Vice President, CT Turner, shares some of the background leading up to the changes coming July 1, 2023 for most states. See the FAQ section and the state policy pages to see if these changes are taking place near you.

As you may know by now, many states/jurisdictions will see a price increase and change to the retake policy on July 1. As costs, state fees and contract timelines are different by state, these changes may happen in your state at a later date. To see what this means for your state specifically, you’ll need to visit the state policy pages .

We are proud to have kept the computer-based testing price fixed and stable for more than a decade. During this time, we have continually invested and made many significant enhancements to help students succeed. We have also worked to assist states and adult education programs to market, manage and effectively prepare their learners for their equivalency diploma and job training, postsecondary education, and careers beyond a diploma.

After very careful consideration, and significant discussion and feedback from state GED program offices, we plan to increase the price of the test and adjust the discounted retake policy. These are changes we don’t take lightly, and we have stretched this increase out as long as possible. As with every sector of the economy, we have experienced significant increases in costs over the past decade. Additionally, those of you in a state that may have, or have had, an alternative HSE assessment know that those programs have had a number of price increases since 2014.

We work hard to manage resources wisely and we continue to prioritize continual improvement, reinvesting in value-added services to make the GED program more effective every year. Since 2014, we have created multiple new tools, platforms, and services, while also continuing to provide a secure and reliable assessment. These enhancements include:

• Creation of the highly effective GED.com student portal. This tool is essential to help each student through their GED journey from start to diploma—and beyond. We have made thousands of enhancements, tools, navigation changes, and nudges based on educator feedback and research with learners. These enhancements serve to aid in student persistence.
• Significant expansion of GED Manager that we created for 2014. We have made hundreds of changes to the system to better help states and programs manage their programs and student information.
• Creation of GED Prep Connect at the request of program managers and GED educators. This suite of tools helps students request information from an adult ed program, and for those programs to contact and manage those students –with the aim of increasing enrollment in adult ed programs.
• Creation of Score Reports that can link to a student’s study materials to provide an individualized study guide, allowing student to focus directly on the skills they need to improve on. This tool is invaluable to students and educators alike.
• Creation of GED Ready ® and GED Test Direct. Based on feedback from the field, we created a tool where test credits can be purchased and managed through GED Manager, significantly streamlining management versus traditional vouchers.
• Creation of the GEDWorks™ employer program. This program provides student employees with optional prep resources, advising, and free GED Ready and operational tests. We currently have more than 75 employers, including recognizable companies such as Amazon, Taco Bell, and state Medicaid programs.
• Creation and launch of the Online Proctored GED Test program that we developed to provide students access to testing during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Online Proctored GED Test continues to be valuable in rural areas and to many testers who have difficulty getting to a test center.
• Addition of multiple reports and search options on the GED Analytics platform.
• Continued to provide completely free professional development resources and presentations for educators. In an average year, we deliver professional development to more than 10,000 participants.
• Creation of the ACE-backed GED College Ready and GED CR +Credit program to help students bypass placement exams and some classes with higher scores.
• Assisted state Departments of Corrections, and other areas of states with temporary paper-based testing when needed during the pandemic, or due to other local delivery issues.
• And many other tools, services, and enhancements.

We are committed to continual improvement of the GED program for states, educators and adult learners. Within the past year, we have:

• Begun the work on the first GED app to serve different student needs than what the website does
• Begun work with a green energy/infrastructure pathways program
• Coordinated with the CREDLY badging network to help students show employers their skills
• Worked on two programs to help with identifying student learning styles and non-academic skills needed to succeed post-GED credential
• Started a work group with state leaders on a 3 of 4 program that has helped at least 2,000 students credential when they have only one test remaining—and several other projects are in the pipeline.

You can trust that we will continue to be focused squarely on student outcomes and partnering with the states and AE programs to create better opportunities and lives for adult learners across the country. I hope this helps explain why these two adjustments are necessary. You can also find a high-level FAQ about these changes on the website.

Now, for some specific information you may need related to these changes:

1. Test Price Change & Vouchers –When your state’s fees change you may need to know how vouchers will work.
2. First off, know that 100% vouchers will continue to cover the new price of the test for the next few years. This type of voucher accounts for the vast majority of unused vouchers adult ed programs likely have on hand. (For example, if you have a 100% voucher and GED test fee in your state changes from $20 to $26, the voucher will cover the full $26 fee).
3. GED Direct vouchers purchased through GED Manager are 100% off “credits” instead of vouchers, and they too will continue to cover the full price of the GED test in your state.
4. If you have vouchers that are for a specific dollar amount, those will cover the amount on the voucher. (For example, if you have a voucher for $30 and the GED test fee in your state changes to $36, $6 will be the remaining balance when scheduling a test. This can be covered with a $6 voucher, or paid another way).
5. Discounted Retakes Policy Change – The discounted retake program will change from students being allowed two retakes within 12 months to one.
6. Data show that students utilizing a second or third retake often are not taking adequate time to remediate between test attempts, and two highly discounted or free retakes sometimes reinforces this behavior with no benefit to testers.
7. As each retake has a cost to deliver, it was the consensus of state programs that it was better not to have all students subsidize the second retake and keep costs down.

We sat down with Director of Product Management, Jane Bledsoe, to learn more about the official GED mobile application coming soon. We are set to share a prototype of the app with you at the GED conference in July. Here is the Q&A detailing what is to come.

Who is the app for?

Our primary audience is the learners who are preparing for the GED on their own, but adult educators can also use the app.

What is the purpose?

We found that 18% of candidates who create an account on GED.com make progress by testing within a year. We want to help those who are getting stuck along the way. The app will give them confidence and motivation to move forward in reaching their goals.

What features and benefits of the app can you share with us?

The app is like a mobile ‘advisor,’ helping the learner chart their path to taking and passing the GED tests. Along the way, they will meet ‘Syd,’ a character who points out what learners need to do on their GED testing journey. Syd celebrates with them as they make their way through practice questions, scheduling tests, and completing milestones.

Everyone is excited for the app, when will it be ready?

We will share a prototype of the app at the GED Conference in July. Beta testing of the app for select audiences will take place in Q3/Q4, with a full commercial launch in early 2024.

How do we know this will appeal to learners?

We have been reaching out to small groups of GED learners for feedback on designs – both those currently testing and those who plan to take a GED test in the future. Feedback has been strongly positive. They like the mobile ‘advisor’ (Syd), and the guided path to tell them what they need to do to be successful on the test. They like the practice questions embedded in the App, and recommendations for books and other study tools they can purchase to augment their learning. We have observed in testing that learners pay more attention to ‘Syd’s’ visual cues than some of the text-based instructions we included in the App. We have moderated and unmoderated feedback/interaction from approximately 100 research participants to-date. The learners are truly excited about the App and its potential to help them.

How is this different than GED.com?

GED learners can use both GED.com and the GED App, but the App should help them focus on the specific path to take to successfully start testing. The App will not replace the website; there’s still a wealth of information on GED.com that learners and teachers will continue to access. Learners can use the same log-in for both the App and GED.com. The two will be linked so that a test scheduled on GED.com will prompt a notification in the App, and notifications of score results, etc., will also trigger a notification in the App. The App will not replicate all the content in GED.com but should augment the learner’s ability to know what to do next.

Why do we need an App? Why now?

In 2021, more than 60% of GED leaners used a mobile device to reach GED.com. We want to be accessible to learners in the most relevant way. We also know that leaners are looking for more guidance than what the website can provide. The App is meant to help more learners achieve their goals. The App is something that learners and adult educators alike have been asking for, for years. The entire team at GED Testing Service is excited about its potential to reach more learners.

How is it working with an outside agency?

We are working with Livefront who have done amazing work with big brands on the consumer market like Target. They are phenomenal in helping us understand the value this app will play in student’s lives. We truly learned a lot from them.

What are students looking forward to about the App?

Students want that guided path. Our research shows they don’t know where to start. This app will help them earn their GED effectively by helping them practice and provide feedback. They need a way forward, and the app will give them that pathway.

What is the timeline?

We have been wanting to do an app for 10 years now and started research and discovery on what students need in January. We wanted to get the research done right and spend a lot of time understanding it before we have our first version. We aren’t promising an official release date, but we will show a prototype during the GED conference in July.

Will it be in Spanish?

We probably won’t have a Spanish version at the outset, at least not in the first version. That is something we want to look for down the road.

Is there anything else you wanted to share that I didn’t touch on?

If you go to the App store or the Google play store, you’ll see a lot of GED apps. Why do we need another one? This is going to the official GED app, a trusted resource for students straight from the source. It will truly help students progress on their journey. Everyone is super excited about this, and they all have a different idea of what should be included in it. It really required us to come together and figure out what is going to help the student most. Getting the students’ feedback has been so helpful. We didn’t want to replicate GED.com in an app. We spent so much time seeing what students really needed.

The coming tsunami of “green” and electrification jobs plus a large U.S. population of adult learners/GED grads without a college degree is a match made in heaven.

The number of jobs related to electrification and renewable energy is exploding (pun intended). Leading industry associations are projecting the creation of 40 million new jobs globally in the next two decades. In the U.S. specifically, these types of jobs are expected to grow faster than average for all other occupations.

Electrification is becoming even more integrated into our daily lives. Don’t believe me? Just today there was a headline about Walmart planning to install EV charging stations at stores across the country. Drive across any plains state and you’ll see more windmill farms pop up every year, or drive on the interstate and see the increasing number of hybrid or all electric vehicles. You’ll also notice more solar panels powering buildings, and new types of lighting automation in homes to baseball stadiums.

Demand for high-speed internet has also exploded, with the U.S. government also recently allocating almost half a billion dollars to provide access to residents and businesses in rural areas.

OK, so you get it…this is HUGE! But what does this have to do with adult learners, GED students/grads, and those who are in careers that will be impacted heavily by AI and automation?

Two amazing things:

#1. The overwhelming majority of these jobs won’t require a college degree.

#2. Most of them will pay well – especially when coupled with the fact that no degree will be required.

At GED Testing Service we’ve been working closely with organizations like Julius to build connections between learners and jobs. We’ve worked with them to build concepts of electrification into lesson plans that can be a regular part of GED preparation, all while working with industry leaders, associations and energy companies to create training programs that lead to these jobs. Of course, the jobs require training, but the time and route from diploma to a good job is much faster than those requiring degrees or multi-year college credentials.

We’re also looking for ways to educate learners about career pathways most know little about and provide them on-ramps to these new career pathways. We’re also working with Pearson partners like Credly to badge learners based on verified skills and experience and help them transfer their skills to the next job.

If we can get workforce boards, workforce development policy leaders and legislators involved, we can create a powerful pipeline of qualified workers while providing opportunity for good jobs.

GED Grad Day is taking place on May 12, and this year we will have our first-ever virtual ceremony! Here are some tips on how to support your students during the event.

GED Grad Day was created because our graduates do not have a traditional ceremony. Our graduates show grit, resilience, and determination by earning their GED. We are so excited to celebrate their accomplishments and hard work. Join us on May 12th at 1 PM EST to celebrate all our past and recent GED graduates for GED Grad Day.

This will be our first-ever virtual ceremony taking place as a Facebook live-stream. Encourage your students, both current learners and recent graduates, to join the Facebook Graduates Group to access the event.

We encourage educators, family members, friends, teachers, and employers to share congratulatory and motivational messages for our graduates. If you decide to submit a video, please include your adult ed program, city, and state.

For more information on GED Grad Day, visit GED.com/GEDGradDay2023

News and updates for March 2023:

Do you know a 2022-23 GED graduate from NY, NJ, or CT who has gone above and beyond to achieve their credential? The GED Graduate of the Year awards will be hosted at the GED Annual Conference this July in New York City. Winners will be celebrated at a special luncheon and will receive amazing prizes, including a $1,000 scholarship. Nominations end on May 19. Learn more and nominate a grad!

How 2 Amazon Employees earned their GEDs for free through the Career Choice Program: Check out this article written by one of our GEDWorks clients.

Adult Ed Flipbook: We’ve compiled a flipbook of GED products, programs, and services that give adult educators the tools to support their learners. Take a look.

Check out our video on the evolution of the GED! We’re excited to share GED history with you. This video highlights just how much the GED program has changed since 1942.

News and updates for March 2023:

Do you know a 2022-23 GED graduate from NY, NJ, or CT who has gone above and beyond to achieve their credential? The GED Graduate of the Year awards will be hosted at the GED Annual Conference this July in New York City. Winners will be celebrated at a special luncheon and will receive amazing prizes, including a $1,000 scholarship. Nominations end on May 19. Learn more and nominate a grad!

How 2 Amazon Employees earned their GEDs for free through the Career Choice Program: Check out this article written by one of our GEDWorks clients.

Adult Ed Flipbook: We’ve compiled a flipbook of GED products, programs, and services that give adult educators the tools to support their learners. Take a look.

Check out our video on the evolution of the GED! We’re excited to share GED history with you. This video highlights just how much the GED program has changed since 1942.

News and updates for March 2023:

Do you know a 2022-23 GED graduate from NY, NJ, or CT who has gone above and beyond to achieve their credential? The GED Graduate of the Year awards will be hosted at the GED Annual Conference this July in New York City. Winners will be celebrated at a special luncheon and will receive amazing prizes, including a $1,000 scholarship. Nominations end on May 19.

How 2 Amazon Employees earned their GEDs for free through the Career Choice Program: Check out this article written by one of our GEDWorks clients.

Adult Ed Flipbook: We’ve compiled a flipbook of GED products, programs, and services that give adult educators the tools to support their learners. Take a look.

Check out our video on the evolution of the GED! We’re excited to share GED history with you. This video highlights just how much the GED program has changed since 1942.

News and updates for March 2023:

March Tuesday for Teachers Webinar: Join us March 28 at 2:30 PM CT for Have You Talked About “Zero” Yet? We often “talk about nothing, or zero” in day-to-day conversations. A conversation about the “zero” in RLA is certainly “nothing” and has become a serious concern for many educators and their students. We hear the concerns and need to address “the elephant in the room:” the zero in the scoring rubric. In this session, we will answer your questions about “why a zero?” and provide a deeper understanding of the zero. Join us to help students improve their writing skills on the Extended Response and real-world writing. Register today!

COABE 2023 Conference GED Events: If you are attending the Coalition on Adult Basic Education Conference from April 2nd to 3rd, 2023, be sure to stop by our GED events and information sessions. Take a look.

GED Ready® FREE Retake Offer: Students who take the GED Ready practice test and achieve a score of 145-200 on the GED Ready practice test, must schedule and pay for the real GED® test subject within 24 hours of receiving the Offer.

Adult Educator Resources Flipbook: We’ve compiled a flipbook of GED products, programs, and services that give adult educators the tools to support their learners. Take a look.

News and updates for March 2023:

March Tuesday for Teachers Webinar: Join us March 28 at 2:30 PM CT for Have You Talked About “Zero” Yet? We often “talk about nothing, or zero” in day-to-day conversations. A conversation about the “zero” in RLA is certainly “nothing” and has become a serious concern for many educators and their students. We hear the concerns and need to address “the elephant in the room:” the zero in the scoring rubric. In this session, we will answer your questions about “why a zero?” and provide a deeper understanding of the zero. Join us to help students improve their writing skills on the Extended Response and real-world writing. Register today!

COABE 2023 Conference GED Events: If you are attending the Coalition on Adult Basic Education Conference from April 2nd to 3rd, 2023, be sure to stop by our GED events and information sessions. Take a look.

GED Ready® FREE Retake Offer: Students who take the GED Ready practice test and achieve a score of 145-200 on the GED Ready practice test, must schedule and pay for the real GED® test subject within 24 hours of receiving the Offer.

Adult Educator Resources Flipbook: We’ve compiled a flipbook of GED products, programs, and services that give adult educators the tools to support their learners. Take a look.

News and updates for March 2023:

March Tuesday for Teachers Webinar: Join us March 28 at 2:30 PM CT for Have You Talked About “Zero” Yet? We often “talk about nothing, or zero” in day-to-day conversations. A conversation about the “zero” in RLA is certainly “nothing” and has become a serious concern for many educators and their students. We hear the concerns and need to address “the elephant in the room:” the zero in the scoring rubric. In this session, we will answer your questions about “why a zero?” and provide a deeper understanding of the zero. Join us to help students improve their writing skills on the Extended Response and real-world writing. Register today!

COABE 2023 Conference GED Events: If you are attending the Coalition on Adult Basic Education Conference from April 2nd to 3rd, 2023, be sure to stop by our GED events and information sessions. Take a look.

GED Ready® FREE Retake Offer: Students who take the GED Ready practice test and achieve a score of 145-200 on the GED Ready practice test, must schedule and pay for the real GED® test subject within 24 hours of receiving the Offer.

Adult Educator Resources Flipbook: We’ve compiled a flipbook of GED products, programs, and services that give adult educators the tools to support their learners. Take a look.

We sat down with GED Board Members Phyllis Kelley and Kellie Blair Hardt to discuss the contributions that women have made to education and GED Testing Service.

Before acknowledging the current wave of women making waves in education, we need to celebrate the ones that paved the way. People like Malala Yousafzai, Patsy Mink, and Ramona Edelin took part in education reform and helping advance learners in marginalized and underrepresented communities.

Just like them, we have a team at GED Testing Service that works every day to change the lives of our learners. There is a connection and network within the women of GED. They are very supportive of each other particularly when it comes to concerns and expectations.

“There is a sisterhood to see what needs to be done without fear,” said GED Board Member Kellie Blair Hardt. “In other organizations where that sisterhood might not be there, our voice could be seen as aggressive or assertive.”

All the board members have a passion and commitment to advance our learners. The perspectives and opinions from everyone are respected and appreciated.

“When you enter a room, you know the people sitting next to you are fellow human beings,” said GED Board Member Phyllis Kelley. “At the most basic level, we all want to be successful in helping others be successful.”

The GED is accessible to many people that are not able to complete their secondary education because of barriers. The GED is a great equalizer. When someone earns their GED credential, they are one step closer to their goals.

“You can’t have equality without effort,” said Hardt.

Not treating learners or educators differently based on their identity, disability, or race has always been there. She continues to say she is excited about diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives recognized by the board. We see that in disability accommodations and being able to take the test in Spanish.

To reach equal pay and opportunities, we need to expose our learners to all career fields. “We need to make sure there is more exposure to STEM careers for women,” said Kelley.

There are opportunities in STEM for women of color like Black Girls Code and Women in Technology. “We need to help dissipate this misconception that women can’t be in spaces in math, engineering, or technology,” said Hardt.

Join us on May 12 for a virtual celebration to honor our GED graduates.

GED Grad Day is a chance to celebrate our past, current, and future graduates and their accomplishments. We encourage you to help us celebrate all the hard work our learners have done to earn their credential and help accomplish their dreams.

In the weeks leading up to GED Grad Day, we need your help encouraging students to use our hashtags and tags to share their inspirational stories. For example, if your students decide to post on Twitter be sure to include “@GEDTesting” or “#GEDGradDay” so that it comes up on our radar. To access our Educator toolkit with information on GED Grad Day and posting on social media, click here.

We also encourage you and your students to submit a video sharing your GED story. It is an opportunity to share how it felt to pass their GED, any test-taking tips, and what being a GED graduate has allowed them to accomplish. Educators can a share a video congratulating their GED graduates and sharing their most rewarding experiences with a student or class.

Thank you for your continued support and determination to advance the lives of our learners!