Noteworthy Practices

• GED OnLine. Missouri's Internet-based preparation class for the GED. The online classroom is an anywhere-anytime learning environment for Missouri residents who cannot attend traditional GED classes.
• GED 2002 Teachers' Lesson Bank. These lesson plans were developed through an Adult Education State Leadership Grant from the Florida Department of Education, Division of Workforce Development. The lesson plans have been converted to a web-based format to provide easy accessibility to teachers throughout Florida and beyond. They are correlated to the Florida GED Frameworks and designed to be used as a starting point. Activity sheets have been developed so that teachers can use the lessons without specific textbooks. None of the activity sheets are copyrighted and can be legally photocopied.
• Pennsylvania GED Lesson Plans. As part of the national training project sponsored by the General Educational Development Testing Service (GEDTS) and U. S. Department of Education (ED), trainers were required to submit a lesson developed based on their training. The criteria were simple; develop interesting lessons that covered three or more content areas of the test.

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Research and Evaluation

The American Council of Education released in January 2002 a new General Educational Development (GED) test. All the studies listed below are based on previous versions of the test.

• Education and Labor Market Performance of GED Recipients. U.S. Department of Education, 1998. Examines research on the performance of GED recipients in postsecondary education, the labor market, and the armed services.
• National Center for Educational Statistics: Dropout Rates in 1999: Method of High School Completion. The pressures placed on the education system to turn out increasingly larger numbers of qualified lifelong learners have generated increased interest in alternative methods of high school completion. At this point, most students pursuing an alternative to a regular diploma take the GED tests, with the goal of earning a high school equivalency credential.
• Is the GED a Valuable Credential? ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult, Career and Vocational Education, 2000. Explores the differences between the high school diploma and [GED] credentials as well as the value of receiving one in comparison to the other.
• Literacy Skill of Adults and Potential College Students. American Council on Education, 1995. This study focused on the prose, document, and quantitative literacy skills of adults in the United States. Additionally, the study examined the literacy skills of recent GED graduates.
• GEDs for Teenagers: Are There Unintended Consequences? The Urban Institute. The GED program has expanded greatly since its start during World War II. Today almost one-half million people receive new GEDs each year and about 200,000 of these recipients are under the age of 20. GEDs as a fraction of all high school credentials received by teenagers have more than doubled since 1978. This pattern has sparked growing interest in estimating the costs and benefits of the GED program. This paper focuses on one potential cost of the GED program, the degree to which it encourages dropping out of high school.
• Tassels on the Cheap. Duncan Chaplin. While the National Educational Goals Panel and others have reported high school graduation rates remaining essentially stable (around 86 percent) over the last decade, the graduation rate has actually fallen if students receiving GEDs are not included in those numbers.

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Additional Links

• GED Testing Service. The GED Testing Service develops and distributes the GED test in the United States and Canada. Hotline: 1-800-62-MY-GED.
• The National External Diploma Program is managed by the Madison Area Technical College, located in Madison, Wisconsin. It awards a traditional high school diploma to skilled adults, over age 21, who have acquired their high school level abilities through life experience. The average age of the EDP graduate is 37 years old.
• GED Connection. GED Connection is a flexible multimedia instructional series featuring the skills and knowledge needed to prepare for and pass the newly revised GED exam. The GED Connection series combines 39 video programs (broadcast by public television), 3 student workbooks, and free Internet learning activities, quizzes, full length learning modules, and practice tests.
• GED 2002 - Online Professional Development. If you are involved in teaching the new GED 2002 curriculum, then you will be pleased to know that the Kentucky Educational Television (KET) Web site is offering 4 online professional development modules covering the three literacy strands: math, writing and critical thinking/graphics. The site also has an orientation/overview module to get you started. The modules are all free.
• Outreach and Technical Assistance Network. This California based website provides adult secondary education resources and publications for teachers, students and administrators.
• Returning to School. U.S. Department of Education, ongoing. Information for adults wanting to improve job skills, obtain a GED, or attend college courses.

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