Elgin library to offer high school diploma program for adults
Gail Borden Public Library soon will offer an online program for adults who want to earn an accredited high school diploma.
The Career Online High School requires students to put in about eight to 10 hours of work per week, and must be completed within 18 months, said Melissa Lane, who oversees the program at the library.
"For somebody who's like, 'Oh, I was thinking about my GED but I'll do this instead,'" she said, "it's very different. It's much more demanding that you'd think."
The program will launch in two to three weeks, Lane said. People are eligible if they have completed the 8th grade, and must submit any high school transcripts to apply credits to the program.
The process starts with an online self-assessment and a two-week prerequisites course, followed by an interview. "We want to know that they are going to stick with the program," she said. "We want to make sure they have the computer skills necessary, and the ability to work in an online, self-paced environment."
The initiative is supported by Reaching Across Illinois Library System, or RAILS, whose members include about 1,300 library agencies in northern and west-central Illinois. The Elgin library has budgeted $12,500 to provide the program to 10 students, and is saving $18,000 thanks to the agency's support, library spokeswoman Denise Raleigh said.
"We attempted to get that funded a few years ago, but we were not successful,"she said. "RAILS was instrumental in us making the decision to move forward with this."
Six other libraries, including Addison and McHenry, have started offering the online high school program after the initiative went live in August - and many more are planning to join, said Veronda Pitchford, director of membership development and resource sharing for RAILS.
"This is an important role libraries can play to support education in the community, and to be a partner for workforce development in the community,"
Fountaindale Public Library in Bolingbrook was the first to offer the program about two years ago, mostly thanks to a $64,000 state grant, library officials said.
About 30 students are taking the program, and three students graduated recently, taking between five and 16 months to complete the program, said its communications manager Melissa Bradley.
"They were the very first graduates in the entire state of Illinois to receive their high school diploma through their library," she said. "It was a really big milestone for us."
Anyone interested in the program can contact Melissa Lane at cohs@gailborden.info or (847) 289-5837.