The purpose of this qualitative narrative inquiry was to capture how graduates of adult high school diploma and equivalency programs in California told their story of persisting in the completion of a high school diploma or equivalency certificate. The four types of motivation regulation involved in organismic integration theory were used as the…

The purpose of this research was to develop an understanding of the shared lived experiences of women with ACEs who dropped out of high school, later returning to adult literacy programs to receive remedial education to prepare for and complete GED requirements, and explored the barriers they had to overcome to do so. The following research…

This non-experimental qualitative bounded case study (Yin, 2014) examined how secondary school instructors and learners perceive smartphones' impact on learning in the GED classroom in an urban school in New York City (NYC). The study assessed how GED learners and instructors in an urban NYC government-funded high school equivalency program…

This study explores school-to-work transitions in Germany, aiming to achieve a richer understanding of the complexity of labour market entry trajectories while focusing on transition measures. The term transition measures refers to additional training courses that complement the regular vocational education and training system of firm-based or…

Adult education's mission is a critical one. It seeks to provide the large and diverse population of adults who lack basic skills, a high school credential, or English language skills with the competencies they need to be productive workers, family members, and citizens. Federally funded adult education serves learners in three types of programs:…

Title II of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act of 2014 directs the federal government to conduct a national assessment of adult education, including activities to understand the extent to which adult education strategies positively affect learners. A systematic review of the research on the effectiveness of particular strategies in adult…

The U.S. military services have traditionally used a tiering system, including education credentials such as high school diplomas, in combination with Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT) scores to help gauge the likelihood of a recruit persevering through his or her first term of service. But what about less traditional credentials, such as…

Purpose: Educational attainment is a robust predictor of disability in elderly Americans: older adults with high-school (HS) diplomas have substantially lower disability than individuals who did not complete HS. General Educational Development (GED) diplomas now comprise almost 20% of new HS credentials issued annually in the United States but it…

In Belgium, the Exam Board (EB) and the Secondary School for Adults (SSA) are two different ways to attain a secondary diploma after leaving secondary school without a diploma. The SSA is part of the regular educational system and organises courses with an adult approach. The EB is a flexible system in which students prepare themselves to do…

Sokolowski (2000) summarized the phenomenological attitude by saying, "We look at what we normally look through" (p. 50). Through interviews and document analysis, this study looked at the lives of six students and their decision to return to their education to earn a high school diploma. The purpose of this study was to illuminate how…

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…

President Barack Obama's call for every state to require school attendance until age 18 may spark a flurry of action in some statehouses, but changing attendance laws will do little by itself to drive down the nation's dropout rates, experts on the issue say. In his State of the Union address last month, President Obama said states should require…

This report updates a series of NCES reports on high school dropout and completion rates that began in 1988. The report includes national and regional population estimates for the percentage of students who dropped out of high school between 2008 and 2009, the percentage of young people who were dropouts in 2009, and the percentage of young people…

The purpose of this study was to examine the alternative routes to passing the high school exit exam that were available during the school year 2008-09 to students to earn a standard high school diploma. The authors examined alternative routes in the 26 states with active or soon to be active exit exams. They documented the alternative routes…

The Federal Workforce Investment Act (WIA) Title II, Adult Education and Family Literacy Act provides funding for states and territories to provide instruction in English as a Second Language (ESL), Adult Basic Education (ABE), and Adult Secondary Education (ASE) to adults in need of these literacy services. California State Budget Act language…