• Samantha is highly motivated and is ready to make this step, although she is nervous since her previous school experience was not positive.
• She has a good support system - her grandmother provides daycare when needed.
• Samantha indicates she struggled throughout elementary and high school with her reading skills and often disrupted the class during quiet time when they were required to read.
• She took basic courses during her short time at high school and remembers being sent to a small group for extra help in reading during elementary school.
• Her rebellious behaviour began to interfere with her academics in Grade 7. Samantha's parents went through a difficult divorce at that time and limited attention was focused on her.
• During her upbringing, Samantha recalls her mother always reinforced the need for her to do well in school and get a college degree, so that Samantha would not wind up like her mother.
• Samantha's mother worked as a cashier in a grocery store and currently is working at a major department store. Although her mother has average reading abilities, Samantha knows that her mother avoids reading when possible.

Initial test results: (CAAT - Canadian Adult Achievement Test and Math Skills Inventory)

• Vocabulary 10.3, reading comprehension 6.5 and spelling 7.7.
• Math results indicate that she can add, subtract and multiply single-digit numbers but has difficulty with double-digits and division. As a result, she struggled with her percentages and fractions. Although her adding and subtracting were strong, when they were put into a word problem format, she was unable to solve them.

Expressive writing and spelling

• Although her grammar and spelling were weak, there were some signs of process (she used an opening and concluding sentence).
• Some common errors found in the written passage were:
  • Samantha omitted and sometimes substituted vowels and consonants.