Raising the G.E.D. Bar Stirs Concern for Students

1) http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/12/education/raising-the-ged-bar-stirs-concern-for-students.html?ref=us

2) Education

3) National level

4) Changes will be made to the Current G.E.D testing standards, making the exam more difficult, and more advanced, and potentially more expensive than before by adopting a new standard f testing known as, the Common Core.

5) The revisions to the current G.E.D testing affects current and future non-high school graduates, focusing mainly on people who have had to drop out of school for health, financial, and other reasons. Making in more difficult for those individuals in the workforce.

6) I would have to agree with all of the people who chimed in, in the article who believe that raising the difficulty level of the G.E.D would actually make the exam TOO difficult for the student to pass it. The people taking the exam are mainly young adults who have dropped out of school for financial reason, to help support their families, have disabilities, are immigrants trying to get ahead, or just people who were not exactly “school material.” Although I am currently in school, I can sympathies with people who did not wish to finish school, but still want that form of higher education to better their future careers. Which brings to mind the fact that if school was too hard for them, how is making the G.E.D going to make their situations any easier. Sure, you can say that the G.E.D isn’t hard enough, but to what standard are you holding it up to, Public Education’s standards? Every year, about 700,000 people take the General Educational Development high school equivalency exam, and about 70 percent pass. New tests in math will add more advanced algebra, while reading and writing tests will assess higher-order critical thinking skills, which will be sure to drop the pass rate considering all the facts and history. With the pace of our workforce, the increasing need for that certificate to earn more money in the market. The increase in costs will also affect people taking the exam who were already having difficulties paying for it. I believe that is it pointless to change the exam so dramatically all at once, because not being able to pass this exam will affect people for the rest of their lives and the wages they will earn in the future without a higher education background of any sort.