Description of Literacy Programs


CURRICULAR OFFERINGS DESCRIBED

SPECIAL PROJECTS

SPECIAL PROGRAMS

NEEDS ASSESSMENT

PURPOSES, GOALS, and OBJECTIVES of ADULT EDUCATION in the CNMI

The ABE Program offers the qualified residents and citizens of the NMI, who for one reason or another did not complete the traditional high school program, a second chance of a formal education. Such individuals typically fall into a number of disparate categories. Some are immigrants and therefore second language speakers by birth. Some others, disenchanted with school in their youth, recognized the need for education at a later date and sought ways to mend the situation thus created. Yet others, through no fault of their own, were forced to drop out of school against what otherwise would have been their will.

To address the needs of such educationally disadvantaged adults of the NMI community, various instructional offerings enable them to:

    A. acquire skills in reading, writing, and mathematics thereby increasing their chances to obtain or advance in a job

    B. prepare themselves academically to pass the General Educational Development (GED) tests thereby giving them a chance to higher education

    C. gain literacy in computer operation

    D. learn English as a Second Language

    E. gain life coping skills

The specific goals of the individual programs, as currently installed, are targeted to the varied skill levels represented by those who come to us to achieve their own goals. Indeed, their goals are our goals.

At the most basic level the ABE program seeks to enable students new to the English language the chance to become reasonably fluent in that language. In the NMI, because English is the second and sometimes the third language, such a program is necessary.

At another level, citizens, who for whatever reason have been exposed to little formal education, are taught the most basic of mathematical and grammar skills in preparation for the more advanced pre-GED program to follow. This particular program is sometimes the largest in terms of enrollment.

The pre-GED and the GED programs are the heart of the overall effort. These correspond to the junior high and high school programs per se. They are of course the most challenging, and as such require and receive the most focused attention of teachers and administrator alike.