Concord High School has restarted classes for adults seeking diplomas for the first time since before the pandemic.
The Concord School District’s Adult Diploma Program has been around for decades, but in 2019 the district contracted Second Start, a nonprofit education center, to administer the program since it had already developed an adult education infrastructure.
The intention had been for the program to eventually migrate back to Concord High, and Second Start and the Concord School District took steps over the years to make that happen. Now, the program is again in-house, operating from the high school.
“It is the Concord School District diploma,” said Krystin Cooney, the district’s adult diploma program director. “We really wanted to kind of consolidate in one place and make sure that we were offering as many wonderful opportunities as possible.”
In New Hampshire, high schools require students to fulfill at least 20 credits to graduate. For those who are only missing a couple of credits, a high school diploma, unlike a GED or HiSET, allows them to apply previous credits earned, effectively shortening their time in school.
“I think that the world of education really is changing, and I think that people are really recognizing that the typical path is not the only path to completing high school,” said Zanna Blaney, the director of Adult Education at Second Start. “We’re all individuals, we’re all different types of learners, and we as educators need to continue to create programming that’s appropriate to the individuals.”
Second Start opened in 1971 and began offering adult education programs to meet demand in Concord. At the time, it provided reading, writing and math classes; today, it offers more than a dozen programs for adults and adolescents. Their offerings include a New American Licensed Nursing Assistant program, HiSET preparation and basic adult education classes.
As the years went by, the nonprofit education center slowly brought different aspects of the adult diploma program back to the school district. For the last two years, Second Start only administered Title II students, who are adults aged 18 and older. The center’s last cohort of 30 students graduated in late May.
“We offer a huge variety of courses so that people can find success in whatever way that it looks to them. We are serving about 11% of the New Hampshire population for adult programming, which is huge,” said Cooney, who has recruited other school districts with no adult education programming to send their students. “It just continues to grow, and we hope to be able to offer more of a variety in the future, more skills-based training, more work-based learning and some certification programming.”
Concord School District received 50 Title II students from Second Start. Some are taking summer classes with Concord High School, some are taking self-paced online courses and others are on vacation and will continue their studies in the fall.
Many of the adult diploma program students have day jobs, and many of the program’s educators also teach at other schools. Consequently, most classes take place in the afternoons and evenings, as Cooney and her team work to create flexible schedules that help students get the credits they need.
“It’s a lot of working parts, but it’s serving a lot of students who need all of those things and it seems to work really well for them. Because attendance is mandatory, they are coming and they’re earning credits and they’re doing all of the things that are expected of them and it’s been very successful,” said Cooney.
Adult students from other districts have already been attending classes at Concord High. Chloe Evans, an 18-year-old who graduated in June from the Adult Diploma Program, said many of the older adults enrolled in the program were open about why they were unable to complete high school and would encourage their younger adult peers to finish their studies.
“So, actually hearing that it was kind of, I don’t want to say life-changing, but it had an impact,” said Evans. “It kind of just shows you different perspectives of other people’s lives.”