County adult education program earns Palmetto Performer Award

Cherokee County Adult Education teachers were honored by the state for their work in helping residents earn their high school credentials. Pictured are Stacy Oglesby, Beth Martin, Dona Greer and Lisa Hannon.

Ledger Staff Writer

The Cherokee County Adult Education program has received a Palmetto Performer Award for its success in helping residents complete their high school education.

Cherokee County is one of 12 adult education programs statewide named Palmetto Performers during a Jan. 28 luncheon in Columbia. The awards are given to adult education programs where the most residents have earned high school diplomas and general education development (GED) credentials since the 2000 U.S. census.

The GED testing program gives adults who have not graduated from high school a way of earning their equivalency diploma. A GED opens opportunities for adults to enter college, get better jobs or enlist in the military.

The Cherokee County Adult Education program was named a Palmetto Trend Setter based on students’ success rate on the GED exam. At 73 percent, Cherokee County had the second-highest GED passing rate statewide for the 2003-2004 school year.

“Our teachers work with adults on an individual basis to help them achieve their education goals whether it is completing their high school diploma requirements, earning a GED or assisting displaced workers in updating their skills so they can get a better job,” adult education director Jerry Harmon said. “We are the only dropout retrieval system in place for high school. We have agreements with many agencies like DSS, the Department of Juvenile Justice, Probation and Parole, and the local housing authority to help their clients further their education.”

Adult education teachers Lisa Hannon, Beth Martin, Stacy Olgesby and Dona Greer are available to assist students with their self-paced study programs at Limestone Learning Center. The program offers practice GED tests several times year to determine student readiness for the GED exam.

The GED exam is a group of five multiple choice tests measuring whether a person has the general knowledge and thinking skills required to earn a high school diploma. To ensure the GED meets high school graduation standards, the GED is designed so one-third of current high school students nationally will not pass the exam.