College Readiness Assessment
Category: Pathways to and Through Postsecondary
For the over 24 million American adults who do not hold a traditional high school diploma, high school equivalency (HSE) credentials represent the primary “second-chance” pathway to many careers or educational opportunities. This project uses current, representative data to assess whether, how, and for whom HSE credentials promote post-secondary success. Examining post-secondary outcomes in a sample of 102,000 GED testers who attempted a GED subject test in the United States between 2014 and 2023, I find that recent GED graduates persist and graduate from college at higher rates than past cohorts, demonstrating the growing importance of HSE credentials as a non-traditional post-secondary pathway. College-ready GED graduates enroll, persist, and graduate from college at even higher rates, primarily from four-year institutions. Even in this large, national dataset, regression discontinuity (RD) estimates assessing the causal impact of earning an HSE credential or college readiness designation on college outcomes are inconclusive. Estimates vary in sign, magnitude, and precision across different subject test thresholds and subgroups. However, exploratory analyses that pool across subjects suggest that earning an HSE credential or college readiness designation may increase college enrollment and persistence for the highest- and lowest-scoring GED graduates.
Keywords
high school equivalency credentials, GED test, post-secondary pathways, college readiness, regression discontinuity design, adult education, quasi-experimental research, open science
Education level
Document Object Identifier (DOI)
10.26300/nw9y-a303
