TECHNOS

January 6, 2009

TECHNOS QUARTERLY Winter 1993 Vol. 2 No. 4

Mississippi's LEAP Toward Literacy

By Edwin E. Meek

How does distance learning work? For a unique example, travel to Mississippi, where satellite technology and a commitment to improve adult literacy come together in Project LEAP. A partnership of the state, the University of Mississippi, and private supporters and employers, Project LEAP is helping to educate adults and get them off welfare. The project's founder, Edwin Meek, tells how it's done.

Diane Calhoune and her nine-year-old daughter live in the small rural Mississippi town of West Point, where the unemployment rate is close to 12 percent. A large number of Calhoune's fellow citizens receive welfare, and many of those who work have seasonal farming jobs. Calhoune doesn't own a telephone or an automobile, but four nights a week she has access to state-of-the-art educational technology and to some of the brightest and most innovative teachers in Mississippi. As a result, she has found a job and left the welfare rolls.

Through Project LEAP—Learn, Earn, and Prosper—Mississippians who have difficulty reading and writing are learning to improve their literacy and employability by taking part in interactive classes broadcast by satellite from the University of Mississippi, Ole Miss, near Oxford. Established by the Mississippi Department of Human Services' Job Opportunities and Basic Skills (JOBS) program in response to a federal literacy-training mandate, LEAP is the first project anywhere that uses satellite technology to help educate people like Diane Calhoune so they can get off welfare and into paying jobs.

LEAP's instructional programs are broadcast mornings and evenings four days a week on the Mississippi Cable Training Network, which was established for this purpose by the Mississippi Cable Television Association. The broadcasts serve some 80 adult education centers with the capacity to reach 3,000 students throughout the state. Each center is staffed by a teacher and teacher's aides. University instructors whose lessons are broadcast via satellite from the Ole Miss campus studios present core curriculum courses and enrichment activities. Courses are geared to three ability levels: beginning instruction (grades K–3); intermediate instruction (grades 4–8); and preparation for General Educational Development, or GED (grades 9–12). LEAP students also learn life skills in an “Information You Can Use” component. The class provides instruction on careers—such as good work habits, balancing a career and family, and communication in the workplace—as well as parenting and consumer health issues.

Two mobile learning laboratories, each equipped with 12 computers and instructional software, serve some of the centers. One of the 30-foot-long labs is based in Jackson and travels among three sites: Whiterock Community Center, Reynolds Adult Education Center, and Duling Adult Education Center. The other lab is located in Greenville at Branch Literacy. Both offer a wide range of computer-assisted programs tied into LEAP's goals and attainment of GED skills. Among the programs is a one-of-a-kind basic reading program that allows nonreaders to practice their skills simply by touching the computer screen.

A public-private partnership, LEAP is a multimillion-dollar project funded by the Mississippi JOBS program and the university. The mobile labs were purchased with federal dollars leveraged by private funds from Jitney Jungle Stores of America, Inc., and the Keebler Company. In addition, local cable companies provide satellite antennas and channel space.

Pomp and Circumstance

For Minnie Frand, 23, of Tchula, LEAP's combination of satellite instruction and one-on-one training sparked an interest in learning after almost 10 years away from the classroom. Four days a week, Frand sends her nine-year-old daughter off to school and heads to a dilapidated farmhouse on a rural Mississippi highway. Called the “shotgun shack,” the house is missing a few planks and shingles. Inside is a toll-free telephone line that Frand and other students use to talk with their television teachers if they have problems with a lesson. Next to the shotgun shack is a satellite dish to receive the lessons.

Minnie Frand of Tchula talks to her television teacher. Project LEAP provides a toll-free telephone line at each classroom so that students can discuss problems with their University of Mississippi instructors.

Frand is one of 45 single, welfare-dependent women from the Tchula area enrolled in Project LEAP. Her courses include reading, writing, mathematics, social studies, and science. She earned her GED in August 1993 and is learning word processing in hopes of landing an office job. In the meantime, she helps teach other students in the LEAP classes as part of the Alternative Work Experience Program.

Frand and others in the program were referred to the Rosebank Learning Center, the shotgun shack that houses the LEAP classroom, through their Department of Human Services case-workers. If they don't attend classes, they risk losing one to six months of welfare benefits, depending on the number of classes missed. Although attendance is mandatory, students at the center are enthusiastic about the program. On their own initiative, they made Thursdays dress-up days, when each student dresses as if she were on a job interview. On Wednesdays, each student speaks before the class to practice public speaking skills.

When Frand and three classmates earned their GEDs, the center held a graduation ceremony complete with “Pomp and Circumstance,” graduation robes, and commencement speaker. “My daughter was so excited that she took pictures and then asked if she could take them to school to show her friends,” Frand says. “It made me really proud.”

Technological Field Trips

Much of the enthusiasm for LEAP is centered on its use of technology. LEAP was recognized by the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment in Washington, which cited the project as one of several innovative programs using technology to help adults achieve functional literacy. LEAP also was nominated for the Heller Report's prestigious Pioneer Award, which recognizes unique and innovative uses of technology.

“Television gives us one more tool to reach learners with different learning styles,” says Pamela Hakim, LEAP's curriculum coordinator. “It allows us to bring to the most rural areas of the state a master language arts teacher, a master math teacher, and a master social studies teacher.” Because the classes are broadcast from a university, the program also has access to artists, scientists, and other professionals not normally found in rural areas.

“In my opinion, visual aid teaching goes beyond usual methods,” says Shirley Williams, a Project LEAP teacher's aide in Charleston. “It enables students to actually see and grasp information. In earlier years, students were forced to go to the board and work out situations. Television cuts out embarrassment and allows each student to get involved.”

To take advantage of the television medium, university teachers try to make each lesson a visual experience. In a lesson on homonyms, for example, teachers performed a skit to illustrate the difference between the words “bored” and “board.” “We did it in the context of a board meeting,” Hakim explains. “We had one teacher keep his head on the table. He kept telling the others he was ‘bored.’ Another wrote something on the ‘board,’ and the meeting was held in the ‘board’ room. By acting out the relationships, we drew a picture students could relate to.”

Television also allows students to visit places that they might not otherwise see. “We are able to take the students on a field trip almost every day,” Hakim says. For example, in the “Information You Can Use” segment, the site teacher can tell students what is involved in a career in construction work. But the television cameras can go to an actual construction site and show workers pouring concrete and driving trucks. The expense and time it would take to travel to the site are saved, and students still get the feel of what it's like to work in construction. The TV field trips are taped, but the students can ask questions of the teacher as they view the program.

LEAP's curriculum encompasses much more than most other adult education programs. “We are contracted to prepare our students for the GED and to cover every subject to meet that objective,” Hakim says. “But we go beyond that. We are committed to helping students function as contributing members of society, and that means more than learning what a synonym is or learning multiplication tables.”

LaJunda Pittman, who teaches the “Information You Can Use” class taped at the Ole Miss studios, has addressed such topics as personal budgets, sexual and physical abuse, AIDS, parenting, and job interview techniques. The information presented in these lessons cuts to the heart of problems facing many welfare recipients, and response from students has been favorable. “These are very personal issues, and it's often hard for students to call in and talk about them on the air,” she says. When Pittman visits individual classrooms, however, she is often bombarded with questions about topics she has covered in her television segments.

At first, students seemed intimidated by the television teachers. “They looked at us like we were their little stars,” Pittman says. “But as we've gotten into the studies, they are opening up. They realize there is someone here they can talk to.” And they are using the telephone to ask questions during broadcast time, rather than waiting for personal visits.

Beyond the Call of Duty

Access to television teachers is provided through toll-free phone lines at each LEAP site, and students make up to 35 calls a day from around the state. Many of them are to Ras Pickens, who teaches LEAP's math classes, but not all of his callers are seeking help with mathematics. “I talked to one lady who said her boyfriend kept telling her she didn't need to go to school. She had questions about how to handle the situation,” Pickens says. “I think a big part of my job is to encourage them to keep doing what they're doing.”

Pickens's life story has served as encouragement for many students. He taught adult education classes in Clarksdale in the Mississippi Delta for nine years before moving to Detroit to take a similar post. He returned to Oxford and worked as a janitor at the university to support his family when a teaching post wasn't available. Pickens's ability to relate to students has made him one of LEAP's most popular teachers, and they frequently turn to him for encouragement in their private and academic lives. “I think they see me as a friend as well as a teacher,” he says. “A lot of students view a teacher as someone who looks down on them. They can perceive it from your voice.”

Encouragement from teachers, both on and off the air, has given many LEAP students the boost they need to return to school after years away from the classroom. “The average age of our students is 31 years—mostly single women with dependent children,” says Marie Antoon, assistant director of resource development at Ole Miss, who guides Project LEAP. “This is a group of individuals society has failed or who have dropped out of the mainstream of opportunities in our state. Our job is to help them obtain the skills they need to become contributing members of the work force.”

The average LEAP participant has completed the ninth grade; the majority of participants are African Americans. Ras Pickens believes their association with one of the state's largest universities has given them a new sense of self. “What keeps many of these women coming back to class is that the University of Mississippi is involved,” he says. “In Mississippi, Ole Miss is recognized as a leader in education. When these women see they are being taught by teachers at this university, it gives them pride. They brag about it to their friends. It gives an added importance to the GED.”

This pride gives the students an impetus to study. After only six months of operation, 79 percent of LEAP students in the GED-preparation level received their GEDs; 16 percent became employed while in the program; 30 percent progressed to a higher learning level; 13 percent entered a community college or other training program; and 5 percent were removed from public assistance.

Economic Effectiveness

For Diane Calhoune, who recently began working in the cafeteria of Babcock and Wilcox, the second-largest employer in West Point, Project LEAP helped develop the personal confidence and interview skills she needed to land a job and get off welfare. Calhoune, 36, dropped out of school in the ninth grade. When she entered LEAP, she had been out of work for two years and her self-esteem and test scores were low. While in the program, she was tested three times. Each time, her grade equivalency improved dramatically. As her local instructor, Johanna Rice, recalls, “Each time I told her the scores, her personality changed—she developed personal confidence.”

That was evident as Calhoune underwent two rounds of interviews for her cafeteria post. “I was tense at first,” she confides, “but then I remembered some of the things from the ‘Information You Can Use’ class. I gave straight-out answers and didn't take a long time. It made a good impression.” Calhoune also knew what questions to ask of her employers. “I asked about job benefits and what clothes I had to wear to work, and at the end I said I hoped to hear from them. I probably wouldn't have said all that if I hadn't taken the class,” she says.

Calhoune has passed two sections of the GED and plans to retake others as soon as possible. She has the support of her employer, an industrial manufacturing firm that places a high priority on education. Her bosses have promised her a promotion once she earns her GED.

Calhoune's story isn't unique. As competition for jobs becomes more intense, employers look for applicants who take education seriously. “An educated work force is an important tool for attracting jobs to Mississippi. Without education, workers cannot meet the intellectual demands required to compete in today's marketplace,” says Jimmy Heidel, executive director of the Mississippi Department of Economic and Community Development.

Welfare recipients aren't the only ones who can benefit from LEAP technology. With an estimated 60 percent of prison inmates lacking the basic reading and math skills needed to hold down a job, Project LEAP officials are exploring ways to offer classes to prison populations. The plan has met with enthusiasm from law enforcement officials. In a letter to LEAP officials, Greenville police chief Dennis Blass writes: “Teaching inmates to read may be the single best thing we can do to reduce crime in our city. People who can't read can't work. If they don't work, there are only two options: live off the dole or commit crimes. LEAP strikes at the core of the problem, giving those who have not learned to read another chance.” An extension of LEAP in the second year of operation will reach beyond the borders of Mississippi to include national prison systems.

‘Ah-ha!’ Moments

Learning to read gave Janie McNeil of Holly Springs a higher sense of self-esteem. She is a stay-at-home mother who dropped out of high school almost 30 years ago and returned to the classroom in March 1993 with a purpose: to get an education and improve her life. With the support of her children she entered the program with a math level below fourth grade.

McNeil's local teacher is Caroline Field, who recounts one incident that illustrates the pride in learning that many LEAP students experience. “It was a moment I'll long remember—it was an ‘ah-ha!’ moment,” Field says. It happened while Field was attempting to explain the concept of “perimeter” to reinforce a lesson on multiplication. “I had said that two lengths plus two widths equals the perimeter as many ways as I knew how. Janie was studying the rectangle at the board when suddenly her face lit up like the Fourth of July. She quickly solved the problem,” Field says. “When I asked her what had happened, she said, ‘All of a sudden, what you were saying made sense. I thought, I can do this!’ Janie beamed the rest of the evening.”

Project LEAP is a combination of all the things that make distance learning effective and exciting: dedicated teachers and administrators; serious commitment from the state, a major university, and local employers; motivated students who understand the need for continuing their learning; and modern telecommunications, broadcast, and computer technologies. Access to education for all segments of Mississippi's population is the short-term goal. Long-term goals include improvement of the state's economic development—not to mention more of those “ah-ha!” moments.

Photos by Robert Jordan courtesy of the University of Mississippi.

Edwin Meek is director of public relations and resource development at the University of Mississippi and is the founder of Project LEAP. He has been widely published in the telecommunications field and is the former publisher of two trade magazines in C-Band and Ku-Band satellite technology.

Click here to access What's the Problem? Sidebar that accompanied this article.