By Robert DeCoteau, Director of Workforce Education, NWIC
In spring of 2017 I accepted the role of Director of Workforce Education at Northwest Indian College. At some point prior to my arrival, the Adult Basic Education/GED program was under the umbrella of workforce training and struggled, having only two GED completers the previous year and none the year before. I assumed that this was due to low attendance but soon realized that each year more than 60 students signed up.
Jerome DeCoteau, my older brother, was born in Bellingham, Washington in 1969. He had a rough early childhood being the second child of two very young high school dropouts. His parents split before Jerome could walk, and being a product of the sixties, his mother pursued several unconventional relationships before returning to our reservation community with five children in tow. I was one of those young ones.
The issue with the ABE program was not with the instruction but with students’ expectations about the design and more with the program. It only included GED as a route to high school completion and the previous director had not adjusted the focus or approach of the program despite the GED test overhaul in 2012. Students just weren’t receiving the guidance and support necessary to be successful with the harder and longer tests.
Jerome had a confrontation with his mother at the age of thirteen and she kicked him out of the house, sending him to live with his father. It was not a comfortable situation for him in those early years. His father was a quiet and stern man who had not been much of a father to that point and Jerome didn’t know how to approach being a son to him. His stepmother was not a very loving person and resented that Jerome had come to live in their single wide trailer with them.
As director, one of my first tasks of this struggling program was to research how the Washington State system was addressing the changes in the GED system and requirements. The state programs had shifted away from GED as a completion program; they still offered GED, but had developed a successful competency-based system that allowed each school to address the needs of students as individuals and use each community college’s ability to award high school diplomas under the direction and support of the Washington State Board of Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC).
Jerome dropped out of high school early in his senior year. There were issues at home and requirements, but completing high school was not high on the list of expectations from his father or his mother. Jerome had made it further in school than most from our reservation did back in the eighties, with more than half of his cohort having already quit school and more than 70% of the boys quitting to pursue commercial fishing instead. Jerome spent some time fishing and the rest of the time drinking and drugging.
As our tribal college received state grant funding, we were eligible for support from the state board. The team there met with me and helped to lay out a route that would allow our college to provide the same competency-based completion program that had been successful in the state school system. The plan required that we partner with Bellingham Technical College, as NWIC didn’t have the power to award state-recognized high school diplomas. Having been workforce focused, working with the nearby school on this program would provide welcome support.
When Jerome’s dad died in the early 2000s, Jerome inherited his single wide trailer. Having his own place was not good for him. He had parties constantly and drank every day. His health declined until even his drinking buddies became concerned. At the hospital he was put in a clean room. He had severe tuberculosis and his liver was extremely damaged from drinking. The doctors were not hopeful as he would detox from the alcohol and the TB drugs would be hard on his liver and kidneys. They expected him to die, but he held on for more than a month in that room. He never drank again.
That first year we put High School+, our competency-based program, in as our primary program, we had 20 students complete their program successfully. The program evaluates each student’s experience in high school and their life experience since they dropped out. Students receive credits based on their high school transcripts and receive credits for some employment and volunteer work that is deemed relevant learning. An individual education plan is established for the student and classes or activities are assigned to fulfill high school requirements.
Jerome was one of the first to earn a high school diploma in our High School+ program. As his younger brother, I put pressure on him until he signed up. He was 50 years old by the time he hung his diploma on the wall in his living room, but it was there for his 10-year-old son to see. His son walked past that diploma every morning as his dad got him up and off to school. He had expectations of his son, Troy, and openly showed his pride.
The success of this program is based in the fact that each student can work at their own pace and should they need to take a break, they are able to pick back up where they left off, whereas GED requires a student to heavily focus time and attention on a subject with the evaluation of their competency coming in one overly long and stressful test. Most adults do not have enough time in their day to invest in preparing for the high stakes testing this old model requires.
Jerome has been a good father to his son, having been a single father and the primary parent since Troy was a small boy. Both are quiet and gruff, but they have a strong relationship that includes love and support. Troy DeCoteau walked in his commencement this year, receiving his high school diploma from Ferndale High School on June 6th, 2025. He is currently making plans to continue his education.
We have been offering High School+ for eight years with each of those years producing at least 20 high school graduates, with many years graduating 25 or more. By the end of the 2025/26 academic year, we project to have helped 200 students to successfully attain a high school diploma over those eight years. The lasting effect and impact we are having on our community and the families we serve are hard to quantify, but we hope there are many stories like my brother Jerome’s and my nephew Troy’s. Knowing how much it means to my brother and his son, I routinely recommend to our graduates that they frame their diploma and hang it on the wall.
