The study compared two adult education standards used to determine Louisiana student eligibility for taking the General Educational Development (GED) test. Of the initial 590 students, 516 remained as study participants. The traditional standard, Standard 1, required the student to earn 13.0 on the California Achievement Test (CAT) with no area score below 12.0. The alternative standard, Standard 2, required the student to earn a raw score of thirty-four or above on the American College Testing-Adult Performance Level Survey (ACT-APL Survey) with a minimum of 10.0 in each CAT subject area. Students were pretested on the CAT and ACT-APL. A control group received instruction in a traditional adult education program; the experimental group was taught through an APL-based program. The study compares the percentage of students initially qualifying for GED through Standards 1 and 2. Percentages of students initially qualifying who actually took and passed the GED were also compared. Of the initial Standard 1 recommendations, 89% passed the GED; of those recommended through Standard 2, 97% passed. Ninety percent of the persons who qualified for GED testing by alternative and not traditional criteria were able to pass the test. APL instruction and criteria allowed a higher percentage of students to remain in an adult education program and attain a high school equivalency diploma. (Author/CSS)