Changes to GED Could Leave Some North Carolinians Behind

On January 1, 2014, significant changes to the General Educational Development (GED) test will take effect. After 70 years of being administered by the non-profit American Council on Education, the test will become a project of a public-private partnership with Pearson VUE, the largest existing testing company.

Along with the shift in delivery, there are a number of changes that could create significant accessibility obstacles for low-income, low-skilled adults: costs will increase, all tests will be computerized, and the content will be more difficult within a two-tiered certificate format. Moreover, any students to date who began the current GED Test series but do not finish all five tests before January 1 will need to start over under the new system.