A lot of hard work will be lost if GED students in the area don’t finish the program before the end of the year.

Wednesday, October 03, 2001

A lot of hard work will be lost if GED students in the area don’t finish the program before the end of the year.

Only six testing dates remain for the General Education Development (GED) program before old scores are erased and students are forced to start over, said Heidi Cunningham, director of community education in Albert Lea. Many GED students still don’t know about the impending changes and are unaware that their existing scores are in jeopardy.

&uot;We’ve done our best to get the word out about these changes with posters and public announcements, but there are still quite a few students who we haven’t heard from,&uot; Cunningham said.

Of the hundreds of students who started testing for their high school equivalency in the last two years, 64 have not finished the entire battery of tests, plus many more from previous years, Cunningham said. Efforts to personally contact many of them have been unsuccessful.

&uot;I think these students are running out of opportunities to finish up, but there is still time, especially for people with only one or two tests left,&uot; she said.

Remaining testing dates include:

Oct. 10 from 12:30-3:30 p.m.

Oct. 23 from 8:30-11:30 a.m.

Oct. 30 from 5:30-8:30 p.m.

Nov. 6 from 8:30-11:30 a.m.

Nov. 8 from 5:30-8:30 p.m.

Nov. 28 from 12:30-3:30 p.m.

Cunningham said December is reserved for retakes and students with one last subject test to complete. The testing center is located at the community education office at Brookside Education Center.

Currently, the GED program consists of five subject tests that require general knowledge in writing, social studies, science, reading and math. In 2002, however, the tests will incorporate more updated material, place more emphasis on communication skills and allow for the use of calculators to permit more realistic questions on the math test.

&uot;The new tests will be a better measure of how well students can succeed in higher education, business and the community,&uot; said Minnesota Education Commissioner Christine Jax in a recent statement to GED testing personnel. &uot;GED students, no less than our public high school graduates, need the skills and abilities these tests measure to make the best future for themselves.&uot;

Cunningham said the GED program, which hasn’t been updated since the 1980s, will benefit from the improvements, but she fears students who have to start over will be too discouraged.

&uot;We just want to give people who have already invested time and effort in the program a chance to finish. They deserve a chance,&uot; she said.

Albert Lea Community Education offers free GED preparatory classes Monday through Thursday from 8-11 a.m. at the Brookside Education Center. Call 379-4834 for more information.