UNM and community colleges around New Mexico are making an effort to give adults who perform below high school level a second shot at education.
So far, 28 Adult Basic Education programs are offered at community colleges around the state and at UNM branch campuses.
The ABE program was created in 2005 by Gov. Bill Richardson to help a wider range of New Mexicans receive basic education.
The New Mexico Higher Education Department gave Eastern New Mexico University's Roswell branch a grant to start its ABE program, and the university hired Dr. Tex Boggs this semester to oversee the initiative.
Boggs said the program brings an opportunity to many people who did not get high school diplomas. Students are offered services that will help them prepare for a career, he said.
"ABE includes English for non-native speakers, literacy training, first- through sixth-grade level training, and it provides the GED," he said. "It provides people a second chance and sometimes a third chance."
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Boggs said students who take advantage of the program might not have been able to finish high school or may have immigrated to the U.S. and need a place to start their basic education.
He said ABE also offers an online distance-learning program to be more widely accessible to students.
"It is an attempt to expand online learning to people who might not be able to go to the classroom at the same time every day," he said. "New Mexico is a relatively rural state, and sometimes it is hard for people to get to a classroom every week, same day, same time."
The ABE program has successfully drawn people into a distance-learning program, especially from rural areas of New Mexico, Boggs said.
He said the class sizes vary, but all offer students equal attention.
Boggs is also working with the New Mexico Works Program to provide students career-readiness certification.
"It is trying to give people the training they need to give people a better job," Boggs said.
John Cornish, program operations director of UNM's Extended University, said UNM's branch campuses' online distance-learning courses are well-attended.
UNM is also working with ENMU Roswell to offer students a bachelor's completion program in dental hygiene, Cornish said. UNM plans to bring a two-year program to the already existing two-year dental program at Roswell.
Cornish said UNM is offering 300- and 400-level courses at its branch campus in Gallup. The distance-education program is working to make those students feel they have the amenities that Albuquerque students have, he said.
Along with offering services to students in Gallup, UNM is reaching out to Farmington, Taos, Los Alamos, Santa Fe, Valencia County, Kirtland Air Force Base and Hobbs, Cornish said.
