WESTFIELD – Local residents looking to take the High School Equivalency Test (HiSET) and earn a high school diploma will have another opportunity in 2015, as Westfield Community Education (WCE) will be holding a registration at the Westfield Athenaeum on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. for students to prepare to take the HiSET.
Now in the eighth year of operation, HiSET, formerly the General Equivalency Diploma or GED, has served a total of 483 disadvantaged teens, at-risk youth and adults, many living in poverty, with both Pre-HiSET and HiSET preparation classes, tutoring and academic counseling.
Since 2008, 153 students have passed the HiSET exam and in 2014, the program achieved an 84.5 percent success rate.
According to Kelly Pelkey, WCE’s program coordinator, the program’s rigorous curricula, driven educators, high expectations of student performance, daily homework, and constant acknowledgement of academic success have contributed in the program’s staggering success.
As to who is eligible to participate, Pelkey stated that anyone who has not finished their high school education is eligible to participate in the classes.
“These free classes will be held at the Athenaeum, begin on Monday, January 12, and will run for 15 weeks,” said Pelkey, adding that students have come from Southwick and West Springfield in addition to Westfield. “We have three different classes and the tops that we can accomodate are 55 (students) per session, so that’s 18 students per class.”
Pelkey said 2014 saw 91 students enroll in the program, with eight students passing the test, 12 graduating from pre-HiSET to HiSET Level 1 coursework.
An additional four students enrolled in college, while another six secured full or part-time jobs and another 23 are still in study.
Asked what it means to be able to help residents go back to school and finish their high school education, Pelkey said helping students improve their lives is a profound, incredible feeling.
“Lack of education and poverty are directly linked and that’s why it is vital that we exist,” she said. “A lot of the people we see are entrenched in generational poverty, so it is extremely impacting when they’re finally able to receive this high credential and move forward with their life.”
Ann Lentini, executive director of Domus, Inc. and the WCE, said she is hoping for a registration on par with 2014, but added that enrollment may be slightly lower.
“We’re working with Westfield Public Schools to create a dropout referral program, so that there is some sort of continuity for kids… if they dropout, they will have someplace else to go immediately,” she said. “We are still pushing forward and expect to have a good percentage of our students take – and pass – the HiSET.”
Lentini stated that the HiSET test is more difficult than the old GED exam and that, although students can still take the course for free, the cost for taking the test has also increased.
“It is amazing how the state makes things more difficult, for not only does the testing cost, but they made a new requirement that students have to pay for the test online with a debit or credit card,” she said. “We’re trying to cover that, as well.”
Lentini listed off a group of donors who pay for the WCE’s course, including Westfield Bank’s Future Fund, the Berkshire Bank Foundation, Western Mass. Hospital and the city’s Kiwanis Club, among many others.
“The instruction will run anywhere from $30,000 to $45,000 depending on how many hours of instruction we have,” she said. “We provide four hours of the HiSET, four hours of the pre-HiSET and then tutoring and computer classes, along with materials – that we pay – that average around $5,000.”
“The community has done an outstanding job of supporting this program, through banks and grant foundations, so we’ve been very fortunate to continue through that,” Lentini said. “We’re growing and looking to expand, but that will just take time. But we certainly get enough students coming and that is a huge plus.”
