.
But when Silvia called the center,
where teachers had shown her so much
love and compassion during her own
schooling, she was turned away.
Her son wasn’t on parole and didn’t .
need treatment for addiction. That meant
he didn’t meet the center’s requirements
for entry.
But two weeks later, Londer staff
called her back with good news: h erso n ,
would be able to attend weekend classes
taught by volunteers at Londer, an d th e.
center;Would coordinate with other adult
education programs around town to fill
his weekdays with learning, too.
His admittance to the center wasn’t
based on the desperate plea of a mother
— it was the result of a nationwide effort
to graduate as many adults as possible .
before the introduction of tougher GED ’
exams in January,
-GED tests hadn’t changedsince 2002
— until this January when the company
PJfiO TO B Y J A C Q U E S V O t y L U N E N
rolled out new exams based on the
Common Core standards that are the
new norm in the public schools of 45
states and Washington, D.C.
. •
; GED is a brand name. The tests are
created by GED Testing Service, a for-
” profit corporation jointly owned by
textbook publisher Pearson and the
American Council on .Education.
But just like the Common Core
standards, which are hotly debated in
school districts around the country and
better than the keynote speaker of the June
which some states are threatening to
6 ceremony — Londer alumna Myldred
discard after dismal test results, the new
Silvia.
GED standards aren’t universally loved,
Silvia dropped out of high school as a
TWo competitors issuing high school
sophomore in 1984. She Was using drugs
equivalency diplomas have emerged, in
and “wanted to get fast money and do
part because education
anything to cheat the
departments weren’t
system,” Silvia said, a
happy with the new GED
week before the
| standards. Several states
graduation ceremony. " I was like a gerbil in a
started offering these
By 1988, she was
cage," Silvia said. " I
new exams instead of, or
sick of using, but her
could jump <m ike wkeel | sometimes alongside, the
beloved
or get oil m y w heel— bat ■ GED te s t Oregon offers
grandmother’s death
only the new, beefed-up
I was still la tk e cage. I
caused a mental
breakdown. “I really
kept myself ia a box fo r a \ GED exam.
The new GED exam’s
got into my addiction
loag time."
most visible change is
after that,” Silvia said.
LONDER ALUMNA
SILVIA^
that it is only offered in a
She didn’t
computer-based version.
successfully enter .
No more paper. It’s
treatment again until
meant to foster much-needed computer
2010.
literacy in adult students, the company
Silvia finally got clean and enrolled at
has said.
Londer. She reconnected with her family
But some advocates question the
and turned into a role model for her
wisdom of mandating computer tests for
children.
people who may not have a PC at home.
Buf her struggle wasn’t over yet Thought
The other changes are more
patterns formed over decades didn’t just
complicated and arguably much tougher
vanish overnight, “I found out‘I was scared ’
than the fact that students need mouse
of success,” Silvia said.
clicks to give their answers.
She realized she’d gotten comfortable
The reading curriculum, for example,
with failure and limitations^
includes more nonfiction materiaL
“I was like a gerbil in a cage,” Silvia said.
Students are asked to analyze what they
“I could jump on the wheel or get off my
read more deeply and sum up their
wheel — but I was still in the cage. I kept
■
More than a GED
Graduates of Londer Learning Center master learning and life
drug treatment program or judge, Scholl
said. One exception: last year, the center
participated in a nationwide push: to
housands of fresh-faced high school
graduate more GED students before new
graduates filed through the Veterans
tests were rolled out in January. As part of
Memorial Coliseum this month,
happy to transition out of their teenage this effort, students without referrals from
law enforcement or drug counselors were
years.
admitted for special weekend classes taught
But the small group of students who
by volunteers.
threw their caps in the air inside the
(These students were also in the June 6
Multnomah Building in Southeast Portland
ceremony, which is why not everyone shown
on June 6 celebrated the closure of
in these photos can be assumed to have a
something much more somber.
criminal record or1 drug-abuse history.) -
Most of these graduates, members of the
Classes at the center are small, never
Londer Learning Center, have overcome
more than 15 people. And every one of its
drug addiction, prison, homelessness and -
11 employees knows that it’s a “huge deal
similar hardships.
for these people to make the leap backto
The GED certificates they received on
school,” Scholl said.
June 6 proved much more than their
The students’ ages range from 18 to 60.
mastery of high-school lével math and
And
most of them are in a transitional phase
writing - they signaled self-esteem/ restored
of their lives, battling addiction, housing
family ties and perseverance.
issues and unemployment.
One of a kind
Recognizing these special difficulties'in
their
students’ lives is the focus of the
The Londer Learning Center is the only
adult education program in Oregon that that center staff. If a student’s attendance falls
off, for example, teachers call to see what
caters exclusively to adults who’ve recently
prompted the change. They provide stress -
been released from prison or drug
toys - squeeze balls that restore calmness -
treatment facilities.
in class for students who last dealt with
The center operates in a county building
algebra two decades ago,
on Southwest Fifth Avenue in downtown
“We want to be that positive place where
Portland, where it helps about 800 students
they can see success,” Scholl said.
per year move toward a high school
Success, completion and achievement can
equivalency diploma, said Carole Scholl», a
be scary concepts.
community justice manager who leads the
Gerbil on a wheel
' center.
Students have to be referred to the
Nobody understands the fear of success
center by a probation officer, parole officer,
BY JACQUES VON LUNEN
STAFF WRITER
■
See GEDs, p ag e 7
See CHALLENGES, p ag e 7