10 www.minorityreporter.net |JANUARY 6 - 12 | 2014
NATIONAL
GED test overhauled; some states opt for new exam
WASHINGTON (AP) - The GED test, for
decades the brand name for the high
school equivalency exam, is about to
undergo some changes.
On Thursday, an upgraded GED exam
and two new competing equivalency
tests offered in several states will
usher in a new era in adult education
testing.
The GED (General Educational
Development) exam was created in
1942 to help World War II veterans
who dropped out of high school use
college benefits offered under the GI
Bill. This will be its first face-lift in more
than a decade.
The revamped test is intended to be
more rigorous and better aligned
with the skills needed for college and
today’s workplaces. The new test will
only be offered on a computer, and it
will cost more. What consumers pay
for the test varies widely and depends
on state assistance and other factors.
Even before its launch, officials in many
states have balked at the cost increase
and at doing away with paper-andpencil testing. At least nine states New York, New Hampshire, Missouri,
Iowa, Montana, Indiana, Louisiana,
Maine and West Virginia - severed ties
with the GED test and adopted one of
the two new tests that are entering
the market. Three others - Wyoming,
New Jersey and Nevada - will offer all
three. Tennessee will offer the GED
test and one other, and other states
are expected to decide what to do in
the coming months.
That will leave test takers, adult
educators and states grappling with
new questions: How do you best
prepare students for the tests? Which
is best, by price and quality? How will
the tests be accepted by the military,
employers and colleges?
The advent of new tests has sent
thousands of test takers rushing to
complete sections of the old test they
had left incomplete. Once the upgrade
happens, the old scores of “partial
passers” will no longer be accepted.
“Angst is the good word” to describe
this time in adult education, said Lennox
McLendon, executive director of the
National Adult Education Professional
Development Consortium.
Marty Finsterbusch, president of
ValueUSA, a resource organization for
adult learners, said he fears there will
be a lot of unintended consequences
and he’s worried about adult learners
“getting caught up in the crunch of
this.” For example, he said, he wonders
what will happen to someone who
partially passes a test in one state,
then moves to another state that
doesn’t offer that type of exam.
“The system will work itself out
eventually, but how many people are
going to get hurt in the meantime?”
Finsterbusch said.
More than 700,000 people took the
GED test in 2012. The average test
taker is about 26, and many people
seeking a high school equivalency
diploma are poor. Nationally, about
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