CENTER TEACHES TOOLS FOR LIFE\Adult students bridge language, learning gap.

Byline: Daniel Taub Daily News Staff Writer

When Jesus Guzman clears tables, refills water glasses and cleans up after customers at the Mexican restaurant where he works, he is certain of one thing - he wants a better job.

To accomplish his goal, the 25-year-old Guzman knows that he must graduate high school, so he attends classes every weekday morning at the North Hollywood Adult Learning Center.

"If it's a good job, they're asking you for a high school diploma," said Guzman, of Sun Valley.

For the $1 cost of an identification card, the center gives people like Guzman the chance for a new start. Students can study for their high school diploma, improve their basic English skills or receive help becoming a U.S. citizen.

"We provide an invaluable service here," said Rheta Goldman, a coordinator at the center. "We make adult students feel they can learn again."

Guzman is one of 700 students attending the North Hollywood Learning Center, part of the North Hollywood Polytechnic Community Adult School.

The Los Angeles Unified School District center, which is in its 25th year, is divided into three day programs - an English as a Second Language program, an Adult Basic Education program, and a high school diploma and equivalency program.

Depending on their language skills, students can enter at any of the three levels and can move up as far and as fast as they want, Goldman said.

Students - who have come from as far off as Vietnam, Afghanistan and Morocco - include immigrants with college degrees from their home countries, dropouts returning to school and senior citizens who want to be able to speak English with their grandchildren, Goldman said.

But because the students are adults - they must be at least 18 to enroll - they often have obligations that come before their education.

"These adult students come to us with a lot of extra baggage and responsibility - night jobs, rent, children," Goldman said. "Yet they're coming to school at the same time in order to improve themselves."

The program enrolls about 1,500 to 2,000 students a year, but "some students come for three months and then drop out," Goldman said.

Even so, about 115 students received high school diplomas or passed the equivalency program in June, she said. Many go on to college, trade school or to progress in their occupations. For more information about the North Hollywood Adult Learning Center, call [phone].

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(1) Jesus Guzman practices reading English as he listens to an English tape in the lab at the North Hollywood Adult Learning Center. (2) Teacher Liliana Howard has students point to their foreheads during a lesson at the learning center. Michael Owen Baker/Daily News