Is the GED a Fair Test of College and Career Readiness?
A working paper published this month by the Bureau of Economic Research suggests that the easy availability and the low cost of GED testing may be inducing students to drop out of high school.
At a time when so much emphasis is being placed on increasing graduation rates, especially in high-poverty school districts, making the GED more widely available seems to be counterproductive.
According to the paper:
The GED is not harmless. Treating it to an equivalent to a high school degree distorts social statistics and gives false signals that America is making progress when it’s not.
In 2008, a half million dropouts earned a GED. That’s 12 percent of all high school credentials. Unfortunately, according to the paper, those who take and pass the GED are less successful than high school graduates in the job market. While both benchmarks measure academic knowledge and skill, there may be other indicators of success not measured by the test such as self-esteem, self-efficacy, and persistence.
In the meantime, students in the public school system continue to see equivalency testing as a valid alternative to completing high school and earning a diploma. This may be one more example of the inadequacy of standardized testing. While the factors it does measure are important, the elements not measured may actually be more telling determinants of post-secondary success.
While ODYSSEYWARE curriculum does include a GED Prep course, the entire online curriculum is designed to support success for students who are at the top and the bottom of their classes academically. Credit recovery mode allows students to earn lost credits effectively and efficiently, and every course can be customized to accommodate students’ varied needs.
As a society, we are now taking a look at testing and its efficacy. It’s time to figure out how to evaluate readiness instead of skills, and how to prepare students for a life filled with learning instead of a head filled with right answers. Do you think the GED option encourages dropping out, or does it serve as a feasible alternative to high school completion?