General Education Development Testing 1

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The America’s Promise Alliance released their 2014 Building a Grad Nation report highlighting that, “for the first time in U.S. history the nation’s on-time high school graduation rate rose above 80 percent.” While this is a huge accomplishment for the organization, and its partners that have been devoted to helping create conditions for educational success for all young people, there is still a remaining 20 percent of students not completing high school. In 2013, nearly 4.1 million students enrolled in 9th grade, following this statistic as a guide, an estimated 820,000 students will not complete high school with their peers. History has shown that while it may not be the root cause, dropping out of high school has been correlated with a high number of negative outcomes. Research has shown increased chances of unemployment or completely dropping out of the workforce, lower rates of marriage, increased incidence of divorce and births outside marriage, increased involvement with the welfare and legal systems, and even poor health among high school drop outs. There are a number of programs that work with disengaged youth and non-diploma earning adults to help them obtain the General Educational Development (GED) credential and transition into the workforce however, research shows that income limitations and further educational opportunity potential does not increase substantially by gaining it.

In a report by the US Census Bureau, their research found that GED recipients, while earning $800 dollars more per month than non-diploma or certificate holders, they still trailed high school diploma holders by $1600 a month. While they doubled their earning potential in obtaining the credential, the value placed on the GED remain...

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GED Testing Service (2012). 2011 Annual Statistical Report on the GED® Test. Retrieved from GED Testing Centers website: http://www.gedtestingservice.com/uploads/files/4176ab251366d3ccfb4e94a9a888e67a.pdf

Clymer, C. (2012). Preparing For The New GED®1 Test: What To Consider Before 2014. Retrieved from The Working Poor Families website: http://www.workingpoorfamilies.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/WPFP-fall-brief_2012.pdf

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