Photos by Eric Brady | The Roanoke Times

Atija Softic (left), an English as a Second Language instructor and former ESL student, works with Luda Vasileava, who is from Russia.

Atija Softic shows images and asks adult education students to name in English what they see.

Atija Softic (standing) works with English as a Second Language students (seated, from left) Luda Vasileava of Russia, Nabil Doura of Syria and Hideaki Kawaguchi of Japan.

As more than 14,000 Roanoke County students head back to school today, some of their parents may be getting ready to go back to the classroom, too.

Roanoke County's 2-year-old adult education program, which more than doubled in size in its first year, could well see another jump in enrollment when the fall classes resume Sept. 9.

About 134 people took classes preparing them for a GED test, and 158 took classes to help them learn English last year. This year, the county school system will hold evening and weekend classes at schools and churches throughout the county, although county school officials don't know exactly how many students they'll have. Also, a few dozen students have been taking classes at the Burton Center for Arts and Technology over the summer.

The program costs roughly $170,000 a year and is funded by state and federal grants

"Most of these folks are intimidated by paperwork. They're intimidated by big buildings. They're intimidated by all types of things," said Roger Johnson, the county school system's director of career and technical education.

The county used to collaborate in a regional partnership that held classes at the Roanoke Higher Education Center in downtown Roanoke but found that the location was not practical for a lot of county residents. When the county launched its program two years ago, school officials decided to make it as convenient as possible.

"They don't have to do anything for the class but show up," Johnson said. "We register them once they get in the class. There's no attendance requirement."

The demand is certainly there. Johnson cited census figures that show almost 10,000 county residents 18 and older do not have a high school diploma. And the number of foreign-born residents in Roanoke County has continued to grow, hitting 3,720 in 2006, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, up from 2,631 in 2000.

"I think that there's a real need," said Stuart Rawlings, who helps adults to prepare for the GED test. "We have students who are motivated by the fact that they don't have a high school diploma and they want to tell their kids about the importance of education."

Rawlings also said the increasing reliance on standardized tests since the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2002 may have led some students "to give up on traditional education."

The school system has also started offering the GED in county schools. Last year 72 people passed, out of 103 tested.

Muawia Abdeljallil, a student in a summer GED class, said he was taking the class to improve his English. Abdeljallil, a Palestinian who moved to Roanoke seven years ago, already has taken English classes and would like to take a computer course.

All this, he said, could serve him well in his work, running two convenience stores.

His oldest son graduated from Hidden Valley High School this year and is starting at Virginia Western Community College.

"I had been planning to start with him in college, but I'm running behind," he said.

Atija Softic, an English as a Second Language teacher, was herself an ESL student when she first moved here from Bosnia in 1997.

"I was like them," said Softic, who also teaches at Oak Grove Elementary School during the school year. "I pretty much depended on my ESL teacher at the time."

"I keep saying to them: You'll do fine. You just need to try," she added.

A few minutes later, she was showing slides to a class of three students, asking them to identify what they say.

"What is this, Nabil?" she asked Nabil Doura, a recent arrival from Syria, pointing to a picture of a stove.

"Stove?" Doura tentatively asked.

"Good job," she said. "You speak English now. You are American."