Research and Evaluation | Noteworthy Practices | Additional Links

Adult Secondary Education programs are designed for students who did not complete high school and are age 16 and older. An alternative to the GED is the National External Diploma Program and the Adult High School Credit Diploma Program.

Research and Evaluation

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

• GEDs for Teenagers: Are There Unintended Consequences? The Urban Institute. 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 is an article written by Duncan Chaplin, a senior methodologist at the Urban Institute, published in Education Next, Hoover Institution, Stanford University, in the fall of 2002.

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 provides lesson plans developed through an Adult Education State Leadership Grant from the Florida Department of Education, Division of Workforce Development.

• Pennsylvania GED Lesson Plans, part of the national training project sponsored by the General Educational Development Testing Service and U.S. Department of Education, trainers were required to submit a lesson developed based on their training.

Additional Links

• America's Literacy Directory is a service provided by the National Institute for Literacy and its partners to assist adults and young adult learners to find local literacy programs that provide adult basic education.

• 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 an adult applied-performance, competency-based assessment program that awards a high school diploma to skilled adults who have acquired many of their high school level abilities through their life experience.

• GED Connection is an instructional package from PBS LiteracyLink that prepares adult learners for the revised GED exam. It combines video, print, and the Internet to reach classroom students and independent learners.

• GED 2002 - Online Professional Development provides information on the GED 2002 Series Tests, as well as strategies that can be implemented in the classroom.

• Returning to School is a U.S. Department of Education site providing information for adults who wish to improve their job skills, obtain a GED, or attend college courses.