My GED Hotline GED Practice Test

Indentured servant, slavery, freeman, forty acres and a mule, share cropping, discrimination, segregation, Jim Crow, Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, March on Washington, Civil Rights, affirmative action, GED is education. GED is education! GED is education. While 9 judges argued and now the Congress argues over Justice Sonia Sotomayor or even the case of the African-American firemen in New Haven, GED Profesor Martin Danenberg woke up and shook up hundreds of delegates from more than 30 states with his information about GED and his partnership with William Bell, Sean Bell’s father. What happened after slavery was ended, disbelief and joy obviously. Let us look at the GED results for the State of Connecticut for 2008 (I just found these “new” results the first morning that I attended the NAACP Convention with Sean Bell’s father).

Keep in mind the New Haven firefighters’ case and affirmative action. The delivery of GED diplomas across the nation for youth 16, 17, and 18 is 3.6 percent, 13.5 percent, and 16.9 percent of the 469,168 who passed across our nation. Connecticut was well below the national average in the delivery of diplomas but its figures for the 16-18 age group was 0.1 percent, 8.3 percent, and 14.3 percent. You can see for yourself that it remained well below the nation in helping our youth. I do not know the percentage of population of African-Americans in that state, but the percentage of passers was 22.8 percent (the Connecticut NAACP can add this information later since it knows). You can see the head start that other states have in helping to keep the youth focused on their education, but that does not mean that the African-American community is benefiting from those results. Most of you know that most youth who go into jail have no GED. I have been told that it is 80 percent. More African-American youth can find opportunities in the police and fire departments through better recruitment that includes the GED as a boulevard (not an avenue since a boulevard is much greater). I have been calling for this since the attack on 9-11. Connecticut, by the way, does not begin to catch up until two years after other states begin to enter their youth into jobs and college. The passing rate on the GED in Connecticut in 2008 was 66.4 percent but for African-Americans it was only 52.5 percent. Nationally the passing rate was 73.1 percent, but for African-Americans it was only 56.6 percent.

Let us wake up. The Supreme Court Decision in the New Haven case was given with 5 against the African-Americans and 4 for the African-Americans. Use the information in the last paragraph and mobilize your communities to take the GED. There are brilliant minds that just have not taken the test and you know that “a mind is a terrible thing to waste.” You may see some promotions the next time, but there will be many more promotions when the top 1-10 percent of the people who still have not gotten a GED pass that test, pass the firefighter and police exams and interviews for the academies to get those jobs. So you see my friend that if you cannot get the job done through the Supreme Court, there is another way to help the community.

Well people found out at the NAACP 100th Anniversary Convention in New York City that ten million or more African-Americans do not have a high school diploma or GED and now the joy has to take place in their lives as they graduate by passing the GED. A few delegates attending spoke of the joy that older adults have felt graduating with the GED. Well a few is not enough and the entire nation needs that GED. You are not going to hear conservative talk show hosts talking about the GED for minorities (they talk about education for Americans all the time, but who do they really mean?). So you better start telling everyone in your community to mobilize and get that GED. Let me provided you with that expertise over the next several years. Partner with William Bell and me to change neighborhoods through the GED and dropout prevention. Let us educate all families and keep them safe. Let us make the success of the NAACP 100th Anniversary Convention a bigger success by doing the right thing every day. NAACP branches can affect schools, churches, and community organizations, even elected officials to bring about faster change than we have seen in decades.

Since the dropout rate is so large for African-Americans, then the numbers of people taking the GED should be well above the percent of African-Americans in the general population.

The percentage of passers in the African-American community is low and this has to be addressed everywhere. Just this week a youth called me and I had to reinforce the passing rule for the GED which is 410 on each part, but an overall score of 2,250. A month in a half in a GED preparation program did not teach her even that and she was destined to fail the GED on her second try. Her GED program in New York City let her go without making sure she was equipped to handle the GED process alone.

Africans and Haitians have been denied access to the GED in French throughout our nation with certain exceptions. Even within the states that test in French, there are limited amounts of seats and few testing centers have the French test. The result is few diplomas for people as they struggle to learn English to take the test decades later. It is the same with the Hispanic population.

YOU CAN OBTAIN THE GED STUDY FOR 2008 BY GOING TO THE AMERICAN COUNCIL ON EDUCATION WEBSITE OR YOU CAN CONTACT ME. KNOW WHAT THE GED PICTURE IS IN YOUR ZIP CODE FROM NOW ON. WILLIAM BELL AND I WILL BE TAKING OUR CAMPAIGN TO THE WHITE HOUSE AND THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT SOON AND WE WANT YOUR SUPPORT TO BUILD A MOVEMENT AT THE GRASSROOTS.

Trust me when I tell you that we can mobilize any depressed area in your home state through the GED. I have a great program for people that has worked and worked and worked. I want you to know that I am working closely with the Title One Program in New York City and we hope to mobilize the entire city soon where 1.6 million adults have no diploma or are disconnected from the school system. Reach out to your local Title One schools and contact me.

MARTIN N. DANENBERG
7 BLAZER DRIVE
ISLANDIA, NEW YORK 11749
631-348-1341
GEDHOTLINE@AOL.COM
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