The Middle Peninsula Regional Adult Continuing Education program, or MP RACE, one of the area’s quiet success stories, got a chance to highlight its work during Tuesday’s Mathews County School Board meeting.

Edith Turner, computer resource specialist at Lee-Jackson Elementary School and an adult education teacher for the past 13 years, said that MP RACE is one of the few programs in the state that achieved all of its goals for the past school year.

In order to do that, she said, the program needs to retain its students, have those students show steady and measurable gains as they work toward their GED diplomas.

"We do take pride in holding on to our students," Turner said, adding that she and the other instructors at Mathews have been known to "bribe" the students with chocolate. "Chocolate is brain food," she said.

There are currently eight students enrolled in the program, with four due to take the GED test in December. Last year, T...