CROSSVILLE ADULT ED ACHIEVES HIGHEST GOALS IN STATE
TENNESSEE TECHNOLOGY CENTER SURPASSES TARGETS BY 168%

NASHVILLE - For the 2004-05 program year, the Adult Education program at Tennessee Technology Center in Crossville surpassed the set targets by 168%. This achievement was the highest of all 91 Adult education programs across the state. They served 435 students and 195, or 45% of their enrollment, earned the GED diploma.

Each year, the Division of Adult Education sets performance target numbers in 16 areas through negotiations with the US Department of Education, Office of Vocational and Adult Education. The targets include educational gain, obtaining a GED diploma, entering employment, retaining employment, and entering post-secondary education.

“There were three major factors that helped us achieve program excellence,” said Pam Stubbs, supervisor of the Crossville Adult Education Program. “The use of the Malcolm Baldrige Criteria for Excellence for program improvement, the new Tennessee Instructional Framework which allows teachers to quickly pinpoint students' deficiencies and address them, and the incentive money that paid the GED test fee for the first half of last year. The test fee is a burden for most of our students.”

In January of this year approximately $1 million dollars from federal incentive grant funds was awarded to Tennessee to pay for the costs of General Educational Development (GED) test fees and to add more GED classes throughout the state. By the end of the year we found there was a 37 percent increase in GEDs statewide due directly to special grant funding. A total of 11,933 GED diplomas were issued in fiscal year 2004-05. Twenty-four local programs increased the number of GED diplomas by 50 percent or higher in their communities.

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(06-26)