Transforming Futures with Adult Education

The Adult Education Program in Cobb County stands as a transformative initiative that empowers over 1,600 adults to pursue their educational aspirations while effectively balancing the myriad responsibilities of work and family life. This program is meticulously designed to dismantle economic barriers, facilitating access to free classes and personalized instruction that cater to the unique needs of each student. We delve into the profound impact of this initiative on individuals seeking to obtain their GED or improve their English language skills, highlighting the remarkable stories of those who have embarked on this educational journey. Our conversation features esteemed leaders, Kim Kranzlein and Kahliah Rachel, who illuminate the program's tailored approach, which emphasizes individualized learning paths and flexible scheduling. As we explore the program's significance in fostering community engagement and personal growth, we invite listeners to consider the life-altering opportunities awaiting them within Cobb County’s educational framework.

Guests:

• Dr. Kim Kranzlein
• Kahliah Rachel

Chapters:

• 00:11 - The Impact of Adult Education in Cobb County
• 01:18 - Understanding the Adult Education Program
• 05:27 - Tailoring Education to Individual Needs
• 09:38 - The Impact of Adult Education Programs
• 14:51 - Community Engagement and Educational Opportunities

Useful links from the podcast:

• Cobb Adult Education

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Takeaways:

• The Adult Education Program in Cobb County assists over 1,600 adults in pursuing educational credentials while balancing various life responsibilities.
• This program aims to eliminate economic barriers, providing free classes and individualized instruction tailored to each student's needs.
• Significantly, the program serves individuals seeking their GED and those learning English as a second language, addressing diverse educational backgrounds.
• With rolling enrollment, adults can join classes at any time, ensuring education fits their varied life schedules and obligations.
• The program has expanded to multiple satellite locations, making education more accessible for adults throughout Cobb County.
• Community engagement has increased as parents attending classes inspire their children, fostering a culture of mutual educational support within families.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Did you know right here inCobb county, more than 1600 adults
are going back to school, Manybalancing work, family and life all
to earn the credentials thatcan change their future. Today we're
taking a look at how the adulteducation program is helping people
rewrite their stories on theInside Scoop. Welcome back to the

(00:23):
Inside Scoop where we sharethe people, programs and stories
that make Cobb county schooldistrict shine. I'm your host, David
Owen. Before we dive in, don'tforget to like subscribe and share
so you don't miss the nextepisode. Today we're talking about
an incredible program that'stransforming lives, the Adult Education

(00:43):
program. It's an initiativehelping adults eliminate barriers
to earning a life sustainingwage through free classes, personalized
instruction and career focusedtraining. Joining me are two amazing
leaders who make this work.Kim Kranzlein. Pardon me? Kranzline,
Right. Proper pronunciation,that's correct. You are the director

(01:06):
of the adult education program?
I am.
And then we are also joined byKahliah Rachel, who is the principal
of Austell Elementary. Sowelcome to you both.
Thank you.
Thank you.
So, Kim, let's start with thebig picture of what is the adult
education program and whocomes to the adult education. Obviously

(01:29):
it's adults. Right?
Right.
So I'll just pitch it to youthere. Take it from there and tell
us a little more about it.
So I'm going to spend time,focus on the what first. What we
do is we try to eliminatethose economic barriers for adults.
We do that in two to threeways. So the primary two ways are
we help people either gettheir GED if they don't already have

(01:52):
a high school diploma, whichyou may not know that that 44,000
Cobb county residentscurrently do not have a high School
Equivalency Adults. Adults.
44,000 adults in Cobb countydon't have.
Yes. Based on.
Wow.
Recent census data.
And that could be due to anumber of things, I would think.

(02:13):
Yes. The stories are endless.It could be I dropped out because
I needed to help my family. Itcould be I was in a situation where
I was bouncing from house tohouse. It could be I just didn't
do what I should do as a youngstir and now I'm ready. It could

(02:37):
be a whole lot. But what Iknow is everyone who walks through
our door has a story.
Yeah.
Then there's that's one group.And very important in the work that
we do. The second really bigpiece of what we do is we teach English
as a second language toadults. So people who either have

(02:59):
recently come to our countryor who have even lived here for quite
a while that do not speakEnglish, and that is keeping them
from getting a job that pays aliving wage. So what we're finding
is this could be a whole rangeof people. It could be people who
are highly educated in theirnative language, or it could be people

(03:22):
who are not. Because one ofthe blessings of living in the country
that we live is that everyoneis educated up through high school.
But that is not true of a lotof countries in this world.
That could be why people havecome to this country.
So they may not just be unableto speak, read, and write English.

(03:44):
I mean, be illiterate in theirown native language as well. So,
vast array of needs, but thoseare the two big areas that we serve.
So one of the things I'veheard that's one of the most powerful
things about the adult edprogram is how you shape it for the

(04:05):
needs of the student, how it'spersonalized for their life. Can
you expand a little bit on that?
Yeah. So, as I described, ourstudents come from such a broad range
of backgrounds and stories. Soto try to create something that's
just a curriculum, one sizefits all isn't really what our students

(04:28):
need. We already were for along time. Have really tailored the
hours that we offer classes towhat our students need. So we have
morning classes from 9 to 12,and then we have evening classes
from 6 to 9, because we'rehoping that most of our students
are working adults and so theycan pick one of those two options.

(04:51):
But then, like I said before,we may have really highly educated
in their own native language.We may have. We even have people
walk in the door who couldtake their GED just like that. And
then we have others who reallynever learned to read.
Wow.
That are not. That are nativeEnglish speakers that really need

(05:12):
us to build up from. From theground up. So we look at each individual
student and place them in alevel and a program that works for
them. I think another bigpiece of the personalization of our
instruction has to do withrolling enrollment. So instead of

(05:37):
like, maybe at a communitycollege where things start at the
beginning of the semester andyou go for a certain number of weeks,
our students can enroll at any time.
Okay. So it can be made to fittheir point in life according to
what they need to learn aswell as their life schedule. I mean,

(05:59):
we all have some form of arhythm to life. Right.
And we actually say that a lotto our students, that we're here
to help you based on what youneed and how Available you are.
So you mentioned earlier aboutbarriers to the learning and I can't
imagine when you've got, justthink about an elementary school

(06:22):
class, you've got maybe 20, 25kids. When I was in school that was
30, but anyway, we were betterbehaved. That's why they could do.
I'm kidding. So when a teacheris having to teach to an array of
students, that teacher knowswhat those kids likely learned in

(06:44):
the grades prior. Right. Buthere you're getting the vast unknown.
Like you said, you've gotpeople who could walk in, pass the
test on day one versus peoplewho can't even read in their own
native language. And it's notjust people learning English and
so forth, there's other peopleas well. So you've got such a vast

(07:06):
array that have to have theircurriculum tailored, I guess differentiated
for them.
Yes. And we do have standards.We are standard based instruction,
but we use data. So we'reassessing students when they walk
in the door to tell us wheretheir functioning level is, where
they're starting from. And thedata also tells us what they still

(07:29):
need to learn. A really greatexample of that is we are doing for
the first time a GD and threeday atatomy this weekend. This is
a new thing that we've triedwhere we've pulled in students and
they have to score a certainlevel on that assessment to qualify
for the academy. But they'llcome on a Thursday, a Friday and,

(07:51):
and a Saturday. And by thetime they're done with that weekend,
they will walk out with theirged. They will already taken all
four tests and pass them.
Wow.
Not for every student though.
Sure.
You know that's not gonna workfor every student we've had. Even
within that applicant pool ofacademy, very few people actually
make the cut score that saysI'm gonna walk out in three days

(08:14):
with my ged. You have to comewith a lot of background knowledge
already, but you can.
Close that gap for them. Is that.
Yes. And I think we have a lotof adult had bumps in the road early
on, but through their ownchildren, through their work experience,
they've gained a lot ofknowledge that they don't even realize

(08:37):
they have. Sometimes thepeople who come in are actually really
surprised at their stores.Sometimes they're surprised at how
low they are, but sometimesthey're really surprised at how high
they are. And the really coolthing about that is if they score
high enough on the ged thatcan count for college credit. That
can begin even to take thempast a high school equivalency.

(08:59):
And into.
An associate's degree, acredential or something like that.
So Kalia has been standinghere wonderfully politely, just listening.
But I hate leaving you out because.
No, it's okay. I think thatone of the things that I have been
very excited about is thethree day academy, because for highly

(09:20):
motivated adults who arelooking to increase where they are
at their work or, you know,moving on with something different,
this is not holding them back.And it's also giving them that excitement
that it's not going to takeforever. So it's something that we
were very excited to announceto our community.
Yeah. Okay. So now we've kindof opened the question of why is

(09:42):
she here as principal ofAustell Elementary? So, Kim, earlier
you mentioned that you had theone location in Smyrna, but that
is more than that. Now you arerolling out other locations, right?
Yeah. So adult education, forthe most part in Cobb county has
been just something that chugsalong kind of unnoticed. And we want

(10:05):
to kind of come out of theshadows and say we're here and we're
a vital and important part ofwhat the school district offers and
in how the school districtcollaborates. You know, we're one
team. And so when I first gotinvolved with the adult education

(10:27):
program, we had two biglocations in two different counties.
Now we're just focused onCobb, but we are trying to make sure
that our offerings can beaccessed by people who can't drive
the distance to come to Smyrnaor don't have transportation or have
childcare or whatever. Sowe're trying to push out. We've opened
over five, maybe we're up tosix or seven now, satellite locations.

(10:52):
But the one that I am mostexcited about is we have opened classes
at Austell Elementary.
Yeah. So just meeting you forthe first time this morning, I could
see exactly why you're soexcited. Kalia, tell us a little
bit about how they have beenable to used the program in your

(11:16):
building, I presume. Tell us alittle bit about how you have related
to the adult ed program.
So one of the things that wasreally exciting for me, so I've only
been a principal for threeyears. This is my third year at Austell.
And one of the things going inis just kind of you want to get the
groove. What's going on withyour community? What do they need?
And one of the things wassupporting students with homework.

(11:39):
So I had to figure out whatwas the thing that was needed. And
it was literacy support. And alot of the families Reached out about
having the need or the desireto finish their schooling, either
high school, college, gettingEnglish language learning in. And
so I was like, okay, this isperfect. A dream of mine was to have
a GED program. Reached out toadult Ann and got this wonderful

(12:01):
connection with Dr. Kranzlein.And we got it started. It took a
little bit to get it off theroad, but we were able to get plenty
of community interest and thenstarted in May of last year. And
it has been wonderful since.
Well, when she says May oflast year, she's really meaning May
of 2025.
Oh, okay.
So the end of school year last spring.

(12:23):
So just a few months ago.
Yeah, just a few months ago.In case you're watching this later.
So do you have any storiesabout how your school culture has
been impacted by all of this?
Absolutely. So one of thethings, when we first started announcing
that this was going to happen,we had families not just from our
community, but also in thesouth end of the county. So families

(12:45):
who Sanders, Clarkdale,LaBelle were interested in joining
the cohort. And so we have, weopened it up and our parent facilitators
have been talking, our schoolsocial workers have been talking.
So that's getting the name outthere about the program, which is
extremely exciting. As far asour students, they like seeing that

(13:07):
their parents are attendingschool as well. And the families
are just overwhelminglysupportive in keeping the program
going. So we just recently hada graduate, our first GED graduate,
and that excitement in thecommunity had him have three, four

(13:29):
individuals reach out to himabout how they could be a part of
the program as well. And so Ithink that that is going to be the
sustaining part for theprogram itself.
So you kind of got a built in ambassador.
Absolutely.
You get a graduate out thereand he's like, yes, I did it. Other
people go, well, if he can doit, maybe I can.
Absolutely. Because hisaccomplishment led to a job promotion.

(13:50):
So I'm just imagining, andthis is the weird way my brain works,
so bear with me. But I'm justimagining a parent who is in the
program or working through itturns to their student and says,
have you done your homework?And the student says, have you done
yours?
Have you done yours?
Yeah. So I'm very curious. Idon't know if you are able to hear

(14:13):
any of that kind of story as well.
I am. So the accountabilitypiece for the student and the parent
student is just what youdescribed. They're excited to support
one another. And that is whatthat was the dream, that was the
vision for it how can wesustain something that shows a student
that their parent is workingto do something that they're also

(14:34):
working to do and make itsound as though or the reality that
education is the next stepthat keeps you going? And so with
that goal in mind and withthat excitement and drive, it has
really dug deep into theculture of the community for Austin.
Okay, well, Kim, earlier youmentioned the. I think you said 44,000

(14:56):
adults needing a GED or tobetter their learning in general.
Obviously, these locationsbeing in Smyrna area and south of
there, are there otherlocations throughout the county that
can help meet the needs ofthose other 44,000 adults?
Yes. So we have classes atSchweitzer Library, at Sibley Library,

(15:22):
and at Powder Springs. And inthe next few weeks, we'll actually
be offering GED classes atNorth Cobb Library.
Oh, wow. Okay.
So we're slowly but surelytrying to expand out and make it
where anybody in Cobb can getthe support they need.
Okay, well, fantastic. This issome encouraging news to hear. Expansion,

(15:46):
reaching out to meet the needsof all of these adults. Thank you
so much for sharing theseinsights and for all that you're
doing. I know it's not an easylift. People have so many different
things in their lives andyou're trying to meet all those needs.
That's not just a quick andeasy solution. So thank you for going
the extra mile, both of you,because I think your communities

(16:09):
are very grateful for this. Sofor anyone listening who wants to
earn their GED and improvetheir English or gain job ready credentials,
classes are free andenrollment is ongoing. You can find
more [e-mail] and don't forget, like subscribe

(16:31):
and share this episode so morepeople can hear about the life changing
opportunities right here inCobb County. Thank you for listening
to the Inside Scoop, a podcastproduced by the Cobb County.