High School Diploma

The community college is being asked to save America. But like a small-town fire department straining to contain a big-city blaze, community colleges aren't equipped to handle the huge job thrust on them, many experts say. Many millennials - a diverse demographic of 18-to-34-year-olds who make up the largest share of community-college students in the Delaware Valley - are looking to the schools to give them a fighting chance in a brutal...

It was the question Toshea Greene had been dreading, but one she knew eventually had to come. Sitting in her supervisor's office after almost a year on the job, a decision she made 27 years ago had returned to dismantle everything. Greene, 42, a divorced mother of two, left school after ninth grade. During a routine audit last year of personnel files at the Center City nonprofit where she did community outreach, her secret was discovered. It would cost her the job, which required a high-school diploma.

When you've been away from school for 67 years, your geometry gets a little rusty. Martha Gerhart's son had to explain isosceles triangles to her on a kitchen blackboard. But when the 81-year-old Gerhart dons a cap and gown Tuesday evening to receive an honorary diploma with the Hatboro-Horsham High School graduating class, it will be a tribute to her own determination in earning a high-school equivalency diploma this year. "You can learn a lot of things if you have the will," said Gerhart, a slim and energetic woman who spends hours quilting for friends and organizations.

IN AN AGE of increasing fragmentation, I look for areas of common sense that can rally citizens to improve our schools and better educate our kids. I think every parent and taxpayer in Pennsylvania would say that students who graduate from high school should be proficient enough in reading, writing and math to enter the world of work or attend college. The high-school diploma is supposed to be the credential indicating you have those proficiencies. But I know I speak for many when I say the diploma is a compromised document.

Claiming that students who take GED exams do not cover all the material now required to earn a high school diploma in New Jersey, the state Department of Education has proposed discontinuing state-endorsed high school diplomas for people who take the GED test. Under proposed regulations presented at last week's state Board of Education meeting, New Jerseyans taking the nationally administered General Education Development (GED) test would earn a certificate saying they had passed the GED course, but they would no longer earn a full-fledged diploma.

Philadelphia's celebration of International Literacy Day, hosted by the Mayor's Commission on Literacy, revealed a program sure to bring promise and hope to thousands of Philadelphia residents. With the installation of the Philadelphia Adult Diploma Program, the collaborative effort of the Center for Literacy, District 1199C and the School District of Philadelphia, adults lacking a high school diploma will no longer need to search for ways to obtain its equivalent. Currently in place to remedy the need for high school diplomas is the General Equivalency Degree.

There are more than 38,000 adults over the age of 25 in Gloucester County who do not have high school diplomas, said John Karaska, quoting from 1980 federal census statistics. Karaska, evening school principal at Gloucester County Vocational-Technical School, hopes to make a dent in that statistic. The vocational school is about to become the first facility in Gloucester County to offer adult high school classes, leading to a diploma, on the premises. Currently, Karaska said, any adult in the county wishing a high school diploma must apply to Glassboro High School, which will enroll the student in its adult program.

President Obama is right to put more pressure on colleges and universities as well as the states to make a college education more affordable. A nation that keeps telling its children they need more than a high school diploma to succeed in this increasingly high-tech world shouldn't make it so hard for them to pay for college. Obama wants to boost the Perkins federal loan program from $1 billion to $8 billion and change the formula for how the money is distributed. Colleges that fail to reduce costs will lose federal aid, an aggressive incentive for the schools to find practical ways to reduce the cost of an education.

What you can see at the Hall of Fame: The shades Roy Orbison used to check out the next "Pretty Woman" The handwritten lyrics Jimi Hendrix penned for (and probably in a) "Purple Haze" The jacket John Lennon wore for "Sergeant Pepper" A high school diploma Buddy Holly probably chucked into his closet when he got big in music Grace Slick's dress from the original "Woodstock" (suspiciously without mudstains) George Clinton's "Atomic Dog" shoes The dress Tina Turner wore in the film "Tommy" Grandmaster Flash's Kangol cap (no, it's not red with lightning bolts)

WHITE HOUSE FIXATES ON DIPLOMAS The President's bizarre objection is embarrassing. To prevent an employer from uniformly requiring a high school diploma of new hires, said Bush, would "seriously if not fatally" undermine efforts to improve education. The President dragooned Lamar Alexander, secretary of education, into supporting this foolishness. Alexander said (Sen. John) Danforth's (civil rights) bill "would send precisely the wrong message to students and teachers. " Young people would believe that "staying in school doesn't matter.

A proposal by Gov. Christie to do away with New Jersey's current graduation exam would raise the bar on student achievement and help ensure that a high school diploma from a school in the state is more than just a piece of a paper. Christie wants to replace the current comprehensive examination of everything a student has been taught in high school with end-of-course tests similar to a final exam, which is more practical. The changes were recommended by a task force that concluded the state's High School Proficiency Assessment, as well as an alternative test taken by students who fail the first option, is not properly aligned with New Jersey's curriculum standards.

The community college is being asked to save America. But like a small-town fire department straining to contain a big-city blaze, community colleges aren't equipped to handle the huge job thrust on them, many experts say. Many millennials - a diverse demographic of 18-to-34-year-olds who make up the largest share of community-college students in the Delaware Valley - are looking to the schools to give them a fighting chance in a brutal...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Maria Medina's life is littered with the destruction of diabetes. Her neighbor had a foot amputated because of the disease. Her mother went blind from it. Her sister died of it. Damage that pervasive is a common experience in the Mexican-American community, which has some of the highest rates in a surge of diabetes nationwide. The disease can provoke heart attacks, high blood pressure, kidney failure and blindness, and is the seventh-leading cause of death nationwide.

President Obama is right to put more pressure on colleges and universities as well as the states to make a college education more affordable. A nation that keeps telling its children they need more than a high school diploma to succeed in this increasingly high-tech world shouldn't make it so hard for them to pay for college. Obama wants to boost the Perkins federal loan program from $1 billion to $8 billion and change the formula for how the money is distributed. Colleges that fail to reduce costs will lose federal aid, an aggressive incentive for the schools to find practical ways to reduce the cost of an education.

As the Philadelphia School District's "guardian angel," Victoria Yancey has attended hundreds of funerals, held weeping mothers, and delivered personal tributes for students who died too young. This summer, as the cash-strapped district laid off thousands of workers, Yancey conducted "healing workshops" for the employees who were left - teaching people how to deal with survivor's guilt and the worry that the next pink slip would be theirs. With end-of-the-year layoffs looming, she had planned her next session for Tuesday.

It was the question Toshea Greene had been dreading, but one she knew eventually had to come. Sitting in her supervisor's office after almost a year on the job, a decision she made 27 years ago had returned to dismantle everything. Greene, 42, a divorced mother of two, left school after ninth grade. During a routine audit last year of personnel files at the Center City nonprofit where she did community outreach, her secret was discovered. It would cost her the job, which required a high-school diploma.

John J. "Dutch" Piergalline Sr., 86, of West Chester, a retired Wyeth Laboratories supervisor and decorated World War II veteran, died Sunday, July 31, at Neighborhood Hospice in West Chester of medical problems caused by stomach wounds he sustained in battle. Mr. Piergalline attended West Chester High School, where he starred on the football team and played varsity basketball and baseball. In 1943, he dropped out of school to join the Army. While fighting in Italy, he suffered machine-gun wounds to his hands, an arm, and his stomach.

Thomas Yu, a computer programmer, came to the United States 20 years ago in search of the American Dream. Yu, now 50, along with millions of Chinese immigrants, believed that there were endless opportunities to be found in this country. After earning his master's degree at the University of Alabama, Yu and his wife settled in the suburbs of Philadelphia with their children and planned to retire in the area. "The U.S. was the best country at the time, far ahead of others," Yu said.

George A. Fair, 86, of Plymouth Meeting, an insurance agency co-owner and a veteran of World War II and Korea, died of liver cancer Sunday, Sept. 5, at his home. Mr. Fair was a senior at Roxborough High School when he was drafted into the Army in 1943. After his discharge in 1946, he earned his high school diploma and attended Temple University. He then joined the Insurance Co. of North America and took courses at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Fair was recalled to service during the Korean War. As a sergeant, he fought in the bitter winter of 1950-51 and suffered frostbite.

Margaret Simms directs the Urban Institute's Low-Income Working Families project Marla McDaniel is a research associate at the Urban Institute There's little to celebrate this Labor Day weekend. The unemployment rate for August, stuck at 9.6 percent, means that 14.9 million people who have been looking for work are still jobless. The situation is even worse for blacks between the ages of 16 and 24. Only one in three of them has a job. An additional one-third are actively job-hunting without any luck.