Bringing It Back to the Basics

In a High-Tech World Where Many Colleges Are Scrambling to Acquire the Most Advanced Curriculums, Others Are Being Progressive by Teaching the Fundamentals
By Eleanor Lee Yates

BALTIMORE — Michael Miller always struggled with school. "I was considered to be slow," recalls the 26-year-old. After repeating the 10th grade twice — and barely able to stumble through a sentence without tripping over the words —  he dropped out.
"I got tired of trying," he says simply. Years later, determined to learn to read and hoping to finish high school, Miller enrolled in Baltimore City Community College's Adult Basic Education program here, where, after four attempts, he got his high school equivalency diploma.
The rest is history. Now enrolled full-time in the 6,000-student college's credit division, Miller achieved a 4.0 grade-point average for the spring semester and has plans to be a teacher. In fact, he's been singled out as a national example of what literacy programs can achieve.
Baltimore City is among a growing number of colleges with high-tech, cutting-edge curriculums that are focusing more and more on an often forgotten population — those who can't read or whose skills are minimal.
"A lot of people today don't know how to read. Community colleges are about the community. Our mission is to give people what they need," says Beverly Arah, director of the literacy program at the college, which includes English as Second Language classes, GED and Adult Basic Education.
The U.S. Department of Education estimates that more than 40 million American adults have reading difficulties. But many of the nation's 1,250 community, junior and technical colleges have read something else into that figure.
The colleges, while always eager to help fill a niche in their respective communities, also have seen how seizing upon literacy education can translate into scores of potential new students, additional state and federal funding and enough poignant success stories to, well, fill a book.