State Tech at Memphis addresses community literacy needs

Increasing numbers of adults are finding that they lack the basic skills requisite for jobs in the 1990s or they could benefit from cross-training to ensure job security. Whereas a sixth-grade education was sufficient for many types of employment in the 1960s, a majority of jobs for the next decade and beyond will require some post-secondary education. Yet many adults lack the basic skills to enroll in this level of education and/or training. Second-Chance Education Because two-year colleges are frequently the gateway to second-chance education, increasing numbers of them are accepting part of the basic skills training challenge. One of those colleges is State Technical Institute at Memphis, Tennessee's largest two-year college. With a current student enrollment of over 10,000, the college has a long history of serving the needs of business, industry and government in the Memphis metropolitan area. In addition to offering over 25 degree programs in the areas of computer technology, engineering and business, the college's continuing-education division serves thousands of students each year with courses developed and tailored to meet specific job market needs. However, the effectiveness of training and education is constrained by the fact that approximately 160,000 people in the Memphis area are functionally illiterate, and over 80% of freshmen entering State Tech need remedial and/or developmental work before they can succeed at the college level. To help address both the needs of the college's students and of the larger community, several years ago Dr. Charles M. Temple, president of State Tech, and other members of a Chamber of Commerce Committee explored how to best address the skills deficits in the Memphis area. A number of effective programs ranging from Adult Basic Education classes to one-to-one tutorial programs were already in place, yet these programs were not even keeping abreast of the high school dropout rate. According to state government sources, solving Tennessee's illiteracy problem will take 100 years at the current rate of instruction. (1) With a $50,000 development grant from the Tennessee Valley Authority, Temple formed a campus task force to explore the feasibility of computer-based literacy instruction as a way of maintaining individualization of instruction while increasing the number of clients served. Campus staff spent many hours researching hardware configurations, instructional software and computer-based management systems. Workforce Training Center Then in the fall of 1990, State Tech initiated the Workforce Training Center, a three-year pilot program designed to explore whether the integration of computer-based instruction (CBI), with an emphasis on job-skills and life-skills contexts and strong facilitative support, would prove an effective means of helping adults improve their basic skills in mathematics, writing and reading. The rationale for the program is that CBI particularly benefits adult students by providing flexibility of instructional times, privacy, individualization, and immediate feedback on answers and progress. The Workforce Training Center is open from 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 8:00 to 12:00 on Saturday mornings. Although the initial cost of hardware and software may seem high, the savings in instructor stipends, high utilization ratios, and the availability of quality instruction-regardless of the time of day or number of students served--result in a lower per-capita cost than many traditional programs. Because computers deliver the majority of the instruction, only one fulltime staff person and one part-time staff person are needed to supervise instruction. The college renovated an existing building to house both the college learning center, the Multimedia Skills Center, and the Workforce Training Center. New carpeting and new furniture were installed, creating a comfortable environment that makes clients feel valued. …