PULLMAN, Wash. — The High School Equivalency Program at Washington State
University’s College of Education has been awarded $2.4 million in federal funding over the next
five years. The HEP program is geared toward migrant worker education.
Since 1967, WSU HEP has prepared about 3,000 migrant workers to earn a high school
equivalency degree. Students come from throughout the United States to complete a six- to
eight-week session in Pullman.
Following graduation with an equivalency degree, students can enter the workforce, join the
armed forces or attend community colleges or universities.
The WSU HEP is the oldest continuously operating and most successful migrant education
equivalency program in the United States, said Program Director James Shoemaker. “No other
similar program nationwide has achieved this program’s rate of 80 percent student success,” he
explained.
Support for the program comes from the U.S. Department of Education, which now provides
about $475,000 annually to the program. Shoemaker estimated that a total of $12 million in
support has come to WSU since the program’s inception.
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