Dear Adult Educators and GED family,
This is my last time writing to you in this column – after over 14 years at GED Testing Service, I will be retiring from my position as Vice President of GED Assessment Services at the end of 2022.
Many of you may recall that I used to write to you frequently in this forum as we planned, introduced, and implemented the current edition of the GED® test. In recent years, this column has become rarer, as many of you have been working with the 2014 version of the test in some way for nearly a decade now (next year, November 2023, will mark a full ten years since the GED Ready was first launched).
What a time it has been evolving the GED test! During the past years, we formed a joint venture between the American Council on Education and Pearson to operate the GED program, implemented both computer-based and online testing on a large scale, developed a new test to measure career and college readiness content standards, and launched multiple performance levels that enable GED students to enter credit bearing college courses or even earn college credit based on their test scores, just to name a few.
So much of the robust ecosystem we have today was just a pipe dream of mine and my colleagues when we started on this journey with you, and many of the core aspects of today’s program were controversial and unproven when they were introduced. Now we regard these features as standard and expected – key parts of a program to help adults fulfill their goals, ambitions, and dreams.
It has been my honor since my arrival at GED Testing Service in July 2008 to work with a talented staff of assessment professionals here, as well as with so many passionate and dedicated GED Administrators, program directors, and teachers – thousands of you across the US and, indeed, the world. I’m proud of what we have achieved together, but we’ll know that our work is not complete. We are still bringing the GED test and associated products and services to just a small fraction of the learners who could benefit from them. So, I hope that you all continue to conceive new ways in which we can help even more learners to pursue their education and employment goals.
As you work toward the future, I hope you will remember the words of John Dewey, the influential American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer. So many decades ago, he said, “If we teach our children as we taught yesterday, we rob them of tomorrow.” In that spirit, let’s keep growing, changing, and innovating to continually better serve the people of our nation and the world.
Best wishes and farewell,
Marty
