Transitions to postsecondary education for GED graduates are a growing concern for educators and policy makers. This article analyzes the educational, demographic, and financial characteristics of Pennsylvania postsecondary students with a GED credential compared with traditional high school graduates, and identifies rural-urban differences within…

Back on Track, developed by Jobs for the Future, is a design for schools to not only re-engage off-track and out-of-school youths to graduate from high school, but also to put them on a clear, supported path to a college education. Two schools that have combined Back on Track with the early college model, in which students can earn both a high…

Many community colleges, along with some public-school districts and family-literacy programs, are overhauling their GED curricula and support services. Nearly 40 million American adults do not have high-school or GED diplomas, according to 2009 data from the American Council on Education, which developed the GED test. Another of the council's…

Nationwide, close to 40 million adults lack a high school diploma or a General Educational Development (GED) credential. About a quarter of high school freshmen do not graduate in four years, and while many high school dropouts eventually do attend GED preparation classes, too few ever pass the GED exam or go on to college. Students with only a…

For many years, the General Educational Development (GED) credential has been viewed as the high school dropout's safety net. Though not as well regarded as the high school diploma, the GED has opened up educational and economic opportunity for millions of young people and adults who did not finish high school. Nearly 680,000 people take the full…

This paper analyzes the influence of three different learning paradigms for learning literacy--formalist, cognitive-processing, and literacy practices--on the implementation of the Common Core State Standards. It argues that the Common Core State Standards are based largely on a formalist paradigm as evident in the emphasis on teaching text…

While the majority of adults who take the General Educational Development (GED) test do so in order to continue their education, few go on to enter postsecondary education. Yet, these same adults stand to make substantial economic and personal gains when they use their adult secondary credential to move from the ranks of high school dropout to…

Adult secondary education learners approach the goal of college-level postsecondary education through three assessment gateways: (a) measures of adult education program learning gains, (b) a high-school equivalency exam, and (c) college placement tests. On the surface, the assessments in this sequence might appear to work in concert and point…

In 1998, Rio Salado College in Tempe, Arizona, established a transition program to help students in General Educational Development (GED) test preparation and English-for-Speakers-of-Other-Languages (ESOL) classes make a successful transition to community college. As of the end of the transition program's second year, it had developed into an…

More than ever before teachers, principals, and superintendents are joining with parents and citizens of the community in examining and appraising what the schools are trying to do and how their work can be adequately supported. One of the topics that comes up for frequent discussion in the high school field is the Carnegie Unit. It has been our…