Adult education programs are searching for ways to help students acquire the necessary skills to be successful college students. In New England, we are fortunate to have the Nellie Mae Education Foundation and the New England Literacy Resource Center (NELRC) to assist us in the worthy goal of transitioning students from adult education to college.

NELRC
The NELRC is a partnership of New England State Literacy Resource Centers, adult literacy practitioners, and policymakers. Each of the six New England states makes financial contributions to this partnership and each state has four representatives on the NELRC governing board: the state ABE director, the state staff development director, and two practitioners. NELRC brings added value to the New England adult literacy communities by implementing practitioner-based projects that promote inquiry and innovation and generation of knowledge that improve practice. Projects such as Adult Multiple Intelligences (AMI) Study, Civic Participation, and the Change Agent are just a few of NELRC's projects.

Background
The ABE-to-College Transition Project was conceived and designed by the NELRC at World Education. The NELRC provides professional development and technical assistance to the transition programs and manages the project. The Nellie Mae Education Foundation generously funds the programs. There are 21 transition programs in this project, with funding per program averaging $35,000. Current programs include three in Connecticut, nine in Massachusetts, one in Vermont, one in New Hampshire, one in Rhode Island, and six in Maine. These transition programs operate as part of adult basic education programs in diverse settings: community-based organizations, public schools, community colleges, and prisons. Regardless of the setting, each transition program provides free instruction to adult learners in basic academic skills of reading, writing, math and computer skills. Students learn study skills, receive educational and career counseling, and assistance in enrolling in higher education. Students who have successfully enrolled in college are mentored to encourage them to persist in college. Eligible students are adults who have never attended college. The program is aimed at adult education graduates, but students who have graduated from high school five or more years ago are also eligible.

Each program has at least at least one college partner, but many have more than one. The program's director, instructor, or counselor establishes relationships with representatives of a local college's financial aid, admissions, student support and developmental studies departments. These partnerships enable the programs to introduce their ABE students to college life and available services.

Program Goals
Programs are expected to serve a minimum of 30 students a year in two-to-three-week cycles. The goal is to have 60% of the students complete the course. Seventy-five percent of those completing the course should enroll in post secondary education. The exciting news is that the statistics for 2001 show that the original five New England transition programs met all goals with a total of 78 students completing the course (60%) and 63 (81%) entering college.

A website for the Transition Project is being created this year. It will include specific classroom lessons, recruiting ideas, tips, and techniques for college counseling, mentoring ideas, and course outlines for College Academic Skills, PC Skills, and College Survival Skills. Exemplary practices are being collected by the NELRC in these four areas: Program Planning, Educational Counseling, Curriculum and Instruction, Collaboration with the Colleges. The website will also have a forum for programs to discuss what works and what doesn't.

Marshwood Adult and Community Education, serving the communities of Eliot and South Berwick, Maine, is excited about being a regional college transition site, serving students from both Maine and New Hampshire. Marshwood already collaborates with adult education programs in Kittery, Noble, and York, so this is an extension of that collaboration. We were aware of the large numbers of students graduating with GEDs and adult diplomas locally ,and though we have offered counseling, college planning nights, and individual college prep classes, we knew we needed to do more. Most of our students had indicated a desire to go on to college, yet the number of transcript requests seemed to indicate they had not taken that essential next step. Implementing this ABE-to-college program forced me as a program director to move college collaboration from my "should do" to my "must do" list. We want to make sure our students are competitive in gaining entrance to a variety of post-secondary programs.

Clearly, we all must do more. Whether it's an ABE-to-college transition program, career counseling, data collection, or forming partnerships between local colleges and adult education programs, we must find ways to provide students the support they need to successfully transition to college.

Connie Patton is the director of Marshwood Adult and Community Education. She can be reached at: capatton@maine.rr.com