Excerpt
SUMMARY: An overhaul of the GED to meet Common Core standards has made the high school equivalency test more rigorous and more expensive. As a result, fewer people are taking and passing it. Gwen Ifill gets debate from Randy Trask of the GED Testing Service and Lecester Johnson of Academy of Hope about what the changes mean.
GWEN IFILL (NewsHour): The GED, or General Educational Development diploma, has long been an important high school equivalency credential for those hoping to make up for lost time and lost opportunity.
In a typical year, about half-a-million people pass the exam. But the GED test is changing to meet new academic standards known as Common Core. As a result, fewer people are taking and passing a test that has become more rigorous and expensive. In states like Wisconsin and Rhode Island, the number of those who passed dropped more than 90 percent. In Florida, the number of test takers fell about half.
Is this an improvement or a setback?
We look at that with Randy Trask, president and CEO of the GED Testing Service, and Lecester Johnson, CEO of Academy of Hope, an adult charter school in Washington, D.C.
Randy Trask, is it that the GED test has gotten harder?
RANDY TRASK, GED Testing Service: Well, first off, thank you for having me.
It absolutely is more difficult, but, really, I think your introduction staged it all. It’s a high school equivalency test. And our last test series was tested on high school graduates of 2001. And to the extent that high school graduates have learned a lot in the last 13 years, and they absolutely have, this test is undoubtedly higher — harder.
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