Through ongoing research we have identified common behaviors, motivations, and attitudes among GED students. These student types, or personas, can be grouped into four categories.

Through research with tens of thousands of adult learners and GED program users over the past two years, we have found similarities among learners that we are using to shape our interactions with them. Here at GED Testing Service we have used this information to develop messaging that encourages students to pursue or continue testing.

This can be found in the new GED.com experience for students and the GED.com website updates. The new account experience has raised the likelihood of students persisting to take a GED test by roughly 4%. It is our goal to identify the challenges our test takers face and provide supportive ways to meet each student’s studying and testing needs.

Here are the four different “mindsets” alongside several identifying characteristics:

Determined— “I WILL The GED is my first step to success”

Even the most determined student can hit obstacles, so encouragement is still valuable. This persona also needs the benefit of well-target study aids: everything from how to study through what to study can be useful.

Family Go-To— “I CAN I need my GED, it’s so important!”

This persona has a strong desire to be a good person and to do good in the world — but has seen being available to her/his family as the only way to do that. Help this persona see a bigger vision of how they can do good in the world, and for their family, with the GED.

Disheartened—“I’LL TRY I want my GED, but can I do it?”

This persona needs hope, especially hope that she/he is able to change. That takes the growth mindset and self-efficacy. Help this persona see that every hero experiences failure and setbacks, and overcoming those ordeals is part of the victory.

Here and Now—“I WILL… later The GED will always be there.”

While everyone is affected by the context around them, this persona will especially benefit from a context that encourages consistent actions in the right direction. That context can come from a positive social group, a structured study tool, or automated messaging.

Identifying similarities between the personas and your students can help you develop and implement classroom instruction that motivates and accounts for the different ways students may approach the GED testing journey.

The full chart with detailed descriptions of each persona can be downloaded here.

Postsecondary credentials are helping GED graduates meet the growing demands of the job market, while helping stimulate the American economy.

According to research from The Brookings Institution the average bachelor’s degree holder contributes $278,000 more to local economies than the average high school graduate through direct spending over the course of his or her lifetime. An associate degree holder contributes $81,000 more than a high school graduate.

This data supports the growing number of GED graduates seeking and earning postsecondary credentials to enter the workforce. We have found that since the launch of the 2014 test, 2 out of 3 GED graduates express interest in attending college. These graduates aren’t just interested in college, they are acting on their aspirations. GED grads are entering college programs at a higher rate than in the past. With more than 35% enrolling in a college program within a year of earning their credential, and at least 41% enrolling in college within two years of earning their credential.

Higher education is directly linked to increased earnings and more economic activity, further stimulating the local, regional and national economy. GED graduates recognize the correlation and are increasingly pursuing opportunities to upskill and enroll in higher education institutions.

In a recent survey of over 4,000 GED graduates that earned the College Ready (CR) score levels, we found that 57% of CR GED grads plan to earn a four-year degree from a college or university and 29% plan to earn a certificate or associate degree from a two-year program.

We also found that 71% of CR GED grads are currently employed in a number of fields including positions with for-profit and non-profit companies and jobs in the healthcare industry, military and government.

High school graduates on average earn $9,000 more each year than their non-graduate counterparts and high school dropouts cost the economy $1.8 billion in lost tax revenue annually. Earning a GED and a postsecondary credential also equips graduates with the skills needed to meet the demands of the current workforce. Over 50% of U.S. jobs are middle skill jobs with only 44% of workers qualified to fill these positions. These middle skill jobs require at least some postsecondary education and training, but less than a 4-year degree.

According to the Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce there are 30 million “good jobs” available in the U.S. with median salaries around $55,000 for people without Bachelor’s degrees. Many of these “good jobs” are middle skill jobs that can be found in the hospitality, healthcare and finance sectors.

The need for GED graduates with postsecondary credentials will only continue to grow as millions of middle skill jobs are created and others remain vacant.

More information about GED graduates and college readiness can be found here.

No tricks, just treats with this month’s GED Ready promotion for students!

Starting October 15, students can take advantage of this un “boo-lievable” deal and purchase GED Ready subjects for $2.99 each— $11.96 for all four subjects.

“Witch-ever” option they choose, students can purchase the GED Ready subjects through their GED.com accounts and the GED Marketplace using the code: TREATYOURSELF

While ghosts, ghouls and goblins may stir up a fright, please hurry this promo expires Halloween night!

During 2017, the number of testers in Corrections facilities grew nationally. Here’s a look at the numbers:

2017 Corrections test takers: 59,776, this is an increase from 48,164 in 2016 (an increase of 24% from the prior year)

2017 Corrections pass rate: 78%

Top ten jurisdictions meeting or exceeding the national pass rate of 78%:

Hawaii 95%

Illinois 93%

South Carolina 90%

South Dakota 90%

Minnesota 89%

Colorado 88%

Oregon 87%

Nebraska 87%

North Dakota 87%

Alaska 87%

Congratulations to the educators and staff who have worked so hard to help Corrections students achieve success, and congrats to the top 10 states with outstanding pass rates!

Through the end of the year we will be sharing more information and news about Corrections testing as part of a larger campaign to bring visibility to the great outcomes related to the GED credential–both inside and beyond Corrections.

We encourage you to continue to share your stories with us and explore the GED.com webpage dedicated to GED Corrections test preparation and administration.

*Article was updated on 10/17/18 to clarify that only the number of Corrections testers increased in 2017.

Are you or your students—for that matter—“spooked” by GED Ready score reports?

Are you thinking of score reports as “TMI” (too much information)? Not specific enough? Generic? If you are not mining score reports for insights to take your students to the next level, you are missing out on a strategy than can produce solid results.

In this webinar, we won’t focus on the “Likely to Pass” (Green Zone) students or those who are “Not Likely to Pass” (Red Zone). We’ll take a look at student score reports that are in the “Too Close to Call” category or the Yellow Zone. Students who score in the Yellow Zone are most likely to gamble and interpret “Too Close to Call” as an invitation to roll the dice. They will insist that they are ready and sometimes that may be true but more often than not, they will be just outside of the passing zone. Our mutual goal is to help as many students as possible be successful in their first attempt. Often that means digging into the score reports to uncover what they need to brush up on BEFORE they tackle operational testing. The GED Ready test is a strong predictor of performance and when combined with other tools like the High Impact Indicators (HIIs) and the Performance Level Descriptors (PLDs), you and your students have powerful tools to raise the probability of success.

Join us for the October installment of Tuesdays for Teachers, “Trick or Treat: Mining GED Ready Score Reports,” to experience score reports in a whole new light. Are you ready to meet the challenge of thinking of GED Ready score reports as a very detailed prescriptions for improving student skills? Like the haunted house on Halloween—we dare you!

–Daphne Atkinson, Senior Director of State Relationships for GED Testing Service

The new school year can be an exciting time for many adult learners entering the classroom and a fresh start for others continuing their GED journey. Every fall there is much abuzz about students returning to school with much of the focus on traditional K-12 and college students, but those of us in the adult education community know it’s an equally important time for GED students.

This time can also be intimidating for adults who left school many years ago and want to re-enter a classroom setting. For many programs this means meeting students “where they are” and engaging them in a way that eliminates some of the intimidation with school enrollment. This is a great time for programs to hold back-to-school night and attend community events where instructors and coordinators can meet face-to-face with prospective students.

Sharing student success stories is a powerful way to connect with adult learners. Highlighting graduates of your program through local, print and broadcast media adds a personal connection to the hard work and perseverance of GED students. This works well in conjunction with advertising your class offerings and schedule in local print and broadcast media. Social media is also a powerful advertising tool for showcasing your classes, sharing these graduate success stories and actively engaging with interested and current students.

This presentation from our annual conference reviews successful marketing campaigns GED Testing Service has done and provides tips on how local adult education programs can apply our findings to help with student recruitment. Some of these strategies include:

• Use GED Analytics and data to identify your demographics and identify the best ways to reach your target student population
  • Younger students may be more likely to seek information via social media, older students via traditional media
• Utilize paid, earned and owned media to increase the visibility of your program
  • Paid – print, tv, radio and direct mail
  • Earned – press mentions, reviews and social media mentions from others
  • Owned – program website, recruitment events and social posts from program accounts
• Set objectives, develop appropriate messaging and determine how you will evaluate success
  • Recognize challenges and opportunities unique to your program
  • Determine what metrics define success for your program

GED Testing Service has also created posters in English and Spanish that can be displayed at your adult education program and/or test center to promote the GED test.

If you have other ideas for promoting adult education classes and recruiting GED students we encourage you to share them in our Facebook forum for adult educators.

In “Changes You’ve Been Asking for: The RLA Test Screen & Score Reports,” our professional development and assessment teams discussed the format changes in the RLA test that students will see in 2019.

Over the last few years many educators and students have given us a great deal of feedback related to the RLA test interface and suggested changes. In the webinar we reviewed the following upcoming changes to the test:

• The response box will be greatly enlarged on the right-hand side of the display. Students will be able to view, write and edit their response more easily.
  
• The instructions will be reformatted and made clearer on the left-hand side of the display. The instructions have not changed, but the information that is accessed by clicking on the “ER Answer Guidelines” will now be more accessible as part of the instructions.
• The instructions will appear with selected words in bold type. When a student reads only these bolded words, they can still understand the task.
  
• These enhanced instructions will also appear on all accommodated tests, GED Ready® and Spanish tests.
• The reading material which is currently presented across multiple tabs will be presented in one tab that students scroll through. There will now be just two tabs on the left-hand side of the display: one tab for the revised instructions, and a second tab for the reading material.

The webinar also presented ongoing research that will improve the usability and effectiveness of the GED score reports based on a two-phase research study we launched in 2017. In the first phase we looked at how educators and students understand and use the score report and we used these findings to build prototypes. In 2019 we will research if these prototypes work for both educators and students. After a number of reviews we will conclude with the last usability study.

Here are a few examples of our findings from the research:

• Revise language to make the reports easier to understand including:
  • Skills/indicators in “How to Score Higher”
  • Information provided in “What Does My Score Mean”
    

• Update the study plan including:
  • Sorting the study plan by page numbers in the book
  • Printable version with margins that allow for hand-written notes

The full presentation and a downloadable pdf are available here.

This year we debuted a professional development track that addresses the specific needs of educators teaching and administering the GED test in correctional facilities.The sessions and workshops featured in the corrections track were created based on feedback and ongoing work GED Testing Service is doing to meet the needs of corrections educators and students.

Much of the feedback we’re receiving comes directly from the GED Corrections forum group. This panel consists of GED test administrators and educators that have monthly calls with GED Testing Service. During the calls our leadership, assessment and test operations teams, as well as state relationship managers, have the opportunity to get insight from those working in corrections. Participants share information about the challenges they face in the classroom and provide recommendations related to instructional resources and GED test administration.

This increased focus on corrections testing and professional development aligns directly with the improved outcomes we’re seeing across the GED test program and specifically with testers in corrections.

The GED credential is receiving more attention in this space as more national conversations are had about the positive impact education and workforce training has in reducing recidivism among offenders. We encourage you to share student success stories related to the GED and corrections as part of our ongoing effort to showcase the diversity of GED graduates and the life-changing impact of the credential.

In future InSession newsletters we will continue to share updates about corrections testing including national testing numbers.

The GEDWorks program is growing and giving more working students the opportunity to earn their GED diploma at no-cost.The program has grown to reflect a wide variety of employers spanning the US, including our two latest partners, The Cheesecake Factory and Total Wine & More.

This past June The Cheesecake Factory began offering the GEDWorks program to kitchen staff working in all of their 200 restaurants nationwide, including Rock Sugar Southeast Asian Kitchen and Grand Lux Cafe. As the eighth largest restaurant company in the US, this added benefit will help a large population of workers and has already proven promising with Cheesecake Factory celebrating its first GEDWorks graduate within a month of the program’s launch.

Total Wine & More, the country’s largest independent retailer of fine wine, will soon begin offering the GEDWorks program to its employees. The corporate-owned franchise operates 186 stores across 23 states and employs over 4,000 people.

Since the launch of the GEDWorks program in 2015 over 3,000 students have earned their GED credential with the support of their employer. To date we have 13 companies spanning the restaurant, publishing, retail and hotel industries offering the GEDWorks program with several others, including Brinker International (Chili’s and Maggiano’s) and the American Hotel and Lodging Educational Association, offering a GED diploma pathway through Pearson.

We expect additional companies to join the ranks and offer the GEDWorks program, or similar GED education benefits, as more employers make the commitment to helping their workers pursue their professional, academic and personal goals.

More information about the GEDWorks program is available here and additional details about The Cheesecake Factory and Total Wine & More launches will be made public in the near future.

We had a great time in sunny San Diego during this year’s annual conference!

July 25 through July 27 we hosted the 2018 GED Testing Service Annual Conference at the San Diego Westin Gaslamp Quarter with over 500 attendees. During the three-day event we had a full lineup of presentations, networking opportunities, professional development workshops and information sessions.

Train the Trainer: We kicked off our three-day event with our pre-conference Train the Trainer Institute led by the GED Testing Service Professional Development Team—Daphne Atkinson, Debi Faucette, Bonnie Goonen and Susan Pittman. Participants attended sessions that provided GED program information, teaching strategies and the resources they need to conduct in-person training sessions with their local and regional adult education peers.

Keynote Speaker/ Guest Speakers: During our opening session President Randy Trask thanked adult educators for their hard work and dedication to helping learners earn their GED credential. He also shared highlights about the success of the GED program, including the growing success rate of GED graduates entering and remaining in college and career training programs, new employer partners in the GEDWorks program and new study tools created to help both instructors and students succeed with the GED test subjects.

This year our keynote speaker was Erin Gruwell, educator and founder of the Freedom Writers Foundation. Gruwell made a powerful speech about her students, the Freedom Writers, and how she challenged them to change their lives through writing and self-expression. She also shared inspiring stories about the importance of teacher and student relationships.

We were also joined by two guest speakers during the conference. Dr. Carolyn Zachry, State Director and Education Administrator for the Adult Education Office in the Career and College Transition Division at the California Department of Education, welcomed conference attendees during the opening plenary.

Don Killmer, the State Director and Education Administrator for the High School Equivalency and Outreach Office in the Assessment and Administration Division at the California Department of Education, gave an introduction during our awards luncheon.

GED Graduate of the Year/ GED Administrator of the Year/ President’s Award: At this year’s conference we recognized six GED graduates as GED Graduate of the Year award winners. Each recipient was honored for recently earning their GED credential and displaying exceptional dedication and scholarship during the preparation and testing process. This year’s winners, from California and Colorado, are Issiah A. of Concord, Trinh H. of Garden Grove, Elisabeth K. of San Jose, Joshua L. of San Bernardino, Marquita S. of Sacramento and Robert V. of Colorado. The winners shared their emotional stories about their journey to earn the GED credential and how adult educators and other mentors helped them along the way.

We also recognized Tara Goodman, GED Administrator for the Florida Department of Education, with the GED Administrator of the Year Award. Bonnie Goonen and Susan Pittman, GED Testing Service Professional Development trainers, were honored with the President’s Award.

Professional Development/ Information Sessions: Professional development and information sessions were the main focus of this year’s conference. Over three days we conducted 23 information sessions and professional development workshops for conference attendees.

We want to send a huge thank you to all that attended the conference, followed along using the hashtag #GEDTS18 and posted in our conference app!

Here are some photos from the event:

Providing adult educators and administrators with the latest updates on the GED test program and related teaching strategies is top priority at each annual conference.

Here is the full list of workshops and presentations:

Professional Development Presentations

GED 101: An Introduction to the GED Program & the GED Test

Writing- Basics

Score Report Insights to Drive Instruction, Part 1: Focus on RLA and Social Studies

From the Headlines – Science – 5Es

Introduction to Higher-Order Algebra for Level 1 and Level 2 Students

Score Report Insights to Drive Instruction, Part 2: Focus on Mathematical Reasoning and Science

Social Studies – Enduring Issues

Inquiring Minds Want To Know: Go Behind the GED Test

Writing – What We Know: Using Extended Response Scoring to Improve Student Performance

Math Grab Bag

General GED Program Presentations

Practice Makes Passers

Accommodations Update

Administering the GED Program – Learn from the Experts (You!)

Behind the Badge: How Digital Credentials Unlock Career Opportunities

Marketing Strategies to Grow Student Enrollment

Ask GED: Tackling Your Top Test Administration Questions

The Power of User Experience in Behavioral Science in Moving More Students to Graduates

Finding Program Insights Through GED Analytics and Improving Program Outcomes Using Data

The GED Test after 5 Years: What’s on the Horizon?

Mastering GEDPrep Connect™ and Other Educator Resources

Corrections Track Presentations

Addressing the Unique Needs of Instruction in Corrections

Leveraging Technology to Improve Outcomes in Corrections

How to Handle the Special Circumstances that Test Administrators in Corrections Face

Each year GED Testing Service recognizes several recent GED graduates for outstanding achievement with the GED Graduate of the Year award.