MISSION

The mission of the Old Stone Education Center is to improve lifetime opportunities for women in greater Cleveland who have not completed high school due to childcare needs and economic issues.  We enhance the potential of each of our students by providing education in academics, parenting and workforce skills.

Program Need

“The data is overwhelming that teen pregnancy has a negative impact on education and employment,” says James Wagoner, president of Advocates for Youth, a Washington D.C.-based non-profit.  “While that is a problem during any economic cycle, it becomes even more negative during a recession.”  The amount of students not completing their high school careers within the Cleveland School District and around the country is alarming. Nearly a third of the nation’s graduating class each year drops out of high school, affecting 1.2 million teenagers.  In Cleveland it is much worse with almost two out of every three students not earning a diploma.  The reasons for this huge drop-out rate ranges from pregnancy and poverty, to discipline problems, and for many a simple lack of interest in the curriculum.  Research shows that people who have children in their teens are less likely to get a high school diploma or go on to college. After declining for 15 years, the teen pregnancy rate is now on the rise in the United States, which has by the far the highest rate in the industrialized world.  Only 40 percent of teen moms who give birth at age 17 or earlier finish high school according to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.  .

Without a GED certificate the chances of economic success of our students is fairly bleak. Information gathered by the 2000 Census reports that women that our high school dropouts will make 24 percent less that a woman with a high school degree, and 40 percent less than a woman with some college. According to the 2005 GED Statistical Report, more than one-third of adults with household incomes at or below the federal poverty line did not have a high school diploma, compared with 13 percent of adults whose household income was above the poverty line.   And our students, who come with a 5th or 6th grade education, comprise only 10 percent of Ohio residents who are GED passers. The students of the Old Stone Education Center have a long history of success in spite of their many challenges and obstacles.  Our teaching staff is a key component in the students achieving their GED certificates and moving on to a life with economic hope.