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GED Files Suit to Protect Value of Genuine Diplomas
GED Testing Services and the American Council on Education have filed suit against online schools offering unauthorized GED certifications.
GED Testing service has filed suit to stop fraudulent online ‘schools’ offering fake high school credentials in a bid to both protect victims unaware that their purchase is essentially worthless and to stop any degradation of value for holders of real GED credentials.
“With the filing of this lawsuit, GED Testing Service has taken action to help protect adults who wish to improve their lives by earning a high school equivalency credential,” said Randy Trask, president of GED Testing Service. “In these tough economic times, competition for jobs is intense and a high school credential is typically the minimum educational requirement for employment. It is reprehensible that fraudulent websites are taking advantage of those who are seeking a credential that will help them be better positioned to find jobs and support their families.”
The suit is the culmination of a long campaign by GED Testing Service to tackle these scams; they’ve previously issued alerts and cooperated with attorney general’s offices in providing information about fraudulent ‘providers’. The action is filed jointly with the American Council on Education and alleges deceptive and misleading practices by website connected to Senford High School and Sunshine High School that are intended to defraud consumers. Specifically, they are targeting misuse of the GED® trademark by these sites.
The GED® test must be taken in-person at an official GED® testing center. Those individuals successfully passing the complete battery are issued a credential directly by the state. If the credential is not issued by the state, it is not associated with the GED testing program and is unlikely to provide any benefit to those seeking better jobs or admission to college.
Sites advertising these fake diplomas as the genuine article have become very popular lately and often rank highly in search engines. Many people purchase them without realizing that their diploma is invalid and potentially worse than useless.
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Comments
I don’t understand why only one company is allowed to administer high school equivalency tests. I know they want to crack down on imitators, but more than just GED should be administering these.
Who owns the GED testing service. Is it a private company with a government sanctioned monopoly or is it a government owned and run monopoly?
It took me a bit of a dig to find, but the GED is an arm of the American Council of Education which is the organization of 1,800 accredited institutions of higher education. So it looks like it’s non-profit private company.
GED should be looking to protect its trademark. Not to mention, by suing they are preventing students from being taken advantage of and paying money for an exam that is worthless.
One problem that our family faced with the GED was the age restrictions placed on those allowed to take it. Our 3 homeschoolers entered college at the ages of 13, 12, and 13. The two younger finished B.S. degrees in mathematics by the age of 18. These children were forbidden to take the test because in our state the minimum age was 16. When we moved to a new state, the age was 19. The problem with this is that because they never earned an official high school diploma or a GED, they were not permitted to apply for state or federal scholarships.
Any child, of any age, who passes the GED should be awarded an official high school diploma from their local high school. It would allow them to move on into college or trade school and to begin their careers at an earlier age. Over a life time this could add ( literally) hundreds of thousands of dollars to their total life’s earnings and permit them to gain more career experience.
I also believe that all teachers should pass the GED. How many would fail the math section?
All students graduating from their local high school should be able to pass it before being granted a diploma. As an employer, those with high school diplomas never got an interview. Why? Answer: I learned that far too many high school graduates were illiterate and innumerate. This is for a job that an eighth grade graduate of my parents generation ( born 1913) could have easily done. To get an interview in my office, I required that the applicant had to have, at minimum, some community college courses that were not remedial.
By the way, the oldest child combined training for a sport, travel, and foreign employment in Eastern Europe, with part-time evening college courses. Even with his many varied and enriching travel and work experiences he still finished a masters degree in accounting at an age typical of those who have been schooled in an institutional setting.
This is an excellent point about the age limit on the GED test. There’s really no reason for it to be there. Children should have the option to take it when they are ready. However, why should the teachers take the GED? You need a minimum of a college degree to teach in almost any school, and it’s safe to assume that if they graduated college, they are either also high school graduates or at least have the requisite level of knowledge.
Why do I think that teachers should take the GED?
Reason: Due to my experiences in working with the after school tutoring program in my church. I have met a scary number of government school teachers who are genuinely not well grounded in basic arithmetic, such as fractions and decimals.
Personally, I don’t know how they earned their education degrees or passed the test they were required to take but when they don’t know the difference between a numerator or denominator, what they represent, or how to add, subtract, multiply, or divide fractions, I have reason to wonder.
Are they math teachers? Or is there any reason English teachers should know how to teach math?
Well….I surely do think all teachers should have a firm grasp on basic arithmetic up to the eighth grade level! That would include: knowing what a numerator or denominator of a fraction represents; being able to multiply, divide, add, and subtract fractions; converting mixed fractions to improper fractions; converting fractions to decimals; and all functions related to decimals. Honestly, without this knowledge success with algebra is impossible.
Even if a teacher does not teach mathematics or basic arithmetic, if they are not fully comfortable with mathematics, the risk is that they may subtly convey their phobia of the subject to their students.
Personally, I don’t think it would be unreasonable for all education majors to be required to pass Calculus I. It should be the same Calculus course taken by the math and science majors of their university.
“Personally, I don’t think it would be unreasonable for all education majors to be required to pass Calculus I.”
I don’t. Is there anything buttressing your thought process other than general belief that teachers should be more educated, is there anything out there to indicate that more math instruction can make teachers of English, art and other humanities better? As long as they are experts in the subjects they teach, I’m not sure what the point is. You’re not really giving any concrete reasons why you believe what you believe, in all these walls of text.
Do you think it is unreasonable to expect that all teachers have a solid understanding of arithmetic up to the eighth grade level?
I think it’s possible to know about fractions without remembering which part is the numerator and which one is denominator. It’s reasonable for everyone to have knowledge of basic math, but your argument hardly stops there, doesn’t it? You want the teachers to take math up to and including Calc I. Other than your personal preference, do you have any basis for thinking that this would improve the quality instruction in a subject that has nothing to do with math, much less actual calculus?
Wintertime, I’m curious, would you also find it reasonable to make it a requirement for a science or math teacher to know how to diagram a sentence?
After 10 years of Catholic school, I still know how to diagram a sentence, and I am 65 and have never worked in the field of education. What’s the big deal about diagraming a sentence?
Yes, I do think all teachers should have solid grasp of all aspects of a 1st to 8th grade education.
A math teacher should not necessarily be skilled at **teaching** the diagraming of sentences but he should be able to do it. An arts teacher or physical education teacher should be able to add, subtract, multiply, and divide fractions; convert improper fractions to mixed fractions; and convert them to decimals, but not necessarily be skilled at teaching the subject.
Personally….I would be embarrassed to admit to anyone that I was not comfortable with fractions and decimals or diagraming a sentence. It is a basic part of being minimally educated. I do think teachers should be minimally educated.
The teachers I worked with in our church after school tutoring program were completely incapable of adding, subtracting, multiplying, or dividing fractions. They could not convert a fraction to a decimal. They could not convert an improper fraction to a mixed fraction. I was appalled! Their lack of knowledge went far beyond not knowing the proper names for the numerator or denominator. It was evident that they had absolutely no idea what the top or lower numbers represented. None at all! Fundamentally, they were innumerates!
Requiring Calculus would guarantee that this level of innumeracy would not find its way to our country’s classrooms. I also feel having mastery of this level of math ( considered the most **minimal** in the sciences) is part of being an educated individual. Is that too much to expect of our nation’s teachers? Surely they are capable.
By the way, I bet math teachers take the same introductory English, History, and other liberal arts courses as those majoring in liberal arts majors.
Linda on another post you were saying how it should be possible for all freshmen to take physics. If thats the case, all sophomores would be ready for calculus. So I don’t see the problem using your earlier logic.
Please correct me if I’m wrong because I’m not sure of this but isn’t the GED not being accepted as much as it used to be. I believe I heard something about the military on this issue. If so, why would anyone get a GED?
” If so, why would anyone get a GED?”
Answer: To qualify for state and federal scholarship aid for college and trade schools.
My first post explains how the age restrictions on taking the GED impacted our family. My children entered college at the ages of 13, 12, and 13.
The question was, IF the GED is not being accepted as much. So apparently it is being accepted for college financial aid. But, you often see the GED being obtained by dropouts in liu of a diploma. If the goal is to get into the work place or the military and its is not being accepted as much there, then the GED is not worth much (in those scenarios). I just wanted to know if anyone could comment further on that aspect.
Why would a maths teacher or a science teacher not be expected to be able to diagram a sentence? He or she certainly needs to be able to use language properly in order to speak and write well, which means a thorough grounding in basic grammar and syntax.
Basic mathematical skills are essential to being a well-functioning adult, especially in a world which bombards us with graphs and charts and which requires us to have the tools to properly evaluate risk if we’re to escape the Chicken Little world-view. Yes, sure, graphs, charts, and risk-evaluation are part of statistics, but statistics doesn’t stand alone: Its foundation is basic mathematics including algebra.
Hi,
While reviewing your post, I found it to be interesting and informative. Generally testing is done to find out the errors. Now a days software testing is in demand. I want to know how far it is helpful for the students to choose software testing as their career?
Orimark