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Newport Independent Schools’ GED program ranked best in Kentucky for 2020-21


The Newport Independent School General Educational Development (GED) program, Campbell County Skills U (CCSU), has been ranked the number one program in the state by the Kentucky Education and Workforce Development Cabinet for 2020-2021 school year.
  
The Newport GED staff was also awarded the Instructional Team of the Year.


 
Since all Kentucky adult education is operated under Kentucky Skills U, the only thing different about Campbell County Skills U (CCSU) is the staff, said CCSU Program Director Nichole Braun.
 
“Our staff is uniquely talented, creative, and ambitious,” Braun said. “These qualities, along with our decades of experience, promote extraordinary opportunities to collaborate and improvise. Working together, and working to get better, is what we do best.

“We are currently involved in new outreach opportunities to increase recruitment and we are also piloting new educational delivery methods to increase retention,” she said. “All of our teachers are also students. We learn from and teach each other just as much as do our students.”

Nichole Braun

The GED program aims to assist students over the age of 18 who are not currently enrolled in high school. The Education and Workforce Development Cabinet ranks each program on the number of adults enrolled in classes, the number of educational level gains, and the number of GED graduates.

The program is flexible to cater towards any kind of schedule or situation by offering daytime and evening hours, online or in person. The program has even gone so far as to create an app for a cell phone.

Braun describes CCSU as a resource for students seeking different goals.

“Yet, whether it’s a GED or a college degree, or even a desire to improve their English, all of our students face immense barriers,” she said. “And for some, these barriers feel insurmountable. But with encouragement and perseverance comes accomplishment. Maybe it’s a pay raise, or a new job, or matriculation into college. And when our students achieve that success, sometimes, for the first time, they become exemplary to their children, to their family, friends, and colleagues, and to their community.”

While CCSU is best known for its GED program, CCSU also collaborates with Northern Kentucky University, which allows students to begin college while they are finishing their GED.

“We work as partners with Brighton Center, Youth Build, Northern Kentucky Community Action Commission and the Campbell County Public Library,” Braun said “And many of our students receive generous scholarships that help fund the costs of testing from Kentucky State University, Hollaender Manufacturing, and Levis Company.”

For more information on the program visit www.MyGED.org  

Newport Independent Schools
 


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