Measures literacy and computational skills compared to most high school graduates.

The Tests of General Education Development are a battery of tests designed to measure an individuar s literacy and computational skills against those of most high school graduates, and a requirement for a General Equivalency Degree. The GED test was first developed in 1942 to help veterans who hadn't finished high school. Today about 800,000 people, mostly civilians, take the test each year and roughly 70% pass. The GED is offered at special testing centers throughout the United States, and each state sets its own standard for passing, although a passing grade is generally supposed to indicate that an individual's skills are equivalent to those of the upper two-thirds of the students currently graduating from American high schools. The American Council on Education, which sponsors the tests, stresses that they...