Basic education services expand for Valley adults

WASILLA — Although people arrive at Nine Star Educational and Employment Services via many avenues, they share a common goal: improving their education to access better jobs.

“I want to have good pay so I can give my children everything they need and not live paycheck to paycheck,” said student Britni Sylvester, a mother of three who is studying for her GED diploma.

Sylvester said her focus switched from graduating high school to parenting after she learned she was pregnant her senior year.

Marketing and development director Melissa Bassham said about 30 students have enrolled in Nine Star’s adult basic education classes since it opened in September at the Mat-Su Job Center in the Westside Mall, 877 W. Commercial Dr., Wasilla.

She said the state asked the 501(c)(3) nonprofit to expand its services to the Valley after a for-profit business that had offered GED testing services in Palmer closed. Although the adult basic education program shares space with the state’s Wasilla Job Center, it is a separate entity that has a state grant to provide GED diploma help and testing.

Bassham said most students who use the program are preparing to take the GED test, but the help is open to any adult seeking to polish their basic education skills. For $40 a quarter, anyone can brush up on basic education, she said.

The test has been rewritten four times since it was developed by the American Council on Education at the request of the U.S. Armed Forces Institute in 1942. The last update was in 2002, Bassham said.

Beginning in January 2014, a new version of the exam will be used and testing will be computer based and offered only at proctored sites and times. The fee to take the test also will increase from $25 to take all five sections, to $120 to take the revised test’s four sections.

In addition to the increased price being a barrier for some students, Bassham said the new test’s higher fees will be another hurdle.

She said students who have passed some sections of the tests should make the effort to come in and complete the process now because none of the sections completed will carry over to the new test in the New Year.

“If you’ve passed 3/4 of the tests, you don’t get to carry any of that over,” Bassham said.

She said in Anchorage, Nine Star is offering focused classes for people in this group who want to push hard and earn their GED diploma by the end of the year. So far, demand hasn’t been great enough to add similar classes in the Valley though, Bassham said.

“If it doesn’t work out, we are still with you Jan. 1,” she said.

Heading up the new Wasilla operation is high school completion teacher and GED instructor Donn Liston. He was selected as a 2013 BP Teacher of Excellence for his work with Nine Star teaching adult basic education classes in a basement classroom at the Mountain View Boys and Girls Club.

“A lot of those students couldn’t write anything when they met me,” Liston said of the former students who nominated him.

He said GED diplomas are part of the three-legged stool that is public education in the U.S. The stool’s other two legs are kindergarten through 12th grade and post-secondary education.

“The GED has been so important in our country,” Liston said. “It has a really important place in our whole education structure.”

Whether students have begun the testing or not, he said there is no substitute for having an education.

“If you are halfway through it, you need to get it done,” Liston said. “A lot of people get trapped and they don’t realize this is the only key that will open the door.”

Bassham said many new students are referred to the center by family members who earned their GED diplomas through Nine Star.

Liston said if parents graduate from high school, their children are more likely to also. Conversely, if parents didn’t graduate, their children are less likely to value education and stick with it through graduation or post secondary training.

“The parents are the ones who have to instill in their kids the value of education,” Liston said. “When they see their parents going to school it changes their understanding of the value of education.”

He said to begin, students take a TABE test to measure their current skills. Most students who sit for the test pass it, Liston said.

“Sixty percent walk in, take the test and pass,” he said.

The help he offers aims to reach the remaining 40 percent of students who need a boost to clear this educational hurdle, Liston said.

“A lot of people would find getting a GED would be really easy if they tried,” he said.

Students who need more preparation work with Liston for 30 to 40 hours before repeating the TABE test to measure their progress, Liston said.

Jace Paul Coulombe, 22, is studying at Nine Star for his GED diploma.

“If I had my GED right now I’d be on the Slope working,” he said.

He dreams of the day when he will have an education, a good job and will be able to afford to have his own little house and take care of himself.

“It’s hard without it,” he said. “If you don’t have your GED or diploma, this is a good way to get it. Come and try.”

Juliet Xiong said she’s returned to school so her children could see how hard she is working and understand that school is more difficult when you also are juggling homework and adult responsibilities.

“I want to be an example to my kids,” Xiong said.

Her classmate Sylvester credits Liston with making education seem fun and possible.

“The teacher is awesome,” she said. “He’s helped me a lot with math.”

Liston’s worn a variety of professional hats, but he says this one is his favorite.

“Of all the different educational experiences I’ve had, adult education has been a high point for me,” he said. “It’s really, really gratifying to see someone graduate. Getting a GED is helping people begin to find their place on the career ladder.”

For more information, contact 373-7833 or email matsuged@ninestar.com.

Contact Heather A. Resz at 352-2268 or heather.resz@frontiersman.com.