American Youth Policy Forum
December 12, 2001
Based on a colloquium held last year, this report looks at what standards-based education means for young people who have left mainstream education. It addresses these questions:
- What are the implications (for assessment, curriculum, drop-out rates, graduation rates, and postsecondary entrance) of standards-based approaches (including the new GED) for alternative education programs and out-of-school youth?
- Should alternative school curricula be aligned with state academic standards?
- What support do alternative education settings need in order to incorporate standards of learning into their pedagogical approaches?
- Are students who participate in "alternative" educational programs being further marginalized if they are merely being prepared for the GED or other credentials that are not linked to state standards?
The most interesting part of the report deals with the issue of recent changes in the GED. As readers of the Gadfly know, research suggests that earning a GED brings few of the benefits of earning a proper high school diploma. In fact, GED critics urge policymakers to move away from the idea that it's comparable to a high school diploma. (For an example, see http://www.edexcellence.net/gadfly/issue.cfm?issue=73#1045.) Some 800,000 people take the GED each year. Are they being short-changed? This is an important question, considering that, over the past 25 years, the number of young adults who have gotten their diploma through the GED program has risen from less than 3 percent to 12 percent. You'll find this report at http://www.nyec.org/PolicyForum%202001Proceedings.pdf.
