Tag: GED

GED clock is ticking

Mark Mulligan / The HeraldVanessa Miller, 22, questions instructor Jennifer Jennings during her GED class Thursday at Everett Community College.
Mark Mulligan / The Herald
Vanessa Miller, 22, questions instructor Jennifer Jennings during her GED class Thursday at Everett Community College.

Erc Stevick, The Herald

EVERETT — It feels like a high-stakes game of Chutes and Ladders for thousands of people trying to improve their lives by earning a GED.

Their academic climb could slide into nothingness at the end of the year.

The five-subject national exam is getting an overhaul Jan. 1.

That gives less than six months for those hoping to pass the old version.

If they don’t pass each and every subject between now and then, they must start from scratch with a new set of exams that are expected to be harder.

There is urgency but not panic these days on the second floor of Everett Community College’s Baker Hall, where two rooms of mainly 20-somethings are trying to make up for lost time and missed opportunity.

One morning last week, EvCC instructor Jennifer Jennings led her students through a multi-step math problem that involved credit cards, percentages and interest rates. For most of the students, math is their biggest obstacle between now and the new year deadline.

Jennings remembers the last time the GED was changed in 2001 and the long lines at the college’s testing center.

“It was crazy,” she said.

The General Education Development certificate was started in 1942 to allow returning World War II GIs to continue their education when they came home. It was designed to show that they had earned basic academic skills many consider the equivalent of a high school diploma. People not in the military were able to start taking the GED in 1947.

Roughly 20 million people have earned GEDs over the years.

With the change in exams approaching, test preparation programs, such as ones at Everett Community College, are bracing for heavy enrollment through the fall.

Lanora Toth, 21, attended five high schools, but didn’t graduate. Life has been a struggle for the young mother who said she once held a cardboard sign at a street corner. It read, “Cold, homeless and hungry.”

Her goal in pursuing her GED is simple: to provide a better home and set an example for her young child.

Classmate Vanessa Miller nodded as Toth spoke.

“I want to give my 1-year-old the life I never had,” she said.

Skyy Sepulveda dropped out of Mountlake Terrace High School in her junior year when she fell hopelessly behind on credits. She took a GED class a year ago and didn’t finish. It stung a bit to see her classmates earn their certificates and that has motivated her this time around.

She said she is studying more than ever.

“It’s really nerve-wracking to get everything done,” she said.

Since 2009, more than 3,900 people have gone through EvCC’s GED programs and taken all or portions of the exam. More than 2,900 have passed.

Over the last four years alone, that leaves 1,016 others who must reach the finish line between now and Jan. 1 or start anew. Nationwide, there are about 1 million people whose scores could expire Jan. 1 under the new testing program.

“We want people to know that these changes are really happening and they are happening soon and to get all their ducks in a row,” said Katie Jensen, EvCC’s dean of basic and developmental education.

College officials are reaching out through fliers, letters, word of mouth and mention on the reader board at the college’s Broadway entrance.

These days, GED testing is done by appointment and Jensen warns that prospective exam takers should not procrastinate getting ready.

“I think our testing times are going to fill up,” she said.

Instead of five sections, the new GED test will be reconfigured into four: reasoning through language arts, mathematical reasoning, science and social studies. The existing stand-alone essay section will be folded into writing assessments within the language arts and social studies sections, It also will all be done on the computer.

Jessica Cleveland, 25, is a mother of three who quit school after the eighth grade. She hopes she never has to see the new GED exams.

“It scares me,” she said. “I want to be done by then.”

Cleveland has worked in coffee stands and at a pizza restaurant, but believes she needs a GED to get a foot in the door for better-paying opportunities.

“I want an education so my kids have a good role model to look up to, so they don’t drop out of high school and can see where I went wrong,” she said.

Devona Fields, 31, is married and has three children.

As they get older, she hopes to find a job to help with family expenses and figures a GED could be a big help.

Fields has passed two of the five GED exams.

Her husband, Wilson Fields, recently earned his GED and is taking pre-college math to prepare for college courses.

Wilson Fields tries to encourage Devona with each subject she passes.

Devona resists patting herself on the back.

She still must get through the math test, which gives her anxiety.

“I will cheer and celebrate when I have all the scores back,” she said.

Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446; heraldnet.com.

About the GED

To learn more about GED preparation help at Everett Community College, call 425-388-9291 or email www.everettcc.edu/ged.

For opportunities at Edmonds Community College, call 425-670-1593 or email devediv@edcc.edu.

Students urged to finish GED; changes due in 2014

By Carolyn Thompson, Associated Press

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Adults who’ve begun working toward their GED are being urged to finish up this year, before the test for a high school equivalency diploma changes and they have to start all over.

GED Testing Service will introduce a new version of the test, given nationwide, on Jan. 1, 2014. Developers say the first major changes since 2002 will align the test with the new Common Core curricula adopted by most states to increase college and career readiness. It also will shift test-taking from pencil and paper to computer.

Joyce Monroe, 24, is feeling the pressure as she puts in dozens of hours in class every week at the Buffalo Educational Opportunity Center. Two practice tests showed she’s ready for writing and science but needs slightly more work in math, along with social studies and language arts.

“I’m really trying to get in before it changes. I’m so close,” said Monroe, who said she left high school before graduating for family reasons and is trying to set an example for her 5-year-old daughter. “I don’t want to start all over. That would make me want to drop GED like I did high school.”

Those who administer the test have begun to alert the million or so adults who have passed some but not all of the five parts of the current test to complete the missing sections by Dec. 31. If not, their scores will expire and they’ll have to begin again under the new program Jan. 1.

“If they are in the pipeline, they need to get it done,” said Dr. Danis Gehl, education director at the University at Buffalo’s Educational Opportunity Center.

There is also financial incentive to complete the GED this year. At $120, the computer-based version is double the cost of the current test. Several states subsidize some or all of the expense but the student share is widely expected to rise.

About 700,000 people take the GED exam yearly in the United States, said Armando Diaz, spokesman for Washington-based GED Testing Service, the trademarked test’s creator. About 72 percent passing to earn their states’ high school equivalency credential. More than 1 million people are expected to try in 2013 in advance of the change, a number that could strain preparation programs and testing sites.

Although the General Education Development exam has undergone regular updates since being introduced in 1942, the upcoming changes are the most dramatic yet.

“We see that higher ed has new standards, the workforce, the economy’s changing,” said Diaz. “We decided it’s time to completely give the testing program a facelift.”

Instead of five sections, the test will be re-aligned into four: reasoning through language arts, mathematical reasoning, science and social studies. The current stand-alone essay section will be incorporated into writing assignments within the language arts and social studies sections, Diaz said.

“I don’t think it’s going to be a harder test, I just think we’re testing different skills,” he said.

Tashia Malone of Buffalo is taking no chances, spending her mornings at the Seneca Babcock Community Center’s preparation class in hopes of sitting for the two-day test in May.

“I should have done it already. Procrastination is my middle name,” said Malone, 34, who dropped out of high school when she became pregnant. “I heard it’s going to be a lot harder and cost more next year so I want to get it in now.”

EOC Executive Director Julius Gregg Adams suggested that adults unfamiliar with the Common Core standards, a uniform school curriculum heavier on writing and content analysis, may be more comfortable getting the test out of the way this year, though he’s reluctant to say the new test will be harder.

“The current test more than likely reflects learning standards that individuals have been exposed to when they were in secondary education,” he said. “The Common Core standards more than likely probably reflect standards that individuals have not been exposed to.”

In New York City, the Fund for Public Advocacy-led Campaign to Finish has set up a hotline to refer students for tutoring, targeting those who’ve taken the test before but haven’t passed all sections.

“It’s going to be more difficult. It’s going to cost more money next year, so I think that motivates people,” said Juan Santos, 34, who is preparing for the GED in Methuen, Mass., with the goal of becoming a police officer in Florida. “I couldn’t believe I waited so long.”

While the GED, initially developed for U.S. military personnel who had not completed high school, is the pathway recognized by every state toward a high school equivalency diploma, New York and other states are exploring development of an alternative. Without the computer infrastructure statewide to test large numbers of people and one of the lowest pass rates in the nation, at 59.4 percent, New York has solicited bids for development of a test that would maintain the paper and pencil option for the time being and more slowly phase in the Common Core standards.

“We’re trying to make the transition to the test a little more seamless, a little softer, not put so much stress on our programs, on our infrastructure and most especially our students,” said Kevin Smith, the State Education Department deputy commissioner for adult career and continuing education.