Action Strategies
3. Introduce the Maine College Transition Initiative to help adults earn degrees.
The Goal: Help 7,000 to 10,000 additional Maine adults earn college degrees over the next decade.
The Challenge: Adult education programs are natural stepping-stones to higher education. But many adult students hold full-time jobs or care for children while they pursue education, so it's very easy for them to lose their footing before earning college degrees. Just as Maine's high school students need meaningful early college experiences to stay on the road to college, more than 125,000 Maine adults in various adult education programs need effective college transition programs to turn their continuing education courses, skills upgrading or GED programs into more rewarding college degree programs.
The Strategy: The Maine College Transition Initiative will establish high-quality, cost-effective and accessible pathways to postsecondary education for adults. The initiative is designed to ensure that adults who are committed to earning a college degree, but have not completed high school or are academically underprepared for college work, get the support they need to earn high school diplomas and succeed in college.
The Maine College Transition Initiative will help adults who are studying to earn high school diplomas to transition to college. The initiative will provide preparatory support to adults who have a high school diploma but are not academically prepared to take college courses. And it will provide counseling, mentoring and support services to enable these adults to successfully transition to college and earn degrees.
Many programs allow participants to take free preparatory courses before entering college. That way, once the students transition to college, they can direct their energy--and their financial aid--to courses that give them credit toward a degree.
The Partners: The Maine College Transition Initiative will be a partnership of Maine's 126 Adult Education Programs, represented by the Maine Adult Education Association, along with the Maine Community College System, the University of Maine System and the Maine Department of Education. Other collaborators will include Maine's private colleges, and the state Departments of Labor and Human Services.
Maine's Adult Education Programs will provide adults with GED/high school completion and remedial support as they transition to college. The Maine Community College System and the University of Maine System will provide accessible pathways to postsecondary education for adults who are academically qualified. The Maine Department of Education will provide technical assistance and oversight, and work with communities to finance the Maine College Transition Initiative.
Partners will execute a memorandum of understanding, built upon the existing agreement between Maine's Adult Education Association and the Maine Community College System. An advisory committee, led by a business person and an educator, will advocate and promote the program to students and monitor implementation.
Related Strategies: College transition programs are the adult analogs to early college experiences for high school students. These vital transition programs, with their strong counseling and mentoring components, should be available at all adult education program sites. In some cases, this may include effective use of distance learning technology.
In addition, adult students, especially those with families and or full-time jobs, often encounter unexpected conflicts with their college plans. These students require college services that are very different from those demanded by more traditional students. These services may include: supplemental financial assistance to cover unmet need and emergencies, child care assistance and transportation assistance, as well as dedicated academic advising by faculty and peers and special orientation sessions.
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