The GED Program Helping adults in Pennsylvania succeed for more than 70 years Brian Smith, State Relationship Manager May 2015 1
Agenda The National and Pennsylvania Landscape The 2014 GED Program Pass rates and volume Additional updates 2
But before we discuss numbers Thank you for all of your hard work in 2014! GED Testing Service is grateful for all that you are doing to help adult learners. 3
Why the GED Program is Different 4
Why the GED Test Changed: It s about the Dream and Opportunity More than 65% of GED test takers want more than a high school diploma They want to be: Firefighters, Nurses, Teachers, EMTs, Certified Nurse Assistants, Dental Hygienist, Computer Programmers, Police Officers, Welders, HVAC Techs, Managers, Business Owners, and more. Jobs that require further education and training 5
But. Less than 12% of GED grads earned a credential or certificate after passing The old way of doing things was keeping too many adults from realizing their dreams 6
Jobs Evolved Quickly but the GED Test and Adult Education Didn t 7 We heard from employers, colleges and the military that the GED test had to change Value of the GED credential and number of people taking the test were eroding GED grads were competing for too few low-skill jobs while middle-skill jobs remain vacant
Middle-skill jobs 8
The 2014 GED Test The only HSE test created from the ground-up, specifically for adult learners, measuring both HSE and CCR Very strongly aligned with PA state standards Measures essential higher-order thinking and reasoning skills needed for success in jobs and career and college training programs Ensures that passers demonstrate the knowledge and skills on par with graduating high school seniors 9
Much More Than a Test Prepare Preparation programs Perform New assessment system Progress Support for posttest transitions MyGED portal Publisher alignment GED Ready with Enhanced Score Report GED Marketplace GED Analytics Educator/Professional Development Resources 2014 GED test Aligned with CCRS for Adult Education Score report aligned with publisher products Same-day scoring MyGED portal GED Analytics Educator/ Professional Development Resources Enhanced Score Report GED Analytics Credentialing with Smart Transcript MyGED portal Badging ACE CREDIT Transcript Career Pathways 10
GED Testing Program Results A National Look at the first year 11
The Big Picture January 1, 2014 December 31, 2014 223,000 Test Takers 114,000 Passers National Pass Rate: ~60% (CBT) Pass rate in 2015: 70% 12
National Monthly Volume 14,000 12,000 10,000 8,000 6,000 Completers Passers 4,000 2,000 - Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr 13
National Pass Rate 80% Pass rate 70% 60% 50% 40% Pass rate 30% 20% 10% 0% Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr 14
Pennsylvania GED Testing Program Results 15
PA GED Testing Statistics Computer Based Testing Only from Jan. 1, 2014 May 9, 2015 34,969 GED Test modules delivered 34,368 GED Ready tests delivered 9,670 Test-takers 5,177 Completers 3,293 Graduates 64% CBT passing rate 72% pass rate in 2015 16
PA Monthly Progress 80% PA Pass Rate 70% 60% 50% 40% PA Pass Rate 30% 20% 10% 0% Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr 17
PA Monthly Volume 450 400 350 300 250 200 Completers Passers 150 100 50 - Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr 18
2014 GED Test Results. 19
Volume and Pass Rates An analysis of 2014 and the beginning of 2015 20
2014 Volume was steeply down across the U.S. States offering the test completely for free States not using the GED program States using GED plus one or more tests States using only paper tests 21
What a difference a year makes! National volume 2014 Test-Takers January-April 2015 Test-Takers January-April 47,607 108,597 128% Year-Over-Year Growth PA volume 2014 Test-Takers January-April 2015 Test-Takers January-April 1,743 4,077 133% Year-Over-Year Growth 22
Reports from Test Providers From NCSDAE report Test taker volume year-over-year decrease, based on 2012 data: TASC: 99,196 56% Decline in 2014 HISET: 84,869 41% Decline in 2014 GED : 488,205 49% Decline in 2014 * Based on numbers provided/reported in the Wall Street Journal 23
2014 analysis Why are the number of test takers down? Why are fewer test takers passing? 24
Unemployment rates by education level High school dropouts have lowest unemployment rate since 2008 25
Benefit of obtaining a GED credential Graduates see high value in obtaining GED credential. 26 11/21/14 Survey with 2014 GED graduates
Utah adult education EFL when passing the GED tests 60% 50% 40% 30% Old test New test 20% 10% 0% ABE 1 ABE 2 ABE 3 ABE 4 AHSC 1 AHSC 2 2 nd 4 th 6 th 9 th 11 th 12 th 76% of 2014 GED students passed the GED test in the AHSC category compared to 42% from the old test
Graduate success indicator: Jobs 62% of graduates looking for a new job 66% have found one 28 11/21/14 Survey with 2014 GED graduates
Graduate success indicator: College 67% of graduates applied to college 60% of graduates are currently accepted to a college 90% of those who applied have enrolled or will be enrolled next semester 29 11/21/14 Survey with 2014 GED graduates
GED Test Revisited Some tips to share with your students 30
Constructed Response RLA, Social Studies, and Science What we re seeing: Many students are still struggling with the writing sections Students are summarizing, not analyzing and evaluating Students are not connecting and explaining how the evidence supports the claim Students are using too many quotes and not paraphrasing Students are not writing enough original material to receive any points on Trait 3 (grammar and sentence structure) 31
The question everyone asks... 32
What are Enduring Issues? The prompts for the GED Social Studies Extended Response will always fall under the category of Civics and Government. Knowing the major themes will provide you with a frame of reference for prompts that may arise. The themes of Civics and Government are: An individual s rights versus the good of the community Separation of powers Checks and Balances States rights versus federal power. 33
Tips for Math Read and use the Performance Level Descriptors (PLDs) as a roadmap for what skills your students need to learn Work on integrating problem solving into lesson plans Students need to work on reasoning and understand how to manipulate formulas (e.g. Students can compute the area/ circumference of a circle, but if you give them the circumference and pi, they can t compute the diameter) Questions cycle through difficulty levels so a student should not get distraught if they run into a problem they are not able to solve 34
Additional GED Program Updates 35
Excitement from employers Launching major employer program They believe the new GED program will help them retain employees, prepare more employees for promotion/advancement, and fill open jobs with qualified applicants 36
Additional updates Erasable board policy: Test-takers will soon get a packet of 3 boards when testing 3 GED Ready Math tests now American Council on Education CREDIT recommendation on GED with Honors Publishers being reviewed 37
Professional Development Update 38
Professional Development Resources and Tools for Instructors Teacher s guide Assessment guide for educators The GED Test: A content comparison GED training courses on Math and RLA Item samplers Archived webinars Free practice test Teacher scoring tools Most frequently missed items Performance Level Descriptors 39
Support tools for test-takers 2014 Computerbased test tutorial Calculator tutorial Free practice test GED Ready GED Marketplace Smart transcript MyGED portal Detailed score report Adult education center locator Test tips College and Career tools 40
2015 Professional Development Objectives 1. Focus on key the skills and confidence needed to teach GED test content 2. Design and deliver a Professional Development curriculum 3. Provide robust, multi-faceted delivery options (e.g. in-person, web, interactive CD, and/or live Webinar) 41
A Pathway for Evolving Delivery Phase 3: 2016 & Beyond Phase 1: 2014 Foundational Coursework: Phase 2: 2015 Foundational Coursework + Deeper Dive Components: Foundational Coursework + Deep Dive Components + Certification Series Face-to-Face Web content Paper/CD Face-to-Face Webinars Web content CD Face-to-Face Webinars Web content Multi-media 42
Comprehensive Content Offerings Phase I Webinars 1. March 24 2. April 28 3. May 26 4. June 23 Phase II Webinars 5. September 22 6. October 27 7. November 17 8. December 8 43
Webinar 1: Mathematical Reasoning 1800 Adult Educators invited to attend Previously participated in foundational courses 400 participated in the March webinar 600 participated in the April webinar Webinars were recorded and placed on website with documents: http://www.gedtestingservice.com/educators/exploring-the-2014-ged-test-webinar-archive 44
Contact Information Brian Smith brian.smith@gedtestingservice.com 202-471-2153 45