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ABLE program offers chance to improve lives
By Denise Dick
YOUNGSTOWN
Phyllis Evans wants to get her GED, go to college and study to become a social worker.
That’s why she enrolled six weeks ago in the Attend & Achieve classes through Youngstown Adult Basic Literacy Education, or ABLE. The free classes are offered four days per week at First Presbyterian Church and in the evening at Choffin Career and Technical Center.
“I’ve come very, very far,” Evans said. “I’ve gone from a fourth-grade level up to a ninth-grade level, close to a 10th-grade level. I’m really, really excited.”
She plans to earn her GED and then go on to Youngstown State University to pursue a career in social work.
“I really like helping people,” she said. “I’m very ambitious, and I think I can help people. Anything is possible through God. If they work hard, they can do anything.”
Evans is one of ABLE’s success stories, said Mia Panno, ABLE coordinator.
Classes in the most recent session started in September. Each student takes a test at the beginning of the session to determine their aptitude in reading, writing and math.
Data about students is forwarded to the state, which tracks success and whether each student goes on to further education.
About 160 students are enrolled in classes at the church with about 75 more at Choffin. Last year, 2,000 people registered for the program with 208 GED graduates.
“Since President Obama has had a push for education when he came in to office, we’ve seen more people,” Panno said.
Gov. Ted Strickland’s emphasis on education also played a role, she said.
“We outgrew our space,” the coordinator said.
Sessions formerly were in St. John’s Episcopal Church but had to move to larger quarters.
Attend & Achieve classes are new this year and require attendance. Students are permitted one excused absence per session.
“It’s getting students ready for college or post-secondary education,” she said.
Attendance is a requirement of some college courses and also, because each session lasts only six weeks, if a participant misses more than one class, he or she would miss too much material, Panno said.
Open classes, which don’t require attendance, are offered too. Other sites include OneStop-Oak Hill Renaissance Center, Mahoning County Career and Technical Center and the English Center at John Knox Church for English for Speakers of Other Languages classes.
At the end of each six-week session, students are retested to see if they’ve improved, Panno said.
Pedro Vazquez of Youngstown said he’s improved in all of the subject areas.
“I want to get my GED,” he said.
Vazquez is an aspiring writer and inventor and plans to continue his education at either YSU or ITT Technical College. He wants to develop video games and write books in his spare time.
Formerly under the auspices of the Ohio Department of Education, last year ABLE was moved under the umbrella of the Ohio Board of Regents. It’s part of state officials’ goal of increasing the number of Ohioans who successfully complete post-secondary education.
Panno points to statistics cited in an article from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that found that nearly 60 percent of students enrolling in U.S. community colleges have to take remedial courses to improve basic academic skills.
The number is closer to 90 percent for low-income and students of color.
Those remedial classes cost taxpayers about $2 million a year, the article says, and most students neither complete the classes nor graduate.
Word of the classes spreads mostly by word-of-mouth, as the program, which is grant-funded, doesn’t have the money for publicity. The next session runs from Nov. 2 through Dec. 17. Call ABLE at 330-744-8715 for more information.
Before becoming program coordinator three years ago, Panno worked for seven years as an ABLE teacher. She said it’s rewarding to see people accomplish something they didn’t believe they would be able to do.
“I tell people, ‘There’s always going to be someone who tells you that you can’t do something. Don’t let that someone be you,’” she said.