National College Transition Network

ABE to College Transition: A Resource for ABE and ESOL Teachers and Programs

ODWIN LEARNING CENTER
1943 Dorchester Avenue
Dorchester, MA

Mary Tacelli, Executive Director
Phone: (617) 282-5320
Email: marytacelli@mac.com
Website: www.odwin.org

ODWIN was launched in 1964 with a double mission:

[1] to enrich the quality of life and personal self-perception of the individual and, by extension, of the individual's family,
[2] to enhance the quality of life within the community, by assisting those traditionally underrepresented to enter professional level employment, thus enabling them to achieve positions of influence and to become the leaven for economic and social change within their communities.

ODWIN's tool is education, a key factor in achieving success ~ substantive education that facilitates a significant change in a person's status economically, professionally, and socially, rather than enabling a person merely to move sideways from one low-paying job to another. Our goal is to help any adult in the greater Boston area to develop the academic skills necessary to succeed in a college program that will lead to a professional level career.

ODWIN's population covers a wide range in age from 18 to 59; in previous education from grammar school dropouts to college students who find themselves inadequately equipped to meet their curriculum requirements; in ethnic background, language, nationality, level of responsibility and goals. ODWIN students live in Dorchester, Jamaica Plain, Mattapan, Roxbury, and South Boston and most of the other Boston neighborhoods as well as in the surrounding communities, some as far away as Brockton, Lynn, Lowell, Medford, Plymouth, Waltham and Winthrop.

ODWIN's method is simple but effective: Every aspect of ODWIN's program is focused on providing an effective, customized learning solution employing a diagnostic/prescriptive approach which incorporates the following elements:

1] an initial series of diagnostic tests in such core academic areas as reading/study skills, communication skills and mathematics to ascertain strengths and weaknesses;
2] an individualized student educational plan: a program of study designed with the student within the framework of the diagnostic test results vis-a-vis the student's career goal;
3] class schedule times to accommodate the student's non-school schedule and responsibilities. Classes meet twice a week: Mon. & Wed. between 9 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. or Tues. & Thurs. between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m.
4] small classes to permit individual attention and to encourage optimal academic growth;
5] individualized foundation courses: Basic Math, English Grammar, Reading/Study Skills and Computer Skills, are individualized, student-paced, ungraded, open-ended with an 8:1 maximum student:teacher ratio, and are designed to allow and to encourage each student to progress at her/his own rate in developing the skills and the confidence needed;
6] gradual transition to more conventionally structured, teacher-paced classes in Algebra, Biology, Chemistry,
Composition, Humanities, Notetaking, Pharmacological Math, Thinking/Reasoning to develop the independent approach to learning required in college. These courses are graded and taught within a specific time frame of 1 to 2 semesters with up to an 18:1 student:teacher ratio.
7] assistance in selecting and applying to post-secondary institutions;
8] continued contact throughout the period of college enrollment with academic assistance if necessary;
9] assistance in preparing for licensing examinations after graduation when they are required.

This approach is responsible and realistic and enables ODWIN's multi-ethnic, multi-age, multi-educational-background population to make remarkably time-effective, cost-effective progress ~~ from the person's beginning academic level to college readiness in an average of 2.5 years with a 90% success rate in subsequent post-secondary educational institutions.

ODWIN's track record: 16,000+ people have profited from combinations of ODWIN's diagnostic testing and educational services, many of whom have moved from unemployment, public assistance, or very low levels of employment to 44 different professions ranging from accounting to dentistry, business to medicine, law enforcement to education, and especially nursing.

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