We need your help recognizing GED graduates and all of their personal and professional accomplishments.

We’re asking adult education programs, educators, current test takers, graduates and friends and family members of graduates to join the celebration via social media.

You can start by following the GED Testing Service accounts on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Please share your success stories, graduation photos and advice for grads via Facebook using the hashtag #GEDGradDay.

On May 16th we will be sharing some of your submissions in celebration of current GED graduates while encouraging students currently in the test taking process and others looking to take the first step in their journey.

Later this month we will share details about how you can join the virtual celebration on May 16th!

As GED Grad Day and graduation season approaches we want to keep students motivated and encouraged as they continue studying for the GED test.

April 15 through April 26 students can take advantage of 20% off all prep products on GED.com

These products include GED Ready practice tests, GED Live online classes and GED Flash for Individuals.

Prep products should be purchased through GED.com and no promo code is needed. The 20% off discount will be applied automatically at checkout.

We had a great time at this year’s COABE conference in New Orleans held March 31st through April 3rd at the Marriott New Orleans!

During the four-day event GEDTS offered 13 workshops and sessions covering professional development, teaching tips and the latest statistics and research on the GED test program.

Here’s a look at some of the highlights:

Sessions and Workshops

GED Testing Service tracks the outcomes of GED graduates in a number of ways. One of the metrics we look at is what percentage of and how quickly GED graduates go on to postsecondary education programs.

For context, under the 2002 program about 60% of candidates reported that they took the GED test to enable them to go to college. The most recent data for the previous program (from 2009) indicated that about 46% percent of GED graduates had gone on to postsecondary education within 6 years of completing their credential, but only about 12% of graduates of that program ever obtained any type of postsecondary credential.

The study postsecondary progression rates under the current program that has been in place since 2014, we selected a random sample of GED graduates who received their credential in 2014, and then tracked their progress in postsecondary education through matching data with the National Student Clearinghouse. The table below shows data on those students in subsequent years:

We also selected additional samples of GED graduates who credentialed in 2015 and 2017, to compare their one-year PSE progression rate to the original 2014 sample, to see if there was consistency in moving to postsecondary education over the years. That data is summarized in the table below:

This data match shows that graduates of the 2014 GED program are moving on to postsecondary education at a faster pace than under the previous program, that the postsecondary progression rates appear to be fairly stable over different cohorts of students, and that the rate of postsecondary enrollment over time is in line with the motivation for taking the GED test that was originally identified by candidates in the year they credentialed.

In next month’s Marty’s Corner, I will share how GED graduates are performing in postsecondary institutions based on findings from this data match.

–Martin Kehe, Vice President of Assessment Services for GED Testing Service

GED Testing Service will be offering several presentations and professional development workshops during COABE’s 2019 Annual Conference being held March 31st through April 3rd at the Marriott New Orleans.

While you’re at the conference be sure to stop by booth 701 to meet the GED team and get new flyers, brochures, classroom posters and GED swag!

We also encourage you to join us at the Presidents’ Welcome Reception sponsored by GED Testing Service. Monday, April 1st from 6 to 8 pm you will have the opportunity to mingle and network with fellow educators at the Cabildo New Orleans in the historic French Quarter.

Reception attendees will have the chance to join us in a traditional second line parade from the Marriott to the Cabildo.

Here’s a rundown of the professional development sessions we’re offering each day:

Monday, April 1

Unique Solutions for a Unique Environment

Testing in corrections has its own unique challenges from test preparation to test delivery. This session will review successful classroom modifications, tools and resources for educators, and test delivery considerations for the unique situations that arise for test administrators.

Presenter: Mellissa Hultstrand
Room: Regent
Time: 8:00 am – 9:00 am

You, Your Students, and the GED® Score Reports—Success Begins Here!

If you have been thinking that the only thing score reports do is provide students with their test scores, we are about to change your mind. In this double session, we will dig deeper into how to score the extended response and the information on the score reports so you can target and personalize instruction across all four content areas.

Presenter: Debi Faucette
Room: Regent
Time: 11:15 am -12:15 pm

Tools, Tips, and Products to Improve Student Pass Rates

New tools from GED® Testing Service are helping teachers identify exactly where their students need more focus to be successful on the GED® Test. New products for students and teachers will be introduced to help students practice and supplement classroom instruction.

Presenters: Brian Smith and Vicki Greene
Room: Regent
Time: 1:30 pm – 2:30 pm

The GED® Test After 5 Years: Outcomes, Ongoing Research, and What’s on the Horizon?

This session will examine the GED® test that has now been in operation for 5 years. We’ll discuss some of the recent format modifications, improvements on the horizon, and what we’ve learned to date. In addition, the presenters will provide updated information on student outcomes.

Presenter: Ann Evers
Room: Regent
Time: 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Tuesday, April 2

All About Accommodations

The accommodation landscape is changing rapidly. It is important for everyone to understand what accommodations are available on high stakes tests which will help candidates with disabilities unmask their potential. This session will discuss the types of accommodations that are available and how to assist test takers in securing the proper documentation to request them.

Presenter: Debbie Bergtholdt
Room: Balcony K
Time: 8:00 am – 9:00 am

Reading, Reasoning, and the GED® Test

In this session, we will explore reading and reasoning strategies that can help your students better understand what they are reading, essential skills for the GED® test, and real-life situations at work and home.

Presenter: Susan Pittman
Room: Regent
Time: 8:00 am – 9:00 am

GED® Educational Innovation: Tools, Tips and Resources

If you have worked in adult education less than 18 months, this workshop will boost your understanding of the components of the GED® Program and provide the inside scoop on the content area tests. This session will also highlight key instructional areas that are challenging for students and how you can focus instruction in your classroom.

Presenter: Scott Salesses
Room: Regent
Time: 11:00 am -12:00 pm

Improving GED® Student Persistence

This session will discuss how GED® Testing Service is using behavioral tools to create a student-centered experience and help more adult learners persist and earn a GED® credential. We will share the student journey research we have conducted and how what we found can be applied to adult education classrooms to help your students persist, graduate, and identify a career pathway.

Presenter: Sarita Parikh
Room: Regent
Time: 1:15 pm – 2:15 pm

New Look – Same Reasoning Through Language Arts

The results are in, and the Reasoning through Language Arts Test has changed to meet the needs of today’s GED® test-takers. In this session, you will have an opportunity to explore new strategies to help students build their skills and earn more points on the RLA test.

Presenter: Adora Beard
Room: Regent
Time: 2:45 pm – 3:45 pm

Wednesday, April 3

Interpreting Visual Images in Science and Social Studies

Our world is filled with visual images. In fact, we often skip the text and go straight to the graphics for the information we need. Join us as we explore strategies and activities you can use to help students enhance their graphic literacy skills in science and social studies.

Presenter: Susan Pittman
Room: Regent
Time: 8:00 am – 9:00 am

Reading, Reasoning, and the GED® Test

In this session, we will explore reading and reasoning strategies that can help your students better understand what they are reading, essential skills for the GED® test, and real-life situations at work and home.

Presenter: Susan Pittman
Room: Regent
Time: 8:00 am – 9:00 am

GED® Math—Getting Back to Basics

Are your students struggling with some of the basic concepts in math? During this session, instructors will explore strategies and activities to help students gain fluency and consistency in quantitative reasoning.

Presenter: Thomas Ross
Room: Regent
Time: 11:00 am – 12:00 pm

Algebra Functions and Inequalities—Addressing Challenges in the GED® Classroom

Join us as we explore strategies and activities to help students come to grips with inequalities and functions. You’ll learn how to connect these concepts to real-life situations, so students can see that they use these two concepts every day and don’t even know it.

Presenter: Ronald Cruz
Room: Napoleon
Time: 2:30 pm – 3:30 pm

Calhoun Community College’s Adult Education Program serves 800 to 1,000 GED students annually.

The program offers GED classes at 29 locations including their campuses in Decatur and Huntsville, Alabama, and Corrections facilities and community partner locations throughout a defined service area.

In a recent interview with Janet Kincherlow-Martin, Dean of Institutional Advancement, and Dana Wolfe, Director of Adult Education, we learn more about how the program is using creative marketing campaigns to recruit and enroll GED students.

Could you tell me more about Calhoun Community College’s Adult Education program?

Dana: We have a large diverse program that covers four counties. We offer GED classes, bridge classes, ESL, pathway programs (Ready to Work), WorkKeys assessment, ACT prep and partner with the Manufacturers Skills Standards Council to offer marketable entry level manufacturing skills certifications.

How do you work with the adult education program?

Dana: I am the Director of Adult Education for Calhoun Community College. I administer the program and also aid with student development through curriculum and teacher management.

Janet: As Dean of Institutional Advancement, my office is responsible for marketing all programs through various vehicles. We do press releases and create other collateral that’s shared with career centers. We also build our visibility through social media, our own internal media, the website and advertise through the marquee on campus.

Could you explain how the “GED 4 Me” promotion works?

Dana: It will launch after spring break (late March) and students can come to any campus and take a GED Ready test for free and if they pass all four subjects they can take the operational GED test for free.

Janet: We are thinking that if we get students in the door that is the first step—they are often intimidated about coming on campus. We try to reach them where they are through classes with our community partners. You are less likely to be intimidated going to your church to take GED classes if a college campus intimidates you.

How did this come about? What was the inspiration?

Janet: We did a similar promotion a year ago called “SEE 4 Free.” We have a creative team and we typically like to sit down with everyone on campus because we see ourselves as an in-house ad agency. The emphasis for the campaign was meeting people where they are right now and helping them take the steps they need to earn their GED credential.

Have you seen success with students using similar promotions?

Dana: Within two weeks of advertising our phones were ringing off the hook, we still get calls and inquiries related to the “SEE 4 Free” promotion. I noticed that our enrollment jumped almost 100 students over a month, we had 200 GED graduates come out of our program. It definitely helped with our enrollment and testing numbers.

What are your tips for other programs looking to start similar promotions to support potential GED testers?

Janet: We try to incorporate a lot of different avenues. We rely very heavily on social media for all marketing. The biggest thing is to look at all the options you have— often people say they don’t have the money for advertising. Advertising is the wrong word, they should be thinking more along the lines of marketing because it includes everything and that’s a better way to go about promoting a program.

How is your program connecting your students to workforce development opportunities?

Dana: We offer them the opportunity to become a Manufacturing Skill Standards Council (MSSC) Certified Production Technician (CPT) which is offered for free through a Department of Commerce grant. Through a partnership with the college we also offer other programs that help them gain career skills including a Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) Program and Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) classes.

What do you enjoy most about working with adult learners?

Janet: I’ve worked with the community college and in education for a long time. The passion for what we do is contagious. You know you’ve made a difference in someone’s life if you’ve ever gone to an adult education/GED graduation and seen the excitement of all the graduates.

Dana: I got into adult education 20 years ago working with the homeless. It has given me the opportunity to see the positive transition—you get to know someone and you help chart out a career pathway for them. You connect them with community resources and people who can help change the dynamics in their life. It’s a blessing and I’ve never cried as much as I do at graduation.

The GED test program is growing internationally—helping students around the world earn their GED credential.

In fact, students in more than 85 countries sat for the test in 2018.

Members of GED Testing Service recently traveled to two Asian countries to meet with current and prospective students to learn more about their experiences and motivations for earning a GED credential. We’ll use this additional information to better understand how to help students understand and better assist those students.

Internationally students utilize the GED credential almost entirely for entry into local and international universities, so we’ve also spent time talking with some universities and government officials.

Beyond our recent student research, we’ve been working with teachers and preparation programs in countries like Bangladesh, South Africa and Thailand. We’ve held professional development workshops to help teachers understand the program and prepare students for the test.

In 2019 we plan to share launch an updated international section on the GED.com website with an enhanced experience for students and preparation partners abroad. We also plan to share more international GED graduate stories there and in our U.S. communications as we welcome learners from across the globe into the GED alumni network.

In a survey of GED College Ready graduates, we found that a majority of students say the GED test program prepared them well for their current college program.

In 2018 GED Testing Service received over 4,300 responses to an email survey sent to GED graduates that scored in the College Ready or College Ready + Credit levels in one or more test subjects. From the survey results we were able to get better insight on the motivation behind getting the GED credential, what their education and professional goals are post graduation, their current employment or education status and their thoughts on the College Ready (CR) score levels.

Here are some highlights from the survey:

Postsecondary Education

• 56% of CR GED graduates are currently enrolled in a college degree or certificate program
• 57% of CR GED graduates listed “earning a four-year degree” as their current educational goal; 29% listed “earning a certificate/certification or associate degree” as their current educational goal

Employment

• 71% of CR GED graduates are currently employed

GED Test Program/ College Ready Score Levels

• 63% of CR GED graduates said the GED test program prepared them well for their current college degree program
• 38% of CR GED graduates said they were aware of the GED College Ready score levels prior to taking the GED exam
• 18% of CR GED graduates said they were able to use their CR scores to bypass college placement testing or remedial college courses

We are always looking to share success stories about College Ready GED graduates and we encourage adult educators to share the benefits of the CR score levels with your students as they prepare for the GED test.

Since the introduction of the score levels in 2016, more students are earning their GED credentials with the opportunity to earn credit for college courses, saving time and money as they work toward a degree or certificate.

To date we are aware of more than 200 colleges across 15 different states that have implemented policies to allow students at the CR level (165 or higher) to bypass all or part of their placement exams and be placed in credit-bearing courses–skipping remedial education. Some colleges are also awarding college credit for CR+ scores (175 or higher).

More information about the College Ready score levels is available here.

Heather Gay, shares how her experience as a corrections educator and administrator will shape her new leadership role.

Could you tell me more about your organization and your role?

I am President of the Association of State and Federal Directors of Correctional Education, an affiliate of the Correctional Education Association (CEA). I oversee educators in their respective states. In 2017 I was elected Vice President and I started my new role as President January 1st (2019). I am also the State Assistant Administrator for Prisoner Education within the Reentry Administration for the Michigan Department of Corrections.

In my role as President I want to see this organization grow. I am focused on recruiting more state education directors, and encouraging them to bring their administrators to valuable CEA trainings and conferences.

How do you work with corrections education programs and educators?

My primary focus has been on my work in Michigan, but now I’ll be looking at the environment nationally. In many states corrections is the largest provider of adult education programs. Because of this I want to find ways to bring visibility to our work, so that state leadership and others can better understand the need and importance of corrections education programs.

We also need to work on breaking down silos, and increasing the resources coming into corrections education programs.

We hold CEA meetings two to three times a year. These are very important. It gives us an opportunity to talk in-depth about important topics of interest, such as Pell grants, vocational training, GED preparation, and how to better communicate the value of our work to others.

Could you tell me more about your background in corrections education and education in general?

I went to school to become a certified teacher and after graduating I didn’t find any positions immediately available. My parents worked for the State, so I looked into working as a corrections teacher. I began teaching in a corrections education program in 1999 and stayed for six years until I became a principal. I was then promoted to my current position (State Assistant Administrator for Prisoner Education within the Reentry Administration for Michigan) in 2012.

I started as an academic teacher, and I didn’t know much more beyond the subjects I was teaching. But, I was lucky to have wardens that helped me grow and learn a lot about reentry and evidence-based programming.

I also have had the benefit of working with men, women and youth before taking on this position. Working with different populations provided me with a good understanding of their education needs. And of course, I’ve been a long-time member and advocate of CEA—attending trainings two times a year.

What do you think are the biggest challenges facing corrections educators and corrections education programs?

I am really blessed to have a great administrator and director. We had a really good relationship with the former Michigan governor Rick Snyder, and I’m assuming the new governor will be the same. Governor Snyder was very supportive of everything we were doing in correctional education. In Michigan I don’t know if we have any significant barriers, but we can continue to push the needle on showing policymakers and people in our state that our students have the credentials and ability to productively contribute to society. We should continue to educate employers and the community about what’s going on in corrections, and how it benefits them.

Why is corrections education so important? What are the benefits?

In Michigan we made policy and structural changes. We were previously siloed, but we then moved education under reentry. With this approach, we started putting offenders on the path to success as soon as they’re in intake. It’s not just about getting them released anymore, it’s about setting them up for success after release.

We have vocational villages where offenders have a several opportunities for training. We parole about 15 to 20 guys a month, and almost 97 percent of them have a job before they leave. We help students earn certification, we set up job interviews over Skype or telephone, and we’re holding job fairs where students take resumes and workforce development packets.

For many offenders it’s the first time they experience success. Once they have one success, they accelerate from there. As someone who started as an educator in 1999, the way we approach education has come so far.

What do you enjoy most about working in corrections education?

I love that I can be creative and my leadership supports education 100 percent. It used to be that education took a backseat in prison, but now it’s a priority throughout the entire corrections department.

Are there any changes you would like to see happen in corrections education?

I would like to see more open mindedness. Instead of saying no we can’t do that, we should be saying how can we do that. Let’s think about things that weren’t thought about before and how to make it happen in corrections.

What is your advice to corrections educators?

Keep the students in mind, with every decision and every program you want to start.

Understand and think about what their first priorities are, what are their first concerns are, what we can do to drive their success. We should keep them involved in these conversations.

One thing I’ve challenged my principals to do is to teach like they would in a high school, if you can, but I know that some schools may have only one or two teachers. You can look at your teachers’ certifications and strengths, then figure out each student as an individual. Not all of our students need to start at the very beginning—meet them where they are. Thinking outside the box and being creative has certainly increased our GED student numbers, and student success.

This month’s GED Flash promo is a “sweet deal” for students!

Starting February 18th and through March 1st, students can get 60 days of access to GED Flash for Students for the price of one month (30 days).

For $15 students can purchase access to any GED Flash subject including Math, RLA, Science and Social Studies.

No promo code is necessary and access must be purchased through GED.com

*The GED Flash for Organizations product is not included in this promotion.

*This promotion starts 12:01 am CST February 18th and ends 11:59 pm CST March 1st

In our latest Tuesdays for Teachers webinar our PD team shared teaching strategies to help students gain core math skills.

We identify mathematically proficient students as being able to:

• Explain to themselves the meaning of a problem and look for entry points to its solution.
• Make sense of quantities and their relationships in problem situations.
• Use assumptions, definitions, and previously established results to construct arguments.
• Apply the mathematics they know to solve problems arising in everyday life, society, and the workplace.

In the webinar “Moving UP! Mathematical Reasoning,” we explore resources and instructional methods that can help students become proficient in the skills they need to pass the GED Mathematical Reasoning test. We share how the GED Ready performance level descriptors can be used to identify a student’s challenges in math and create an individual study plan. We also review strategies and activities that can help students build their math vocabulary, develop problem solving abilities and strengthen their math fluency.

The webinar also shares common math misconceptions, how using brainteasers can alleviate student stress levels when solving math problems and help them gain the confidence they need to explore more challenging math equations.