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…

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…

Earning a high school diploma is one of the milestones for students who come to the United States from other countries. But for those who arrive in their middle to late teens, learning enough English to earn a diploma can seem all but impossible. Some students from Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America, however, are discovering an option that has…

The New Jersey State Board of Education General Educational Development Test requirements are outlined; stricter regulations are to ensure that school districts meet student needs. The state board resolution to study high school student dropout causes is discussed, as recommended by the New Jersey Education Association. (CM)

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…

The Tests of General Educational Development (GED Tests) are described. Developed in 1942 for military personnel who had not graduated from high school, the GED Tests enabled veterans to qualify for jobs or enter college. More than 10 million persons have earned GED Test diplomas since 1971. There are five parts to the GED Tests: (1) Writing…

In 1989, 682,728 people (7% less than in 1988) took the Tests of General Educational Development (GED Tests). Approximately 68% earned scores sufficient to qualify for the GED diploma awarded by their jurisdictions. Departments and ministries of education in the United States and Canada awarded 376,879 credentials (down 13% from 1988) based on GED…

The contents of this publication are intended to provide exercises in reading which require a type and a level of interpretation similar to that demanded by the test of General Educational Development. These exercises were also designed to reinforce the reading skills outlined in a previous publication, "Developing High School Equivalency…

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the item characteristics of the General Educational Development Tests (GED) for specific subgroups of students. The method employed was the approach suggested by Linn and Harnisch in which the three-parameter logistic model is used for detecting interactions between item content and group…

Six issues of the newsletter of the General Educational Development Testing Service discuss developments of interest to users of the Tests of General Educational Development (GED) in the United States and Canada. The feature article of each issue is: (1) "Survey of Testing Centers Reveals Trends in Access to Technology"; (2)…

The methods used by the General Educational Development Testing Service (GEDTS) to establish and maintain score stability and reading reliability on its direct assessment of writing are described. Using the 1988 site certification and monitoring results of several scoring sites, the focus is on describing how the score scale was established and…

Job Training Partnership Act funds were provided for the Options for Young Mothers project in a mid-sized Texas community. The program was developed and 14 clients were selected. The main components of the program were life skills, General Educational Development (GED) training, counseling, and basic skills training and job placement (Jobs). The…

Nearly 15 percent of the high school diplomas issued in the United States in 1981 were based upon performance on the Tests of General Educational Development (GED). The purpose of this study is to describe: (1) the ways that adults prepare for the test; (2) the test performance of population sub-groups, and (3) the test candidates employment and…

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…