Nearly 39 million adults in the United States lack a valid high school credential and face a significant barrier to both higher education and employment opportunities. High school equivalency exams, primarily the General Educational Development (GED) exam, are the primary gateway to college for high school dropouts, but relatively few people are…

Although high school completion rates have slowly increased over the past several decades, nearly 30 million adults today still lack a high school credential and, as a result, face a significant barrier to both higher education and employment opportunities. Policymakers and practitioners in the adult education field are searching for ways to…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the mediation effects of children's cognitive and noncognitive traits on the relationship between dropout mothers' traits and their children's educational expectations and to examine the interaction effects of dropout mothers' General Education Development (GED) on children's traits and educational…

This applied dissertation was designed to identify the characteristics of students enrolled in a GED® preparation program who transitioned to postsecondary programs at the same institution after passing the GED® test. The characteristics studied included age; gender; ethnicity; prematriculation scores in reading, language, and math in the Test of…

Most of the authors in this issue of "Future of Children" focus on a single strategy for helping both adults and children that could become a component of two-generation programs. Lindsay Chase-Lansdale and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, on the other hand, look at actual programs with an explicit two-generation focus that have been tried in the…

I survey the evidence on patterns in U.S. high school graduation rates over the period 1970-2010 and report the results of new research conducted to fill in holes in the evidence. I begin by pointing out the strengths and limitations of existing data sources. I then describe six striking patterns in graduation rates. They include stagnation over…

The economic and employment outlook for individuals without a high school diploma is bleak. For many of these individuals, passing the General Educational Development (GED) Test is the first step in competing in the increasingly demanding job market. GED test-taking policies vary across test centers and jurisdictions, and have the potential to…

This booklet is both a description of activities to organize a General Educational Development program (GED) alumni association and a guide to starting an alumni group. It specifically focuses on "Operation Alumni," a project to establish a local GED alumni organization at Reading Area Community College that could serve as a state model…

This document, prepared as a conference handout, consists of a description of the revised General Educational Development (GED) Tests scheduled for introduction in 1988 and a series of recommendations concerning the content of future GED tests, which were formulated by a committee appointed by the Commission on Educational Credit and Credentials…

This literature review considers instructional and testing strategies for General Education Development (GED) adult students with learning disabilities. The GED test is described, and specific instructional strategies from the literature are identified for the areas of writing skills, science, social studies, literature and art, and mathematics.…

A study examined factor structure invariance among the writing skills of graduating High School Seniors and Adult High School Non-Completers. The study had three purposes: (1) to use LISREL confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) procedures to specify and test a series of factor models based on the test specifications content of the General Educational…

This report introduces the General Education Development Testing Services (GEDTS) Administrator screening model for adults with learning disabilities. The screening model is designed to identify adults whose educational achievement is significantly below overall potential due to an informational processing deficit and who are thus eligible for…

A study tested a conceptual model of attrition, the Tinto (1975) model, on a group of General Educational Development (GED) examinees and on a comparison group of traditional high school graduates from a single public community college. The sample consisted of 198 GED students and 201 traditional high school graduates who entered Queensborough…

An instructors' manual describing the "Write-Now" approach to teaching writing to adult students preparing for the General Educational Development (GED) test together with a final report describing the project that developed the manual is presented. Topics covered in the 16 chapters of the manual include the following: what we believe…

To provide transition opportunities for adult education students while preparing them for their General Educational Development (GED) test, Austin Community College (ACC) developed a program called GED Plus. A variety of information sources, including orientation sessions, brochures, telephone inquiries, and site visits to partner agencies, were…