More Callaway County residents will be eligible to receive a scholarship to take the HiSET (High School Equivalency Test) to obtain their high school diploma after the Callaway County County HiSET Advisory Council received a $1,000 donation from the Ovid Bell Press Friday.
Nancy Foster, RSVP Director at SERVE and HiSET Advisory Council chairperson, said the council will use 50 percent of the donation to help more students afford the $95 HiSET testing fee upon completion of preparation classes.
"The generous donation from John Bell will help about 20 to 80 students afford testing to get what was once the GED and is now the high school equivalency test," Foster said.
Foster explained how Tad Dobyns, a community organizer for CMCA and a HiSET Advisory Council member, helped secure the donation.
"Tad had done a presentation about the program and John Bell decided to donate some money," Foster said. "They (Ovid Bell) have donated two different types of earplugs a while back and in the conversation about the program, he (Bell) must have decided decided it was worthwhile to make a financial donation."
She said the advisory council decided that the remaining funds will be used to purchase the HiSET curriculum, along with HiSET materials to reinforce the curriculum.
"It (HiSET) is new so it's taking a while to access it," Foster said. "We only had GED testing materials for awhile, which wasn't very helpful because the GED test was designed differently - it asked about different information and required different materials compared to the HiSET test Missouri went to in 2014."
Additional plans for the program in 2015 include "making the classes more inclusive with the support of additional culturally competent volunteers," Foster wrote in a press release.
She elaborated on the statement, saying that two teachers in charge of evening classes know sign language, and their proficiency is instrumental to the program's recent efforts to reach out to students with hearing impairments. Support for the initiative began recently when Foster received requests from Callaway Special Services and the Missouri School for the Deaf wanting an inclusive learning environment for deaf students.
"A hearing impaired individual also contacted me to express that he would really like to see other deaf students at future preparation classes as well," Foster said.
She said that 10 students are currently registered for morning classes as well as evening classes, but enrollment numbers may increase before new sessions kick off Aug. 25.
"I have several students coming in on Monday to take a pretest to see where their proficiency and skills are at so we can figure out what learning level they're on," Foster said. "After an eight week session, we do another test to see if we've made improvements, and we go from there."
She added that the HiSET preparation classes are individualized because the learning curve for each student varies.
"Classes are more individually based and work more independently compared to a traditional classroom," Foster explained. "It really depends on each student. Some have tested so high they could probably take the test immediately but they just wanted a refresher."
The preparation classes are currently run by six volunteer teachers - two lead teachers and a few teachers who volunteer part-time once each week.
Although this year marks the second year Callaway County has offered HiSET classes, Foster, the other advisory council members and the lead teachers have high expectations for the program's future once the appropriate funding is achieved.
"We eventually would love to expand to Auxvasse and Mokane so people don't have to figure out how to get to Fulton," Foster said. "We see that as a possibility in the future but we're just not there right now."
Foster added that a specific goal she has involves integrating more technology into the program.
" I would like to see an online system so students can check classroom lesson plans and the grade book so they can access it at the library or wherever they want," she said. "Plans like this will get better as time goes along."
The advisory council plans to keep pushing toward developing funding sources to enhance the program. Foster said the Callaway Betterment Association is currently allowing the program to use its 503 (c) non-profit organization status to seek funding until it can be listed as a separate, official organization.
"We are eventually going to apply for 503 (c) status, then will be able to apply for local, state and private grants," Foster said. "We will be researching other grant funding resources to eventually hire a teacher to take over the program."
She said that in 2016, the next round of funding for a Dollar General Literacy Grant will be available.
"We've done research for the grant but we just haven't applied yet," Foster said.