Time Running Out For Indiana Students To Take GED Test

Julie Rawe / WFIU News

Students in Dawn Grage's GED classroom are trying to pass the high school equivalency test before it changes on Jan. 1, 2014.

Indiana students seeking their GED have less than a month to finish their coursework before the state switches to a new high school equivalency diploma.

For decades, the GED has been synonymous with high school equivalency. But GED Testing Services is moving the exam entirely online in 2014. That’s a problem because most Hoosiers still take a paper and pencil version of the test.

So earlier this year the Department of Workforce Development announced it was dropping the GED in favor of the Test Assessing Secondary Completion, or TASC, which doesn’t require a computer.

Monroe County Community School Corporation Director of Adult Education Robert Moore says the new test will look a lot different than the GED exam it replaces.

“It’s not going to be just necessarily a science literacy test or a social studies literacy test where they would read passages like on the GED test and answer questions about them,” says Moore. “They’ll actually have to know a little bit about science and a little bit of some social studies subjects.”

Both TASC and the retooled GED exam will align closely with the Common Core, new academic standard designed to prepare more students for college and career.

Moore says current GED students who don’t finish their work by mid-December will have to start over next year with TASC. The center has added additional exam sessions to accommodate students, all of which are now full. Adult education centers across the state are making similar pushes.

It’s unclear if some testing sites will continue to offer the new GED test after Dec. 31. GED Testing Service spokesman Armando Diaz says the company wants to make its new exam available in Indiana but has not reached an agreement with state education officials yet.