For the nearly 39 million U.S. adults who do not have a high school diploma, the General Educational Development (GED) programs and exam have served as the main avenue for improving individuals' skills and helping them earn a high school credential. However, few students who start these programs ever get this credential, and even fewer advance to…

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…

Using the World Health Organization definition of health for reference and a diverse group of raters, we sought to determine the following about the 931 questions that comprise the seven English pencil-and-paper versions of U.S. GED Official Practice Tests: (a) the prevalence of health-related questions and (b) representation of the eight U.S.…

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…

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…

Reliability Analysis for the Internationally Administered 2002 Series GED (General Educational Development) Tests Reliability refers to the consistency, or stability, of test scores when the authors administer the measurement procedure repeatedly to groups of examinees (American Educational Research Association [AERA], American Psychological…

For most high school non-completers, the GED[R] credential provides a bridge to postsecondary education, but little is known about how successfully GED (General Educational Development) Test candidates make that transition and whether enrollment rates change with time. The American Council on Education (ACE) has begun a three-year longitudinal…

The "National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program" is a residential education and training program designed for youth ages 16 to 18 who have dropped out of or been expelled from high school. During the 22-week residential period, participants are offered GED preparation classes and other program services intended to promote positive youth…

The purpose of the analyses reported in this paper was to compare performance on the GED (General Educational Development) Tests, U.S. edition, across three groups of examinees: (a) graduating high school seniors in the GED Tests U.S. 2001 norm group, (b) GED Tests candidates who took one or more tests in the U.S. in 2002-2004, and (c) GED Tests…

Youth for Education and Success (YES) has contracted with the Houston Independent School District (HISD) (Texas) to provide a community-based alternative school for HISD students who have dropped out of school and are considered at risk. An evaluation of the program indicated that 9 of 118 enrolled students attained General Educational Development…

In their chapter on numeracy, the authors begin by exploring the many terms used to describe the learning of mathematics by adults. They discuss the relationship between the terms "mathematics" and "numeracy" and explain why numeracy--making meaning with numbers and mathematical processes--is the term they chose for their…

This annual report is designed to assess the efforts of Tennessee's State Board of Education and Higher Education Commission, to provide an overview of the challenges and prospects for public education in Tennessee, and to present a statement on educational plans and goals for the future. The report outlines 15 improvement initiatives for…

The purpose of Even Start, as outlined in federal legislation, is to help break the intergenerational cycle of poverty and low literacy by providing a unified family literacy program for low-income families. Even Start has three related goals: (1) to help parents improve their literacy or basic education skills; (2) to help parents become full…