The GED Program in the 21st Century:

Working Together for a Brighter Future in Career and College Readiness

National College Testing Association

David Espinoza, University of OregonMartin Kehe, GED Testing Service

The Need for Adult and Postsecondary Education

• 30 million (~10% of the population) people over the age of 16 in the United States can barely read and write in English.

• An additional 60 million (~20% of the population) do not have adequate basic literacy skills for earning a living wage.

• Combined current funding supports instruction in basic literacy, ESL, adult secondary education, computer training, and vocational education for just 3 million adults.

Source: www.proliteracy.org

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The Current Environment

• Economy uncertainty (lingering downturn)

• Globalization of the labor market

• Need for postsecondary training—correlating with employer demand for higher skill levels (READ: college & career readiness)

• Changing composition of the U.S. labor force

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The GED Reality: The BIG Gap

• An estimated 39 million Americans lack a high school credential.

• Annually, 1.3 million U.S. students drop out of high school.

• 10.5 million of these Americans are age 18-34.

• The GED Test serves only 778,000 test takers and only 493,000 receive credentials each year.

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What We Need…Given The Realities

• A test that certifies preparedness

• An integrated approach in which testing is an important but transitional step

• Diagnostics and additional tools—to place candidates to produce the best outcomes

• Use of alternative delivery platforms to ease capacity/access issues

• Recognition that all of these things will take TIME to address effectively.

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Adult and Postsecondary Education’s Needs

• Effective solutions to access challenges (shrinking budgets, maxed facilities and capacity issues)

• Better tools and systems to support the diverse needs of adult learners

• Greater understanding, awareness and action by Federal & State policy makers

To

• Content aligned to 1999 high school curriculum

• Passing standard empirically set based on norm-referenced performance of graduating high school seniors

• Non-standardized paper-based test delivery channel

• Few instructional programs that demonstrate significant promise in accelerating proficiency gains

• Few organizations recognized as leading the field

• Rigorous content aligned to Common Core college/career-ready curriculum

• Proficiency levels based on criterion-referenced performance standards for both high school and college/career readiness

• Standardized computer-based test delivery channel

• Instructional programs with evidence-based practices incorporating accelerated learning

• Champions and exemplary organizations leading the field

From

Our Vision for the Evolution of the GED Program

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The GED 21st Century Initiative: Primary Objectives

• To contribute significantly to the nation’s goal of significantly increasing postsecondary completion rates

• To increase access to and attainment of postsecondary education (PSE) credentials for non-traditional adult learners by:

1. Adopting a college/career-ready performance standard and creating an assessment and a credential that indicates readiness;

2. Facilitating the development of a stronger system of educational supports for GED candidates; and

3. Creating the PSE pathways that give meaning to a GED “college-/career-ready certification”

The GED 21st Century Initiative: Pathways

Pathways to college/career-readiness and success

Attract Accelerate LearningDemon-strate

Connect

Ongoing formative

assessment

Show Proficiency

on Next-Gen GED Test

Entry into learning system

Attain

PSE & career

attainment and beyond

Pathways to and

supports for

PSE & career

Differen-tiated

instruction

Customized curriculum

Learning Pre-

assessment

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Drivers & Realities

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GED Target Adult Population

Potential GED candidate population

Homeschooled (~0.24M)

US-born adults without a high school diploma or equivalent (~10M)

Foreign-born adults without a high school diploma or equivalent (~5M)

0

20

40

60

80

100%

Foreign-borndropouts

US-borndropouts

15 Million

Home-schooled

The Truth About Proficiency Levels

140

20

40

60

80

100%

Percent of populationby grade level proficiency

Adults without HS diploma orequivalent credential

9-10th grade

6-8th grade

5th grade orless

11-12th gradeEquivalentEFL levels

EFL 6

EFL 5

EFL 4

EFL 3 and below

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Tackling the Proficiency Gap

College- and Career-ready

proficiency level(target grade

level proficiency)

=Time

investmentfor preparation

(total prep time)X

Multiplier for accelerating proficiency (grade level

gain within total prep time)

Target proficiencyProjected proficiency

Starting proficiency level(current grade

level proficiency)

+

Accelerated Learning

• Given the realities of the proficiency gap our learners face, approaches to accelerated learning need to be researched and tested

• GEDTS plans to launch a series of pilots to employ and evaluate accelerated learning with adult test takers– Of varying ages– Of varying proficiency challenge levels– In varying learning environments– Encompassing varying learning technologies

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The Near Term…

• The 2002 Series will remain in the market for the next three to five years

• During that time, however, we will be:1. Developing content frameworks for the new test

2. Piloting Computer-based testing (CBT)

3. Piloting accelerated learning tools in varied settings

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Transforming Our Reality

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Laying the Groundwork for the Future

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Ensuring Adult Learners

are

Career- and College-Ready

The GEDTS Goal