General Educational Development Certificate Research Articles

Movement is Life-Optimizing Patient Access to Total Joint Arthroplasty: Smoking Cessation Disparities.

Currently, 13.7% of the adult American population smokes cigarettes. Although rates of cigarette smoking have decreased over time, those of e-cigarette usage have increased. Smoking rates are highest in American Indians/Alaskan Natives and adults whose highest education level is a General Educational Development certificate, who live in rural American areas, and who have an annual household income of less than $35,000. After arthroplasty, smoking is linked to impaired wound healing, superficial and deep wound infections, and aseptic loosening. Patients who smoke should be strongly encouraged to stop and be supported with smoking cessation programs. Monitoring smoking cessation with cotinine levels may be inaccurate because variations have been noted in race, ethnicity, and sex. Confirmation of cessation as a hard stop to surgery could increase existing healthcare disparities. The role of the surgeon in encouraging patients to stop smoking, at least temporarily, before total joint arthroplasty cannot be overemphasized.

Tobacco Product Use and Cessation Indicators Among Adults - United States, 2018.

Cigarette smoking is the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the United States (1). The prevalence of adult cigarette smoking has declined in recent years to 14.0% in 2017 (2). However, an array of new tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, has entered the U.S. market (3). To assess recent national estimates of tobacco product use among U.S. adults aged ≥18 years, CDC, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the National Cancer Institute analyzed data from the 2018 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). In 2018, an estimated 49.1 million U.S. adults (19.7%) reported currently using any tobacco product, including cigarettes (13.7%), cigars (3.9%), e-cigarettes (3.2%), smokeless tobacco (2.4%), and pipes* (1.0%). Most tobacco product users (83.8%) reported using combustible products (cigarettes, cigars, or pipes), and 18.8% reported using two or more tobacco products. The prevalence of any current tobacco product use was higher in males; adults aged ≤65 years; non-Hispanic American Indian/Alaska Natives; those with a General Educational Development certificate (GED); those with an annual household income <$35,000; lesbian, gay, or bisexual adults; uninsured adults; those with a disability or limitation; and those with serious psychological distress. The prevalence of e-cigarette and smokeless tobacco use increased during 2017-2018. During 2009-2018, there were significant increases in all three cigarette cessation indicators (quit attempts, recent cessation, and quit ratio). Implementing comprehensive population-based interventions in coordination with regulation of the manufacturing, marketing, and distribution of all tobacco products can reduce tobacco-related disease and death in the United States (1,4).

General Educational Development (GED) and Educational Attainment Equivalency for Demographically Adjusted Norms†.

To investigate whether the General Educational Development (GED) certificate should be considered equivalent to a standard 12-year high school education when performing demographic corrections on neuropsychological performance levels. If the GED certificate and high school diploma reflect comparable levels of educational achievement, then performance on the Test of Premorbid Function (TOPF) and selected WAIS-IV indices should not differ between groups. Archival neuropsychology data were reviewed to identify patients who either (1) did not complete high school and did not subsequently obtain a GED, (2) did not complete high school but subsequently obtained a GED, or (3) completed high school and did not obtain any further formal education. Most patients were programmatic referrals for epilepsy surgery evaluation, although referrals from the general neurology clinic were also included. The primary dependent measures were the TOPF and WAIS-IV Full Scale IQ (FSIQ). High school graduates obtained higher scores on the TOPF (p < .01, partial η2 = 0.16) and FSIQ (p < .01, partial η2 = 0.14) as compared to both GED subjects and subjects withdrawing from high school with no GED. The non-GED group and the GED group did not differ from each other. These findings demonstrate that the GED is not equivalent to a standard 12-year high school education when characterizing educational background. Although these data do not address what the appropriate year equivalent should be for the GED when adjusting performance for educational background, using 12 years will likely identify more areas of neuropsychological weakness simply by suggesting higher levels of premorbid ability.

Current Cigarette Smoking Among Adults - United States, 2005-2015.

Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the United States, and cigarettes are the most commonly used tobacco product among U.S. adults (1,2). To assess progress toward achieving the Healthy People 2020 target of reducing the proportion of U.S. adults who smoke cigarettes to ≤12.0% (objective TU1.1),* CDC assessed the most recent national estimates of cigarette smoking prevalence among adults aged ≥18 years using data from the 2015 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). The proportion of U.S. adults who smoke cigarettes declined from 20.9% in 2005 to 15.1% in 2015, and the proportion of daily smokers declined from 16.9% to 11.4%. However, disparities in cigarette smoking persist. In 2015, prevalence of cigarette smoking was higher among adults who were male; were aged 25-44 years; were American Indian/Alaska Native; had a General Education Development certificate (GED); lived below the federal poverty level; lived in the Midwest; were insured through Medicaid or were uninsured; had a disability/limitation; were lesbian, gay, or bisexual; or who had serious psychological distress. Proven population-based interventions, including tobacco price increases, comprehensive smoke-free laws, anti-tobacco mass media campaigns, and barrier-free access to tobacco cessation counseling and medications, are critical to reducing cigarette smoking and smoking-related disease and death among U.S. adults, particularly among subpopulations with the highest smoking prevalences (3).

Drug Courts and the Facilitation of Turning Points

Life course theory has been used to explain why people stop committing crime and/or deviant behavior. Life course theory scholars have demonstrated important life events, such as marriage, gaining employment, or joining the military, have led to reduced recidivism; however, drug courts might also legitimately be considered a turning point for an offender. This study utilized semi-structured interviews with former drug court participants ( n = 29) in an attempt to expand life course theory and demonstrate how drug courts should be considered a facilitator of “turning points” for previous criminal offenders. During the interviews, participants discussed how drug court helped them attain many important skills/ideas: self-esteem, improved relationships with family and children, a general educational development certificate, a driver’s license, and/or gainful employment. A gendered analysis demonstrates women found drug court to be more useful at facilitating turning points than their male peers. Additionally, recidivism rates for the participants were lower than similarly situated offenders at the state level. While further research is needed, this study begins to advance the expansion of life course theory.

Gender and Race Differences in American College Enrollment: Evidence from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002

This article examines college enrollment of male and female students from different racial-ethnic groups. Utilizing nationally representative data from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002), the present study investigates the following research question: Among those who have completed high school or received a General Educational Development certificate (GED), to what extent are gender and racial/ethnic differences in enrollment explained by students’ pre-college academic achievement, educational and parental expectations net of socio-economic background, family structure and high school characteristics? The study finds that females have a great advantage over males in overall college enrollment, and the female advantage also exists within each racial/ethnic group. For racial/ethnic differences in college enrollment, the study finds that black and Hispanic students are less likely to go to any college compared to their white peers. However, when black, Hispanic, and white students have completed high school and have similar socioeconomic background and precollege achievement, black and Hispanic students are more likely than are white students to go to any colleges.

Current cigarette smoking among adults - United States, 2005-2014.

Tobacco smoking is the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the United States, resulting in approximately 480,000 premature deaths and more than $300 billion in direct health care expenditures and productivity losses each year (1). To assess progress toward achieving the Healthy People 2020 objective of reducing the percentage of U.S. adults who smoke cigarettes to ≤12.0%,* CDC assessed the most recent national estimates of smoking prevalence among adults aged ≥18 years using data from the 2014 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). The percentage of U.S. adults who smoke cigarettes declined from 20.9% in 2005 to 16.8% in 2014. Among daily cigarette smokers, declines were observed in the percentage who smoked 20–29 cigarettes per day (from 34.9% to 27.4%) or ≥30 cigarettes per day (from 12.7% to 6.9%). In 2014, prevalence of cigarette smoking was higher among males, adults aged 25–44 years, multiracial persons and American Indian/Alaska Natives, persons who have a General Education Development certificate, live below the federal poverty level, live in the Midwest, are insured through Medicaid or are uninsured, have a disability or limitation, or are lesbian, gay, or bisexual. Proven population-based interventions, including tobacco price increases, comprehensive smoke-free laws, high impact mass media campaigns, and barrier-free access to quitting assistance, are critical to reduce cigarette smoking and smoking-related disease and death among U.S. adults.

The development of compassionate and caring leadership among adolescents

Background: Fostering the innate need to lead, teach and care for others is fundamental to creating a just and moral society. The nurturing begins early in life and becomes especially vital during the adolescent years, when peer pressure and the need to belong are heightened. Unfortunately, many youths believe leadership is associated with being good-looking, athletic, wealthy or smart. Leadership development is viewed differently, as an inclusive process where everyone can be a leader. Purpose: To describe how youth leadership evolved in two education programs serving low-income minority youth. Both programs are designed to foster leadership qualities in adolescent youth. They provide opportunities for ‘veteran’ program participants to develop leadership skills by teaching sport and life skills to younger kids from various community agencies and programs. Many youth leaders attend one of the local schools, while some are either in alternative schools or pursuing a General Education Development Certificate (GED). Participants and settings: One of the programs operates at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) and the other at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). The program at UNCG is called the Youth Leader Corps program. The one at UIC is called the Apprentice Teacher Program. Research design: A description of program participants' previous involvement in values-based sport clubs during their elementary and middle school years is provided. The clubs provided the initial leadership experiences that prepared them to take on larger leadership roles. Four developmental stages of youth leadership are proposed. These stages are: (1) needs-based leadership; (2) focusing on planning and teaching; (3) reflective leadership; and (4) compassionate leadership. Data collection: Numerous data sources were used—one was interviews (focus and individual) with youth leaders, their assistants, campers and program leaders, another was the leaders' written reflections of their teaching. A leader's assistant provided written (and oral) feedback to the leaders after each lesson. A final source of data came from the program leaders' field notes and informal interactions between the leaders and staff. Data analysis: Case studies were presented showing each stage of leadership development. The extent that certain issues impact adolescent growth across these stages is also described. Findings: Four case studies illustrating each of the four stages are presented. The four cases illustrate the transformation of adolescents from being self-serving participants to being caring and compassionate leaders. The ability to progress through these stages is related to the youth leaders' personal needs and their levels of moral development. Conclusions: The youth leaders sometimes regressed to a lower stage of leadership, but they also sometimes moved beyond their current stage to an advanced stage. It was also evident that their personal lives greatly influenced their comfort in extending their leadership and compassion to younger participants.

Does the G.E.D. Improve Earnings? Estimates from a Sample of Both Successful and Unsuccessful G.E.D. Candidates

The author uses a unique data set constructed from Florida General Education Development certificate (GED) and Unemployment Insurance (UI) administrative records to estimate the relative earnings of two groups of male high school dropouts who took the GED exams in 1995: those who passed the exams, obtaining the credential, and those who failed the exams. Estimates from several different specifications all show greater mean quarterly earnings growth among those who obtained a GED than among unsuccessful candidates. The advantage was small in dollar terms - only about $1,400 annually, six years after the exams - but, given the very low initial earnings of these school dropouts, it was large in relative terms, growing from zero immediately after the 1995 exams to 13 20% six years later. Most of these gains appear to reflect not differential wage growth between the two groups, but a differential rate of movement from non-employment to employment.

Does the G.E.D. Improve Earnings? Estimates from a Sample of Both Successful and Unsuccessful G.E.D. Candidates

The author uses a unique data set constructed from Florida General Education Development certificate (GED) and Unemployment Insurance (UI) administrative records to estimate the relative earnings of two groups of male high school dropouts who took the GED exams in 1995: those who passed the exams, obtaining the credential, and those who failed the exams. Estimates from several different specifications all show greater mean quarterly earnings growth among those who obtained a GED than among unsuccessful candidates. The advantage was small in dollar terms—only about $1,400 annually, six years after the exams—but, given the very low initial earnings of these school dropouts, it was large in relative terms, growing from zero immediately after the 1995 exams to 13–20% six years later. Most of these gains appear to reflect not differential wage growth between the two groups, but a differential rate of movement from non-employment to employment.

Economic Benefits of the GED: Lessons From Recent Research

In 1998, the U.S. Department of Education published a comprehensive synthesis of the General Educational Development certificate (GED). Since that time, additional research has shed light on the economic benefits of the GED. This review of that research highlights four lessons. First, the presence of the GED option may encourage some students to drop out of school. Second, economic benefits associated with a GED accrue only to dropouts who leave school with very low skills. Third, economic benefits associated with a GED appear over time rather than immediately upon receipt of the credential. Fourth, the returns to postsecondary education and training are as large for GED holders as for regular high school graduates, but GED holders obtain very little postsecondary education or on-the-job training.

Virtual Libraries and Valuable .PDF Downloads

IN THE NOT too distant past, if you wanted to read a document like the Digest of Education Statistics 2001, produced each year by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), you had to go to a library with a government documents depository or order the book from the government. Today, this and many other books, reports, research articles, and other resources are readily available as free downloads on the Internet. And fortunately, many such documents are in Adobe Acrobat format (.pdf files), which means they are relatively compact and print exceptionally well. Two of my primary teaching assignments are courses in assessment and in foundations of educational research. The primary focus of the latter is teaching beginning graduate students to be wise consumers of educational research. To accomplish this goal, my students need to read a wide variety of material. With college textbooks running from $75 to $100, I have become intrigued with the idea of assembling enough materials in .pdf form and literally giving students the textbook on a CD-ROM disc that costs only about 30 cents to duplicate. I don't yet have enough material to replace a textbook, but I have found a fantastic array of valuable resources. In this column I will describe some of these resources that I think Kappan readers might be interested in downloading and reading. Speaking of the Digest of Education Statistics 2001, this volume is available at http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/majorpub.asp. Chapter 5, Outcomes of Education, contains some fascinating data. I was intrigued, for example, by Table 386 -- Employment of 12th-Graders by Selected Student Characteristics, 1992. Can you guess the number of 12th-graders who during their senior year? If you want to know if the work ethic is alive and well, just download this chapter. NCES has a wealth of other publications, and the URL above lets you easily access them. While we're on the subject of the government, I would be remiss if I did not mention the virtual library maintained by the U.S. Department of Education (ED), which you can access at www.ed.gov/about/pubs.jsp. One of the links on this page is to Educational Research and Practice: Reports and Studies. As an example of what you can find here, if you scroll down this page far enough, you'll find a useful report titled Reducing Class Size: What Do We Know? Before I go further, I should mention that anyone who reads documents produced by ED needs to remember that the secretary and many other top- level posts in ED are appointed. Thus ED reports and research often reflect the political philosophy of the present Administration. For example, there are no less than 10 reports on this page about charter schools. NCES documents are generally considered to be more bias free, but you still have to be careful. Here are two examples. NCES data on the age of school buildings in the U.S. are unreliable since the NCES has a policy that, if any part of the school plant has been remodeled, then the age of the school is adjusted to the last remodeling of any part of it. An old school with a new cafeteria would thus be classified as a new school! A second example of a statistic you need to take care in interpreting is the number of school dropouts. Students who leave high school and complete a GED (General Education Development) certificate by age 22 are not considered dropouts. You'll have to decide for yourself if this is appropriate. A third virtual library maintained by the government is the massive collection. Probably the most useful documents are ERIC digests, which can be accessed at www.ed.gov/databases/ERIC_Digests/index. The search function on this page doesn't seem to well, so you may have to skim the titles. A friend recently shared an interesting digest with me. This one was titled Loneliness in Young Children. Its identifier number is ED419624. …

The GED certificate and the poverty status of adult women

Are women who hold a General Educational Development (GED) certificate less likely to ever be in poverty? Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, this study examines the probability of entering poverty for women. Given that a woman is poor, the study also examines the probability of exiting poverty. The analysis differentiates between high school dropouts, GED certificate holders, and high school graduates, and it is restricted to the first entry into poverty and the first exit out of poverty. In general, the results show that the GED certificate may be an economically beneficial route for women to achieve short-term earnings growth and remain out of poverty, as compared to dropping out of high school. The analysis shows that women with a GED certificate have a significantly higher probability of entry into poverty than high school graduates. However, a GED certificate increases the probability that a woman will exit poverty, compared to high school dropouts. This finding differs from other studies about the economic impact of the GED certificate.

The GED certificate and the poverty status of adult women

Are women who hold a General Educational Development (GED) certificate less likely to ever be in poverty? Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, this study examines the probability of entering poverty for women. Given that a woman is poor, the study also examines the probability of exiting poverty. The analysis differentiates between high school dropouts, GED certificate holders, and high school graduates, and it is restricted to the first entry into poverty and the first exit out of poverty. In general, the results show that the GED certificate may be an economically beneficial route for women to achieve short-term earnings growth and remain out of poverty, as compared to dropping out of high school. The analysis shows that women with a GED certificate have a significantly higher probability of entry into poverty than high school graduates. However, a GED certificate increases the probability that a woman will exit poverty, compared to high school dropouts. This finding differs from other studies about the economic impact of the GED certificate.

Does a Ged Lead to More Training, Post-Secondary Education, and Military Service for School Dropouts?

Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth for the years 1979–91, the authors investigate how school dropouts' acquisition of a General Educational Development certificate (GED) affected the probability that they would obtain training, post-secondary education, or military service. The authors use the longitudinal data to estimate prototypical training and education profiles. They find that the probability that a dropout participated in post-secondary education or non-company training was greater after GED receipt than before for both men and women. Still, less than half of GED recipients obtained post-secondary education or training by age 26.

Does a GED Lead to More Training, Post-Secondary Education, and Military Service for School Dropouts?

Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth for the years 1979-91, the authors investigate how school dropouts' acquisition of a General Educational Development certificate (G.E.D.) affected the probability that they would obtain training, post-secondary education, or military service. The authors find that G.E.D. recipients had a higher probability than other dropouts of obtaining post-secondary education and non-company training, defined as training provided by government or by proprietary schools. Still, less than half of G.E.D. recipients obtained post-secondary education or training by age 26. The probability of entering military service appears to have been unaffected by acquisition of a G.E.D.