Media Room
EducationGED Testing Service Launching New Initiative October 22, 2009 The GED® Testing Service (GEDTS) has announced that it will not introduce a new GED test on January 1, 2012, as previously planned. Instead, GEDTS is launching a new initiative called GED 20/20, which will result in a test with more rigorous standards intended to make GED credential recipients career-and-college-ready. There is no planned release date for the new GED test. ProLiteracy will be closely monitoring the changes to the GED program in order to determine the impact on our membership and student base as well as on the customers of New Readers Press. You are well aware of the economic challenges currently facing the U.S. This has contributed to renewed thinking about GED testing and its impact on the larger picture of our nation's educational and economic systems. President Obama recently asserted the need to graduate more high school students and to support their transition to postsecondary education or career training programs. To meet President Obama's goal, the U.S. will need to produce an additional 1 million college graduates each year until 2020, which is why the new GED initiative is called GED 20/20. This changing national conversation on what it means to be a high school graduate and what is needed to be college- and career-ready has a direct impact on the GED Test. As part of the revamped program, the GEDTS will be conducting a pilot for a computer-based test (CBT). The primary goal of the CBT pilot is to determine equivalency of CBT and paper-based testing. The GEDTS will also begin to understand how test-takers respond to technology in real time; how the process of registration can be made easier for test-takers; and how quicker access to reliable data and reporting can benefit the jurisdictions, the test-taker, and GEDTS. More information about this change to the GED testing program is available here. We will keep you posted.
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