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January 04, 2011
GED AND NEW YORK TIMES WRONG AGAIN
By Profesor Martin Danenberg "El Quijote del GED"
The New York Times article published on December 31, 2010 said 98 percent passed the GED in 2009 and the Times is wrong again. It should have written that 91.9 percent passed the GED in Kansas and 98.9 finished the test, finishing it does not mean passing it. What a way to end the year for one of the world's best known and respected newspapers!
The New York Times editor who wrote the GED opinion on the last day of the year should resign or resign from writing GED articles or both. I called Kansas and spoke about its GED success rate. Of course there are people that have to study for two years or more there, but they have a program which lasts 70-100 hours for those who succeed. Parents who have children taking regents can relate to the problem. A high school student in New York takes the regents. Before taking the regents does his teacher or school require him or her to pass a practice regents where the score is much higher in order to take the real test? This method holds back those students who cannot get the higher practice test score, but can pass the real test. My analysis of Kansas is based on what I found out today and 450 or more is required on the 5 parts of the practice test when only 410 is needed to pass any part of the real GED. An average of 500 is required so people must get 2,500 or more on the practice test. On the real GED an average of 450 is required. It is evident that state and federal monies are used for preparation, but the community colleges have an unfair advantage over other programs, since they later on make more money on the tuition paid by GED graduates. I was told that the teachers do not teach to the test. I say all teachers should teach to the test so students can get out faster and go into the military, get a job, enter a technical school, go to college, adopt a child, study online, or pursue some other dream. The program in Kansas is a bad example of subsidization by using tax payers money and then profiting through the tuition. This is possibly something that is highly unethical. If I have any of the facts wrong, I apologize in advance. The program is better than no program at all, but I do not support its existence. Almost everyone passes the test because they only send the best prepared students. A New York Times editor could have a son or daughter who could just pass the GED, but would be held be held back by the manipulations of the community college. The deck would be stacked against that person. The same thing is going on in New York. I would prefer that those students in Kansas that are held back could come to New York and take the GED quicker so they could earn their GED quicker.
Kansas had a better record in 2002 than it did in 2009. In 2002, Kansas reached 1.7 percent of the people who needed the GED and gave 1.4 percent of the population diplomas and now it is only at 1.1 percent. Its passing rate went up slightly in 2009. It was even better in 2003 than 2002. It would be useful to see the makeup of the Hispanic testers. For example are they testing Hispanics who already have a high school diploma from their country and need the English GED for college admission only? Hispanics do pretty well in Kansas and it may be a combination of factors, including the extra time needed to help Spanish dominant students. Kansas helped 1.8 percent of the people who needed the GED in 2003 earn a diploma. The fall cannot be explained without a full investigation of GED in that state, but it could be due to dominance of the community college testing sites and the elimination of other testing sites. This is in its own way a crisis just like the crisis in New York because there were still 21 states that mobilized a higher percentage of people toward than diplomas than Kansas, regardless of the high passing rate. In this sense, Kansas is approaching the class of Delaware, one of the worst states in mobilizing its people in the nation. Delaware is another state mentioned by the New York Times. I have written about Iowa and Iowa is a state where two-thirds complete the GED. At least Kansas is almost perfect in that respect, just like New York. The New York Times seems more like the National Review than a "liberal" newspaper.
MARTIN N. DANENBERG
7 BLAZER DRIVE
ISLANDIA, NEW YORK 11749
631-348-1341
martin@mygedhotline.com
New:
www.mygedhotline.com
www.geocities.com/gedhotline
www.ahorre.com/ged
www.ahorre.com
www.aspira.org
Profesor Martin Danenberg January 4, 2011 10:51 PM