This was a toss up on which forum to post this question under so I stuck with the initial IMHO.
Living in Texas there has been many concerns on whether or not the TAKS testing is helpful or harmful to students. There has been reported cases of honor-roll students not passing some of the TAKS tests.
My question is:
If the Texas student does not pass a (single) TAKS test and therefore is unable to graduate their senior year is it more beneficial for them to drop out and get their GED or re-enroll the following year and try again (with tutoring and practice tests*)?
Do employers/people still have a negative outlook on those who have GED’s vs Diplomas?
*I have heard, but not verified, that the TAKS testing for HS students will be no more next school year - or that the testing will not negatively reflect their ability to gain a HS diploma as it does now.
I don’t know what TAKS is, but I, too am interested in hearing people’s opinions on GED vs. diploma given my current situation with my son.
Everyone I know of who has talked to my son strongly, strongly encourage him to get the diploma (which is still attainable) than drop out and go for the GED. Although the GED website indicates that college is not ruled out with a GED, but the likelihood of a kid who won’t/didn’t/couldn’t finish high school actually being successful in community college obviously seems slimmer.
What does it really mean to have a GED vs. diploma?
I have heard (two of my sisters are homeschoolers) that some colleges looked askance at homeschooled potential students. There’s a growing recommendation, says my sister, to give your home-school a name like “West Mississippi Family School” and print official looking transcripts with that name on them.
$.02
Don’t know how that relates to GED. The only person I know who definitely has a GED is working as an assistant manager at a pizza place. A single data point but not a shining one.
I’ve heard the exact opposite - that colleges are actively seeking out homeschooled kids because they make better students. Of course, I have no cite, but anyone who wants one badly enough can probably google it.
I would be interested in this answer as well. My daughter is homeschooled and she is practicing this school year to take the GED test in June which would have her “graduating” a year before her class.
My SO and I both have GED’s. We have a joint 6 figure income currently and are both set up for very good long term career prospects. He is on the short list to go into management at the company he works for and I am probably next in line to be a sales exec.
I don’t think the problem is the GED itself, it is that many people that get one couldn’t or just didn’t finish school.
I’ve had the chance to look at the TAKS test for government, exit level. It’s fucking hard. I am certain that we didn’t cover half of that stuff in HS, and probably the first half of college government. This is from a prof at the flagship university… in education.
I think there is an assumption that a GED isn’t as good as a diploma - unless there’s a story behind it (the homeschooled, kids graduating a year or two early). Also, you don’t get a class ranking with a GED. With a diploma you can say that you graduated in the top half, top 10%, or top 10… not so much with the GED.
I have found the particular Texas school districts I have experince with have been questionable. My oldest (& I) spent a couple of years just getting his correct name on his academic reports. I poop you not - They combined his name with the closest available contact (which was my SO at the time we moved to TX). Each time I thought it was corrected, the reports would come out with some error of his name. We battled attendance issues because teachers knew him by his correct name but their roll-call logs had the incorrect name in which they would mark absent. You would think the whole thing would’ve been an easy fix - right? riiiiiight.
Anyways, my middle child recently got credit for a class she didnt even take. Yup. She got a passing grade for chemistry class because the school inadvertently enrolled her in the class AGAIN and didnt have a way to put her in another science class to get her credits to graduate. That was also a pain to get corrected and it wasnt even really corrected. Oh, and she received a passing grade for French - which she took 2 yrs of - just because she showed up for class. What did she learn the 2 yrs she took it? A few basic French words and phrases you could pick up off anywhere. Seems the school had to fre a couple of the teachers because they didnt have the proper certificate and had to use subs. So… she has 2 yrs French with a C avg (yeah, doesnt help on the gpa) but what matters is that she got her 2 req yrs of foreign language in regardless of the fact that she didnt learn anything more than how to take advantage of a flawed system.
I have recently moved to another school district in another town w/the youngest and am happy with them so far. I dont feel this school is overcrowded as the prev school is and I dont get negative feedback from the youngest on how kids are getting into trouble & teachers yelling & calling students stupid. As a matter of fact, her grades have gotten better and she seems to be learning & she pitches a fit if I even ask her to miss a day of school.
Imho, maybe the stigma with the GED is that the person may be viewed as someone undependable(?) and dropped out of school because they were troublemakers and/or lazy. I know this is not an accurate picture but back in my hs days, this was the view of many.
Do employers ask potential employees why they obtained a GED vs Diploma? And if so, what do you say if you feel as though the school failed to give you a proper education?
Wikipedia says that 1 in 7 people with high school credentials hold a GED and that 1 in 20 college graduates received a GED. I didn’t think it would be that high. (They don’t cite a source, so I can’t say those numbers are fully reliable.)
Our younger son opted to homeschool and get a GED. He’s gone on to community college. I look at it this way: if he wants to succeed, it will be obvious to future employers, regardless of whether he has a diploma or GED. I don’t think it makes much difference anymore.
I don’t even know where I graduated with respect to the rest of my high school class (granted, it’s been 30 years). I’m wondering where this comes in as a helpful thing - does it give one an edge in getting into exclusive universities? (Serious question, no snark).
I don’t have a HS diploma of any sort, having dropped out after 11th grade to go to college. It hasn’t hurt me yet - I started out at my state’s flagship college, transferred to Barnard (the women’s school affiliated with Columbia, and an excellent liberal arts college in its own right), spent several years in a PhD program (that didn’t work out for other reasons), and am about to finish my education with a master’s in public health from Columbia. I’ve had various summer jobs along the way, two with major corporations, and nobody has cared in the slightest. I really do think that only your highest level of education matters, at least in most situations. I’m told that if I ever wanted to work for the US government, I would need to get a GED, as you absolutely must have a high school diploma there, no matter if you have seventeen advanced degrees.
It will probably matter to some degree for that first opportunity - summer job, volunteer opportunity, etc. Things like internships, summer jobs, and the like - those folks tend to get a lot of applications and class rank and activities can give a kid an edge. Of course, probably two years out of HS, no one will care. But for those two years it is a nice edge to have.
The OP didn’t mention college specifically, but as every enterprising HS/college kid knows, it’s a nice plus to have on your side. I do not know how large state institutions consider a GED. With a selective college you’d probably write about your HS experience in an essay. The general rule of thumb is that the most selective schools want students who have “maximized” their educational opportunities at their school. So a kid from a under-resourced inner-city school with 2 AP courses - if that kid takes both of the courses and a college class at the local community college with a high “B” average, he/she is going to stand out over a kid who goes to the high-resource, suburban school with an “A” average (without the toughest classes in the school).
Granted I do graduate school admissions, but the key is to not leave any questions open to an admissions officer. Explain everything, especially why your child left school and got a GED. If it’s about maximizing educational opportunities, this could be a good thing (kid goes on and enrolls in CC courses a year early, for instance).
(I should mention that I worked undergrad admissions as a grad student at Harvard and I’ve conducted some research on selective colleges - places like Williams, Amherst. I never interviewed a homeschooled kid or a GED student, but this was about 10 years ago when there were a lot fewer kids in that situation. It’s probably changed a lot since then.)
I got my GED in New York back in 2000. I got it because I was 18, and could take it, or wait 2 more years to finish High School (long story). I was accepted into a local college, did 3 semesters (1 and 1/2 years) there before dropping out (had to move back to Georgia). After a few years, I enrolled in my local community college, did my 2 1/2 years there, and now am accepted to Pharmacy School (Starts June 16th! WooHoo!).
From my experience, no one asks you if you got a GED or a high school diploma if you get into college. I was able to get into college without a problem because I got a decent SAT score (1250 If I remember right). So, if they are planning on going to college, then don’t worry, do what will get you there faster. Even if you don’t complete college, at least you can check the “Some College” mark when they ask you your highest level of education.
I imagine it would matter if that was the only thing on your resume, or if you saw, say, GED with a bunch of crappy jobs that have short durations. If I got two resumes that both had extensive work experience and one had a high school diploma and the other a GED, it wouldn’t matter.
Thank you for your informative answer. It seems then, that if a person is not trying to get into a selective school then GED would be an OK path to take. I’m fairly sure that the state colleges here accept GED students - I remember particularly a story last year about a girl who left HS a year early, took her GED, and enrolled at Southern Mississippi University. She had taken enough credits for a diploma by the end of her junior year and wanted to go ahead to University. I can’t see anything wrong with that.
Pixellated, if your kid is finished with junior year I would consider letting him take the GED and go on to college, if he can get in that way, and you feel confident that he is ready for college-level work. That is strictly my HO, and YMMV.
As I mentioned above, I went to Rutgers (the flagship state university of NJ) with neither a GED nor a normal diploma. At the time (about a decade ago), they would accept people like me with 2 or 3 (I don’t remember precisely) SAT II’s, AKA subject tests. I had good SATs (1510) and SAT IIs (800 in bio, 710 in each of Math I and writing), and good grades with some APs, and got in at three separate branches of Rutgers. On the other hand, none of the private, very selective schools would touch me until I had put in a year at Rutgers with good grades.
Ultimately, the point is that a state school has seen people in this situation before, and probably has formal guidelines for how they deal with them. Call your local institution and ask.
Yeah, and if you notice in GilaB’s situation, there was plenty of evidence to support the fact that s/he was a strong student. The advice to talk to admissions officers is a good one. You’ll find they’re generally quite helpful, especially if you talk to them before your kid is actually an applicant to their school.
Just my IMHO, but I’ll agree with the opinion that the further away timewise from the graduation date, the less difference it will make.
And as always, the latest degree is the only one that really matters so if the student goes to college the associates degree or program certification will trump whatever paperwork that gets them into college.