The General Educational Development (GED) testing program has been a part of the Alberta High School Equivalency Program since 1981. Between December 1981 and December 1983, 4,333 applicants passed the GED in Alberta, and 802 applicants failed to pass the test. Random samples of 200 individuals from each of these groups were studied to determine…

About 9,000 students in grades 4, 8, and 12 participated in three writing excersises: (1) directed--short passage in response to a specific request; (2) global--extended narrative or exposition on a broad topic; and (3) proofreading and editing. The exercises reflected writing tasks required of the average adult as a citizen worker or creative…

Achievement Tests in biology, chemistry, physics, earth and space science were administered to 100,000 students in grades 4, 8, and 12. The tests did not reflect course content, they were based instead upon five goals: understanding of scientific concepts, processes, applications, safety, and literacy. A panel judged that performance was less than…