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The GED® Program Helping adults in Pennsylvania succeed for more than 70 years Brian Smith, State Relationship Manager
May 2015
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Agenda
• The National and Pennsylvania Landscape
• The 2014 GED® Program
• Pass rates and volume
• Additional updates
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But before we discuss numbers…
• Thank you for all of your hard work in 2014!
• GED Testing Service is grateful for all that you are doing to help adult learners.
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Why the GED Test Changed: It’s about the Dream and Opportunity
More than 65% of GED® test takers want more than a high school diploma…
They want to be: Firefighters, Nurses, Teachers, EMTs, Certified Nurse Assistants, Dental Hygienist, Computer Programmers, Police Officers, Welders, HVAC Techs, Managers,
Business Owners, and more.
Jobs that require further education and training
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But….
Less than 12% of GED® grads earned a credential or certificate after passing
The old way of doing things was keeping too many adults from realizing their dreams
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Jobs Evolved Quickly but the GED® Test and Adult Education Didn’t
• We heard from employers, colleges and the military that the GED® test had to change
• Value of the GED® credential and number of people taking the test were eroding
• GED® grads were competing for too few low-skill jobs while middle-skill jobs remain vacant 7
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The 2014 GED® Test • The only HSE test created from the ground-up, specifically for
adult learners, measuring both HSE and CCR
• Very strongly aligned with PA state standards
• Measures essential higher-order thinking and reasoning skills needed for success in jobs and career and college training programs
• Ensures that passers demonstrate the knowledge and skills on par with graduating high school seniors
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Much More Than a Test
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Prepare Preparation programs
Perform New assessment
system
Progress Support for post-test transitions
• MyGED® portal • Publisher alignment • GED Ready® with Enhanced Score Report • GED Marketplace™ • GED Analytics™ • Educator/Professional Development Resources
• 2014 GED® test • Aligned with CCRS for Adult
Education • Score report aligned with
publisher products • Same-day scoring
• MyGED® portal • GED Analytics™ • Educator/ Professional Development Resources
• Enhanced Score Report • GED Analytics™ • Credentialing with Smart Transcript • MyGED® portal • Badging • ACE CREDIT®
Transcript • Career Pathways
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The Big Picture
January 1, 2014 – December 31, 2014
• 223,000 Test Takers
• 114,000 Passers
• National Pass Rate: ~60% (CBT)
• Pass rate in 2015: 70%
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National Monthly Volume
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2,000
4,000
6,000
8,000
10,000
12,000
14,000
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr
Completers
Passers
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National Pass Rate
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0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr
Pass rate
Pass rate
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PA GED® Testing Statistics Computer Based Testing Only from Jan. 1, 2014 – May 9, 2015
• 34,969 GED® Test modules delivered
• 34,368 GED Ready® tests delivered
• 9,670 Test-takers
• 5,177 Completers
• 3,293 Graduates
• 64% CBT passing rate
• 72% pass rate in 2015
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PA Monthly Progress
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0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr
PA Pass Rate
PA Pass Rate
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PA Monthly Volume
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50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr
Completers
Passers
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Volume and Pass Rates An analysis of 2014 and the beginning of 2015
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2014
• Volume was steeply down across the U.S. – States offering the test completely for free
– States not using the GED® program
– States using GED® plus one or more tests
– States using only paper tests
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What a difference a year makes!
2014 Test-Takers January-April
2015 Test-Takers January-April
Year-Over-Year Growth
47,607
108,597 128%
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2014 Test-Takers January-April
2015 Test-Takers January-April
Year-Over-Year Growth
1,743
4,077 133%
National volume
PA volume
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Reports from Test Providers
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Test taker volume year-over-year decrease, based on 2012 data: • TASC: 99,196 – 56% Decline in 2014 • HISET: 84,869 – 41% Decline in 2014 • GED®: 488,205 – 49% Decline in 2014 * Based on numbers provided/reported in the Wall Street Journal
From NCSDAE report
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2014 analysis
• Why are the number of test takers down?
• Why are fewer test takers passing?
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Unemployment rates by education level
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High school dropouts have
lowest unemployment
rate since 2008
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Benefit of obtaining a GED credential
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Graduates see high value in obtaining GED® credential.
11/21/14 Survey with 2014 GED graduates
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Utah adult education EFL when passing the GED tests
76% of 2014 GED students passed the GED® test in the AHSC category compared to 42% from the old test
2nd 6th 4th 9th 11th 12th
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
ABE 1 ABE 2 ABE 3 ABE 4 AHSC 1 AHSC 2
Old test
New test
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Graduate success indicator: Jobs • 62% of graduates
looking for a new job
• 66% have found one
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Graduate success indicator: College • 67% of graduates
applied to college • 60% of graduates are
currently accepted to a college – 90% of those who
applied have enrolled or will be enrolled next semester
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Constructed Response RLA, Social Studies, and Science
• What we’re seeing:
– Many students are still struggling with the writing sections
– Students are summarizing, not analyzing and evaluating
– Students are not connecting and explaining how the evidence supports the claim
– Students are using too many quotes and not paraphrasing
– Students are not writing enough “original” material to receive any points on Trait 3 (grammar and sentence structure)
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What are “Enduring Issues”? The prompts for the GED® Social Studies Extended Response will always fall under the category of Civics and Government. Knowing the major themes will provide you with a frame of reference for prompts that may arise.
The themes of Civics and Government are:
• An individual’s rights versus the good of the community
• Separation of powers
• Checks and Balances
• States’ rights versus federal power.
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Tips for Math
• Read and use the Performance Level Descriptors (PLDs) as a roadmap for what skills your students need to learn
• Work on integrating problem solving into lesson plans
• Students need to work on reasoning and understand how to manipulate formulas (e.g. Students can compute the area/circumference of a circle, but if you give them the circumference and pi, they can’t compute the diameter)
• Questions cycle through difficulty levels so a student should not get distraught if they run into a problem they are not able to solve
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Excitement from employers
• Launching major employer program
• They believe the new GED® program will help them retain employees, prepare more employees for promotion/advancement, and fill open jobs with qualified applicants
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Additional updates
• Erasable board policy: Test-takers will soon get a packet of 3 boards when testing
• 3 GED Ready Math tests now
• American Council on Education CREDIT recommendation on GED with Honors
• Publishers being reviewed 37
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Professional Development Resources and Tools for Instructors
• Teacher’s guide • Assessment guide for
educators
• The GED® Test: A content comparison
• GED® training courses on Math and RLA
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• Item samplers • Archived webinars
• Free practice test
• Teacher scoring tools
• Most frequently missed items
• Performance Level Descriptors
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Support tools for test-takers
• 2014 Computer-based test tutorial
• Calculator tutorial
• Free practice test
• GED Ready®
• GED Marketplace™
• Smart transcript
• MyGED® portal
• Detailed score report
• Adult education center locator
• Test tips
• College and Career tools
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2015 Professional Development Objectives
1. Focus on key the skills and confidence needed to teach GED® test content
2. Design and deliver a Professional Development curriculum
3. Provide robust, multi-faceted delivery options (e.g. in-person, web, interactive CD, and/or live Webinar)
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A Pathway for Evolving Delivery
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Foundational Coursework:
Foundational Coursework + Deeper Dive Components:
Foundational Coursework + Deep Dive Components + Certification Series
Phase 1: 2014
Phase 2: 2015
Phase 3: 2016 & Beyond
Face-to-Face Web content Paper/CD
Face-to-Face Webinars Web content CD
Face-to-Face Webinars Web content Multi-media
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Comprehensive Content Offerings
• Phase I Webinars 1. March 24
2. April 28
3. May 26
4. June 23
• Phase II Webinars 5. September 22
6. October 27
7. November 17
8. December 8
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Webinar 1: Mathematical Reasoning
• 1800 Adult Educators invited to attend – Previously participated in foundational courses
• 400 participated in the March webinar
• 600 participated in the April webinar
• Webinars were recorded and placed on website with documents:
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http://www.gedtestingservice.com/educators/exploring-the-2014-ged-test-webinar-archive