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37573 Old Highway 30
Astoria, OR 97103-7000
503-325-2131
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Our academic programs are generally open entry/open exit. This means that individual students start their learning at the highest level they can manage, and they finish when they have demonstrated mastery.
Tongue Point is fully accredited though the Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges.
We employ a licensed professional faculty whose motto is “Learning for all, whatever it takes.” We maintain high expectations for our students. While a student may work at his or her own pace, at Tongue Point that means that every staff and student will do his or her daily best, striving, confronting obstacles, and celebrating successes every day.
Our academic programs include:
(Click on a link below to learn more.)
- Basic skills in reading
- Basic skills in math
- Algebra
- Basic skills in written communication
- English as Second Language (ESL)
- Applied Academics
- GED (high school equivalency) preparation
- Tongue Point High School High school diploma completion
- Driver Training
- Computer Basics
- Health
- Social Skills Training(SST)
- Cultural Diversity
Reading
Nothing affects a worker’s ability to function in the workplace or to pursue advancement more profoundly than the ability to comprehend, analyze, apply, and evaluate what he or she reads. Reading is the gateway to lifelong learning. Tongue Point offers programs for readers at all levels.
Math
In today’s economy, virtually all vocations require good basic math skills. Tongue Point offers basic math programs at all levels. Critical math skills we teach include calculation, application, measurement, estimation, and other skills that students will need in their future careers.
Algebra
Tongue Point offers an elective algebra program that has become enormously popular. Students in our Electrician training program must have appropriate algebra credit to join the union apprenticeship program after graduation. The class is popular among all students because we prove to them in our algebra class that what may be difficult is not impossible.
We believe that self-esteem is earned through achievement—the more challenging the achievement, the greater the self-esteem. So we always challenge students to stretch their skills, to test their courage, to dare to tackle jobs that may have seemed impossible before they came to Tongue Point.
Writing
Professional writing skills are essential to many of the vocations we teach at Tongue Point Job Corps Center, particularly Office Technology. But writing skills are part of many of the trades, as well. In Facilities Maintenance, for example, students must write a clear report on each job they do, including a description of the task, their problem-solving process, and the steps they take in fixing the problem—just as they will have to write these reports on the job.
Just as important, even though some trades may not emphasize writing skills in entry level positions, a lack of writing skills will certainly limit a worker’s ability to earn promotions. Entry level workers may not need to write much in many lines of work, but supervisors and managers do. At Tongue Point, we want all of our graduates to be prepared to realize their maximum potential on the job.
ESL
Tongue Point welcomes students from a wide variety of cultures, whatever their native languages may be. To be employable in the United States, however, we know that they must be able to read, write, listen to and speak English proficiently.
Our programs in English as Second Language (ESL), Vocational ESL, ESL Math, and Workplace Readiness for non-native English speakers each address the special needs of trainees who find themselves trying to cope with a new language in a new culture. We provide basic academic education, as well as training in vocational skills, skills for survival in American culture, and elements of American citizenship.
In addition, Tongue Point maintains an important linkage with nearby Clatsop Community College for free after-hours ESL classes and for supporting our on-center ESL tutoring program.
Applied Academics
When a vocation requires specific basic skills, we teach them. Students in our building trades, for example, must not only be able to use a tape measure, but also calculate in their heads using halves, quarters, and eighths of inches. Culinary Arts students must convert recipes and calculating wet and dry measures. Students in Office Technology must spell, punctuate, and format documents perfectly, using consistently good grammar. Landscapers must calculate slopes for drainage and sprinkler systems, and spread rates for wet and dry chemicals. The list of basic academic skills and their applications in the trades goes on.
Tongue Point employs a School-Based Learning Specialist who manages our academic-vocational linkage, consulting with instructors in both departments to develop a truly integrated, applied academic curriculum. One instructional unit on math for landscapers developed cooperatively by a pair of our academic and vocational instructors has won a national award for integrated curriculum.
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Next to good technical and social skills, there is nothing more important to a job-hunter than having a GED or high school diploma. Tongue Point provides full preparation for the state GED exams, which our students take at nearby Clatsop Community College. The five GED exams include Writing Skills, Social Studies, Science, Interpreting Literature & the Arts, and Math.
Once students without a GED or diploma have demonstrated a minimum reading level, they are placed in the GED program. There our full-time GED specialist helps them prepare for each of the GED state tests. At Tongue Point we help students not only to learn the content of each subject, but to master study skills and test-taking strategies, as well. Students with high scores also earn credit waivers toward their high school diplomas.
Tongue Point High School
Although we find that most employers hold the GED in very high regard, some employers (including the armed forces most of the time) do prefer a high school diploma to a GED. In addition, many of our students who have not finished high school have a lingering sense of an important task left unfinished, even after they have earned a GED certificate.
That is why we opened Tongue Point High School in 1996. Accredited by Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges and registered as an alternative school through our local school district, Tongue Point High School has received a commendation from the Air Force Recruiting Service and a “high” evaluation from the other armed services.
When a student arrives at Tongue Point, we order official transcripts from their hometown high schools during the career preparation period, assess their basic skills in reading and math, and create an individualized plan for earning a GED, a diploma, or both. In addition to the traditional academic disciplines, Tongue Point High School graduates will also have completed a vocational training program that includes work-based learning and a rigorous program of employability skills training. Our graduates enter the world of work with an education they can use.
Driver Training
Tongue Point employs two full-time driver training instructors to ensure that students have an opportunity to earn their licenses. Since we are situated very close to a state line, we can assist students in obtaining either Oregon or Washington licenses.
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Some of our vocational offerings require fairly advanced computer skills, and Tongue Point’s vocational training programs provide appropriate training. However, we believe that our world is in an Information Age where everyone needs to be proficient in modern information technology. We believe that computer literacy is important not only in securing employment opportunities, but in participating fully in our culture and in lifelong learning.
In addition to a computer in every classroom, Tongue Point operates a computer lab with both free standing and networked work stations. We offer classes in computer basics for all students. And, since we know how important it is for students to keep in touch with home, limited before- and after-hours personal internet time is also available in our computer lab and in many of our classrooms by appointment.
Health
Working adults must be able to take care of themselves. Therefore, all students take part in our health education seminar. There we provide students with up to date information about self-care, healthcare consumerism, diet & exercise, alcohol and other drugs, hygiene, emotional wellness, and reproductive health. Good health habits discussed in the seminar are reinforced throughout the Job Corps program.
Social Skills Training (SST)
No matter how good a worker’s technical skills may be, he or she will not last long on the job without appropriate social skills. Tongue Point’s vocation and academic classrooms support Job Corps’ Social Skills Training (SST) through workshops focusing on the weekly SST topic and are facilitated at the scheduled time slot each week in all of our classrooms.
Students are expected to practice and demonstrate mastery of SST skills at numerous functions on and off the center, such as at student dances, business meetings, and various community service projects.
Topics for SST include communication, managing emotions, relationships, critical thinking, personal and collective responsibility, and independent living—all challenges faced by many Tongue Point Job Corps students.
Cultural Diversity
Never before has the American workplace reflected the ethnic and cultural diversity we see today. The same goes for Job Corps centers. At Tongue Point, we believe that students are very likely to encounter far greater diversity among their coworkers at Job Corps and in the world of work afterward than they are used to at home. We believe understanding is the antidote to unfamiliarity and the suspicion and animosity that it can breed.
All Tongue Point students attend a class called Cultural Unity, where they are exposed to cultural differences, but where they also explore the common aspects of all cultures. We believe that while we may celebrate differences, we must emphasize commonality. Unity is the focus of diversity education at Tongue Point Job Corps Center.
