Adult education adds offerings, flexibility

By Emily Richmond

Wednesday, July 9, 2008 | 2 a.m.

The Clark County School District is launching an initiative designed to help dropouts and students teetering on the brink of academic failure.

The new arrangement not only has the potential to boost the graduation rate, it should also bring the district more money.

Here’s how it will work. Starting next month, the district’s adult education department, which currently offers only academic classes, will add vocational training in such popular fields as hospitality and construction. The program will be offered through Desert Rose Adult High School in North Las Vegas.

The key aspect of all this — students ages 17-19 who sign up for both vocational and academic classes will be part of a new dual program that will be similar to a traditional high school but with a more flexible schedule. Classes will be offered from early morning until late evening, making it easier for students to balance outside obligations such as work or child care.

Here’s how the extra money comes in. The state’s K-12 schools are guaranteed funding for every student, through age 19. For the upcoming academic year, Clark County’s per-pupil funding rate is expected to be $4,958. Adult education programs, however, are funded through a lump sum allocation.

For 2008, the district’s “adult ed” program received $13.6 million. After $4.7 million gets deducted to spend on prison school programs, the remainder is equivalent to $670 for each of adult ed’s more than 18,000 students.

The district plans to claim students who sign up for the new dual program as part of the regular K-12 head count, rather than as adult ed participants. So, for every 100 students who sign up for the dual program, the district would be entitled to another $500,000 from the state.

The goal is get as many students signed up as possible before the third week in September, which is when the state takes the official head count that determines funding.

The School District’s dropout rate, hovering around 6 percent, has long been a source of frustration to educators, parents, community leaders and lawmakers. Though the graduation rate has inched up slowly — to between 60 percent and 67 percent, depending on the formula — it is still among the lowest in the nation.

Each year thousands of Clark County teens who quit high school wind up signing up for adult education. For the 2007-08 academic year, 17-year-olds accounted for 20 percent of the total adult ed enrollment.

Sometimes only a few days have lapsed since they were last in school, while others wait weeks, months or years before returning. Theresa Ramirez, 17, quit school in the fall after becoming pregnant, for example. She walked the stage of the Thomas & Mack Center to collect her diploma June 12, just 28 days after the birth of her son.

But she is not counted as a graduate in the district’s statistics because she was a graduate of the adult education program. Even if a student earns a diploma from adult ed at the same time the student would have at a regular high school, they are not counted in the graduation rate.

Under the new program, Ramirez and potentially thousands of other teen students can make their diplomas count.

Ramirez, for one, certainly sounds like she should be counted.

“I really wanted to finish school,” the aspiring dental hygienist said. “I felt like if I quit, I would be letting myself down.”

For information about the new dual program, call Desert Rose Adult High School at 799-6240. The district’s adult education department can also be found online at ccsd.net/schools/aded.