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:
“The conclusion suggested by these arguments might be called the paradox of theorizing. It asserts that if the terms and the general principles of a scientific theory serve their purpose, i. e., if they establish the definite connections among observable phenomena, then they can be dispensed with since any chain of laws and interpretive statements establishing such a connection should then be replaceable by a law which directly links observational antecedents to observational consequents.”
—C.G. (Carl Gustav)
“Your organization is not a praying institution. It’s a fighting institution. It’s an educational institution right along industrial lines. Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living!”
—Mother Jones (1830–1930)
“The man, or the boy, in his development is psychologically deterred from incorporating serving characteristics by an easily observable fact: there are already people around who are clearly meant to serve and they are girls and women. To perform the activities these people are doing is to risk being, and being thought of, and thinking of oneself, as a woman. This has been made a terrifying prospect and has been made to constitute a major threat to masculine identity.”
—Jean Baker Miller (20th century)