The U.S. Census bureau reports that more than 14,000 Rockford adults ages 25 and older don’t have a high school diploma. This number includes those with less than a 9th grade education. Some sources report Winnebago county numbers to be more than 30,000. A Rockford Public Library nationally accredited high school program is helping some adults obtain their certificates.
Leon Smith, the director of adult online education at the library’s main branch coaches Shaunte Lara as she works on a computer.
Lara, like many others, has gone through life without a high school diploma. At one point she attempted to get a General Education Development diploma or GED but that was a struggle.
“I could pass all of the subjects,” she explained, “but it was something about math. I said, ‘Oh, no. This is new math. This is not the math we learned growing up.’ So, I'm like, ‘I can't do this.’ I tried like eight or nine times to pass that, and it just was not happening.”
Lara went to high school but said she wasn’t doing the work. She decided to stop pursuing her education and became a business owner. She’s a loan signing agent but at 43 realizes she wants more. And not having her high school diploma has become an obstacle.
“A lot of the jobs that you're interested in that pay well, there's no way you're getting past that,” she said. “So, like I tell my kids, you’re going to get it now or you're going to get it later, but you have to have it.”
Smith is a United States Air Force veteran and a pastor. He has worked in adult education for over a decade. In addition to that, he led the library’s Maker Lab. That role has been taken off his plate, and he will solely focus on the education component.
Smith loves to help people. He used to be a substitute teacher with Rockford Public Schools and said he sees how a parents’ education status may impact the child’s learning. Now that he’s teaching adults he sees a trickle-down effect.
“I've seen at least eight examples where the mother came in and she started working on her education,” he said. “Then next, you know, I hear stories of, ‘Oh, we were all sitting at the table doing our homework together. The kids’ grades were getting better.’”
The program started out as a pilot in 2017 but by 2020 it started to grow. It began with 12 students and has helped more than 300 adults get their high school diploma. The online program is backed by a Minnesota high school called Excel High School.
The classes are self-paced, but the students have up to 23 months to complete them. The amount of time it takes can vary based on the number of credits the students already have. Each student must provide their transcripts to confirm that they have at least completed the 10th grade.
There are three phases for the program. The first one, Custom Guide, includes courses that build on the soft skills students will need to get through the program. The second part is the Excel Online prerequisite, which prepares students for the upcoming courses. Each of these takes two weeks to complete. By week four the student is enrolled in the Adult Online High School and ready to start classes.
The program costs $2000 per student but this is paid by donors.
“That price is fixed on marketing,” explained Brook Loomis, the director of development at the library. “It's also deals with our graduation, the ceremony and stuff that we have for the students, and then also any type of like supplies and materials Leon needs along the way.”
Loomis said funding is private and doesn’t require tax dollars. She mentioned Peter Provenzano, the CEO of a logistics solutions company called Supply Core.
“I call him our community champion,” she added, “because he has really spearheaded getting us in front of the right people and really starting the conversations for me and with RPL and Leon to just start talking about the problem.”
Bridget Finn, the marketing director for the library, said students credit Smith for their successes.
“He teaches them to leave any educational trauma that they've had behind them,” Finn explained, “and to recognize that they have an opportunity to move forward from this point and develop any sort of life they want.”
Loomis said Smith is everything when it comes to assisting the students.
“From enrollment advisor to academic to finance all the way to guidance counselor through it all," she said. "Yeah, he just encompasses all of it."
There are many different programs the students can go into after completing the courses. Smith gave a couple of examples.
“We have partnerships with Tricoci Beauty School,” he said, “and a medical school where the students, who enroll in our program who wants to seek one of those paths, they get a conditional acceptance. And what we do with that is that kind of gives them a vision of where they want to go.”
Some graduates have gone on to college. Finn said one has even received a master’s degree.
Smith’s own educational journey offers an example to the students. He has many degrees and is now pursuing a Doctor of Education in Instructional Design and Technology, focusing on Artificial Intelligence.
As for Lara, the student who stopped in to meet with Smith, she wants to get into cyber security, a field that Smith has a master’s degree in.
The Adult Online High School graduated 82 students last year and has a goal of graduating more than 120 students in June 2027. For Smith and his colleagues, that would be more people taking a big step forward in life.
