If you didn’t complete your high school education, you can go back to school through the adult high school program.
Coordinator and Instructor Susan Hinton says many people have taken advantage of this opportunity.”This is about our third year in existence. This particular year, we have served over thirty seven students. I have approximately eight students who will have graduated, as of this week. I expect about three or four more students to graduate soon. The students graduate as they finish their course work. We will have a graduation ceremony in September.”
“I get many calls from people wanting to get into the program, but I refer them to DCHS School counselor Lori Barnes-Myrick. Call her at 615- 597-2243 or set up an appointment with her. She will go through your record and determine how many credits that you have. There are different qualifications depending upon what years you were enrolled in high school. The state requires participants to take a reading exam and you have to be reading on an 8.1 level in order to come into the program. If you are transferring from another school system, the requirement is that you do have to live in DeKalb County. She (counselor) checks the school record to determine the credits needed. To receive any high school credit, all students must have twenty credits. That’s basic credits. That also has to be in certain subjects.”
“The classes meet from 9:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. each day (on the high school campus). Adult high school student have two scheduled breaks during the day and they have a one hour period at lunch. They may go anywhere they wish, but we close down the building from noon until 1:00 p.m. That enables them to go home, if they need to check on their families or whatever. After lunch, they come back and we open again at 1:00 p.m. Our schedule runs concurrent with the program of the regular school system. In other words, if schools are out for a snow break or other inclement weather, we are also out. If it’s a teacher/faculty day, then schools are closed at the adult high school. The only exception is that instead of the regular summer school, adult high school is open all day again and that happens around the month of June. So it’s kind of a year round program.”
Hinton says students who attend the adult high school are not taking a short cut to obtaining their diploma. “Each student is independent in their subjects, so they’re pretty much self guided. Each course has it’s own set of criteria, depending upon what subject the student is working in. I also do career counseling with them and we have guests in from time to time to talk to them about various careers. There’s not a short cut. Each class takes 133 hours and that is clock hours. They have to do the work to match the clock hours. They have to pass that subject. In other words, if they sit in there and they do the time and don’t do the work or pass then they will fail. It would be an “F”. A half of a credit is 70 hours so they have to do 70 clock hours plus the work that goes with that subject. So there’s not a fast cut. They can only do one credit at a time. I also have some high school students who have already had a course and did not complete it for credit. So for them there is what is called Credit Recovery and sometimes they can go back and pick up a class by doing computer work that matches that class. But even that is quite a bit of work. That is not a short cut either. There is no short cut to getting a high school diploma.”
In addition to Hinton, the adult high school staff is made up of W.C. Braswell and Beverly Ferrell
For more information call the high school guidance department at 615- 597-2243 or the adult high school at 615-597-2254.
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