General Educational Development (GED) tests are a group of five subject tests which, when passed, certify that the taker has American or Canadian high school-level academic skills. The initials GED have also been used on diplomas to mean General Education Diploma, General Equivalency Diploma or Graduate Equivalency Degree.
The GED Testing Service, a joint venture of the American Council on Education and Pearson, is the sole developer for the GED test. The test can be taken by paper or on computer, but tests must be taken in person. Jurisdictions award a Certificate of High School Equivalency or similarly titled credential to persons who meet the passing score requirements. The GED is the equivalent to a high school diploma.
More than 18 million people have received a GED credential since the program began. One in every seven Americans with high school credentials received the GED test credential, as well as one in 20 college students. Seventy percent of GED recipients complete at least the 10th grade before leaving school, and the same number are over the age of 19, with the average age being 24.
In addition to English, the GED tests are available in Spanish, French, large print, audiocassette, and braille. Tests and test preparation are also offered to persons incarcerated and on military bases in addition to more traditional settings. Individuals living outside the United States, Canada, or U.S. territories may be eligible to take the GED Tests through private testing companies.
Read more about General Educational Development: History of The GED Testing Program, How The Test Works, Test Administration, Passing The GED Testing Battery, Future Developments of The GED
Famous quotes containing the words general, educational and/or development:
“All the critics who could not make their reputations by discovering you are hoping to make them by predicting hopefully your approaching impotence, failure and general drying up of natural juices. Not a one will wish you luck or hope that you will keep on writing unless you have political affiliations in which case these will rally around and speak of you and Homer, Balzac, Zola and Link Steffens.”
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961)
“Class is rarely talked about in the United States; nowhere is there a more intense silence about the reality of class differences than in educational settings.”
—bell hooks (b. c. 1955)
“There are two things which cannot be attacked in front: ignorance and narrow-mindedness. They can only be shaken by the simple development of the contrary qualities. They will not bear discussion.”
—John Emerich Edward Dalberg, 1st Baron Acton (1834–1902)