Despite Modest Increase, GED Test-Taking Still Hovering Near All-Time Low: Given recent statistics that indicate that at least half of all Black and Hispanic high school students dropped out this year, the General Educational Development test, or GED, remains a critical second option. However, since 2002, when the test was revamped to address complaints that GED-holders lacked basic writing skills, the number of test-takers has fallen drastically, from 800,000 before 2002 to 665,927 in 2004.
However, a report issued by the GED Testing Service today entitled, “Who Passed the GED Tests? 2005 Statistical Report,” shows a modest 2.2 percent increase in the number of GED test-takers for 2005, to 680,874. Also, the total number of GED candidates who passed the test rose 4.4 percent to 423,714 from 405,724 in 2004.
All of this is good news for GED Testing Service Executive Director Sylvia E. Robinson who, after assuming her post in April, has been charged with boosting sagging GED test-taking numbers while steering the GED toward another redesign, scheduled for 2011. She says, however, that the GED has a long way to go.
