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It explains the shift from limited evening and adult schools toward a multiple-choice test as the central mechanism for credentialing. The chapter links the evolution of the “general education” curriculum, the early Iowa Tests, and the role of the American Council on Education and test publishers in marketing and policy support.",{"@graph":69,"@context":123},[70,84,106],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/chapter-6-an-institutional-history-of-the-ged/264082/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/chapter-6-an-institutional-history-of-the-ged/264082.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Paura","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-30","2026-09-14",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":105},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",14,{"@type":107,"mainEntity":108},"FAQPage",[109,115,119],{"name":110,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":112},"What problem does the chapter say the history of the GED helps address?","Question",{"text":113,"@type":114},"It helps explain how a multiple-choice test became the main vehicle for credentialing non-credentialed Americans and why few adult completion programs model the Carnegie unit high school.","Answer",{"name":116,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":117},"How did the chapter describe the early role of the GED test?",{"text":118,"@type":114},"It gained national recognition first as a college placement tool for enrolling veterans who had not completed high school.",{"name":120,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":121},"What curriculum idea does the chapter focus on in relation to GED?",{"text":122,"@type":114},"It examines the origin of the “general education development” curriculum advocated by the American Council on Education and the evolution of the first GED test, the Iowa Tests of Educational Development.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":125,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":127,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":129,"site_id":62},264082,1789377446,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":132},{"doc_id":129,"user_id":133,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":134,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":135,"file_id":136,"file_url":137,"file_type":138,"file_size":139,"view_count":105,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":11,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":130,"read_time":144,"preview_page_count":4},13056712833777,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_29158cc5080c5b710cf443261637dec0","Chapter 6  \nAn Institutional History of the GED  \nby Lois M. Quinn  \nIntroduction  \nIn 2001 one high school in the United States graduated over half a million students. That“high school,” the GED (General Educational Development) high school equivalency credential, was a test. One GED credential was issued for every four diplomas granted to students completing four years of public high school education, and teenagers made up nearly forty percent of the GED testing market. Since 1943 over fifteen million high school equivalency certificates have been issued to youth and adults based on the GED test.1  \nIn the last half-century historians have examined the development of American education and particularly the American high school, but almost nothing has been written about the history of the GED test, its emergence as a major tool for providing high school credentials to teenagers, or the demise of the adult high school.2 At the end of the 1940s when the GED was in its infancy, the U.S. Office of Education reported that half of all public school districts in communities of 2,500 or more had evening or adult schools.3 Today few public schools or community colleges operate programs that offer adults the opportunity to take the Carnegie unit coursework they missed in school. For the vast majority of non-credentialed adults, and increasing numbers ofteenagers, the GED has become America’s largest high school, and its cheapest. Given current debates over appropriate educational programs to move high school dropouts, teenage mothers, welfare recipients and displaced workers into economic self-sufficiency, an understanding of the history of the GED credential is long overdue.  \nThis history of the development and promotion of the GED credential does much to explain how a multiple choice test came to be the primary vehicle for educating non-credentialed Americans and why so few adult high school completion programs model the Carnegie unit high school. The chapter examines the origin of the “general education development” curriculum advocated by the American Council on Education and the evolution of the Iowa Tests of Educational Development, the first GED test. It explores the attack on the Carnegie-unit high school by progressive educators during World War II and introduction of the GED test to promote their “testing for credit”alternative to classroom instruction. The GED test gained national recognition first as a college placement tool for enrolling veterans who had not completed high school. The history traces ACE’s work promoting use the GED tests to measure “equivalency” to high school and its successful efforts to block states from issuing “wartime” high school diplomas for veterans who left highschool to enter the service. Once the GED “high school equivalency” credential was accepted, the test publishers worked to market the GED test for non-veteran civilians and later for teenagers. Finally, the history examines the importance of marketing and government support to the GED testing program today.  \nOrigin of the “General Education” Curriculum and the GED Test  \nKey to establishing high school “equivalency” is a common definition of what constitutes“high school.” The debate over appropriate curricula for secondary schooling – college preparatory, vocational, or “general education” – has a relatively short history beginning at the turn of twentieth century. Colleges interested in enrolling students with classical education backgrounds provided the first impetus for a common high school curriculum. In 1892 the National Educational Association created a \"Committee ofTen,\" headed by Charles W. Eliot, President of Harvard University, which  \nbroadened curricular options by endorsing four alternative tracks of college preparatory study all including four years of foreign languages (Latin, Greek, German, French, Spanish), four years of English literature and composition, three years each of mathematics (algebra, geometry, trigonometry)","cbCaihq5qQeT43FC","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaihq5qQeT43FC","pdf",299657,"English","# Introduction\n## Origin of the “General Education” Curriculum and the GED Test","[{\"question\":\"What problem does the chapter say the history of the GED helps address?\",\"answer\":\"It helps explain how a multiple-choice test became the main vehicle for credentialing non-credentialed Americans and why few adult completion programs model the Carnegie unit high school.\"},{\"question\":\"How did the chapter describe the early role of the GED test?\",\"answer\":\"It gained national recognition first as a college placement tool for enrolling veterans who had not completed high school.\"},{\"question\":\"What curriculum idea does the chapter focus on in relation to GED?\",\"answer\":\"It examines the origin of the “general education development” curriculum advocated by the American Council on Education and the evolution of the first GED test, the Iowa Tests of Educational Development.\"}]","Chapter 6 - An Institutional History of the GED | PDF",227]