With nine members voting yes and three no, the State Board of Education on Friday approved three companies – including the current vendor GED Testing Service – to administer tests to earn the Texas Certificate of High School Equivalency.
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Data showed students taking the GED test were being held to a higher academic standard than their counterparts in high school, officials with GED Testing Service said.
Through the new GED “College Ready” performance level, 3,639 Georgians have a score of 165 to 174 in at least one of the four subject tests and may now be eligible to enter credit-bearing college courses.
GED Testing Service, which runs the best-known high school equivalency test, said it will lower the passing score for the test beginning in March.
Nearly 1,900 Georgia students may achieve a passing grade on their GED® Test thanks to new scoring enhancements by the national GED® Testing Service. A passing score of 145, he says, puts GED holders more in line with a typical high school graduate. The scoring enhancement is driven by a detailed analysis of educational outcomes of GED program graduates compared to high school graduates over the past 18 months.
The GED College Ready and GED College Ready + Credit levels will apply to any student who has taken a GED test since January 1, 2014.
“When we looked at OR community college students who had earned GED credentials, we found that for both the 2013 and 2014 GED earners, they were less likely to place into remedial coursework than community college students who recently graduated from high school”. However, not all colleges or universities may accept that credit. The test remains the same and continues to be fully aligned to state college and career readiness standards, measuring the key problem solving and critical thinking skills vital to success in jobs and career or college training programs. Georgia also offers a program allowing some students without a high school diploma to pursue their GED and some type of professional certificate at the same time through the tech college system.
But while the GED was undergoing these changes, it lost its monopoly on high school equivalency testing. “We know all students don’t learn the same way”.
The GED scoring changes will be implemented March 1, when results and other information will be available on GED.com, the release said. With new data strengthening their understanding of the GED test, states should act now to build stronger career pathways for older youth and adults who are looking for a pathway to opportunity.
“As a state director for adult education, there are two things about a high school equivalency exam that are most important to me”.
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In the past ten years, the Technical College System of Georgia (TCSG) GED® Testing Program has awarded 166,378 diplomas. We will continue to urge more of our GED graduates to enroll in college.
