[AAACE-NLA] GED test in Spanish

[Kathleen Muro]

Very interesting. I was talking about something different with 
employment. Around here, many employers set a GED/HS as the minimum to 
apply for a job, and won't take applications from anyone who doesn't 
have one or the other. This is different from actually looking at skill 
levels.

As to the rarity of Spanish GED, it just happens to depend on where you 
live, whether or not your local testing center even tests in Spanish 
(many if not most do not), and whether or not classes are offered in 
Spanish GED. I know programs that serve virtually 100 percent of their 
students with Spanish GED and others in the same community who serve 
none or a few. If a program leader doesn't believe that the Spanish GED 
has any value, they simply do not promote it, offer the classes, and few 
test-takers are aware that it is an option. Often, monolinguals are 
placed in ESL for long periods of time without attaining a credential 
that makes it possible to jump the next hurdle.

Even here in El Paso, where a third of the adults do not speak English, 
and 78% of the population is Hispanic (and 27% are foreign-born, mostly 
in Mexico), I cannot tell you how many times I had to explain to other 
agencies and adult ed teachers and administrators that GED is offered in 
three languages. So it doesn't surprise me that it is not more widely 
used, although some years our local testing center reports that about 
half the GED tests taken are in Spanish. Of course, these students want 
to learn English, but they also need financial aid and/or a job, and the 
fastest GED is the best GED (my personal slogan, repeated ad nauseum by 
me to numerous caseworkers, administrators, workforce development staff, 
college counselors, etc).

I became interested in Spanish GED when I observed people who sat in 
English GED classes for years, literally, trying to pass the English GED 
so they could go on to job training or higher ed. What a waste of other 
people's lives! I came to believe that it was unethical as an educator 
to place these students into English GED, and that it was a professional 
dereliction of duty as a program administrator to not set up Spanish GED 
classes in a community like ours. Plus the civil rights issues, which 
are very important. Is there a Hypocratic Oath for educators? "First, do 
no harm"?  I also came from the job training and placement end and 
worked with many employers. The most common requirement for a job was a 
GED. In practical terms, people needed to punch that ticket to get a 
job, and they needed a job in as little time as possible. Here our 
students are usually very, very low income.

Thank you for the history. I have always assumed the French GED came 
from Louisiana. Did it?

soricoli at gse.harvard.edu wrote:

> Kathleen and others interested --
> I just wanted to offer a bit of information on the background of the 
> Spanish GED -- GED Testing Services didn't begin offering the Spanish 
> version of the tests until 1971, in order to accommodate residents of 
> Puerto Rico, as well as the growing population of Hispanics in the 
> continental US. 
> I responded directly to Linda's original question on this, but for 
> others who are interested, it seems that very few people actually take 
> advantage of the opportunity to obtain the GED in Spanish.  I recently 
> did my dissertation on Spanish GED holders in Florida and found that, 
> for that state, from 1995-1997 less than 3 percent of GED testtakers  
> took the tests in Spanish. Proportions in other states never exceeded 
> 10%, based on what I reviewed in GED test taking reports.  (GED's 
> annual reports, "Who Took the GED?", do include figures for the 
> Spanish version if you're looking for data on the subject).
>
> I am pleased to read from this listserv that ABE students are making 
> use of the Spanish GED as a stepping stone - a useful credential on 
> the longer road to learning English, which was something I concluded 
> from my study.  It's fairly rare that people show an interest in the 
> Spanish GED, so I'll offer just a little bit of what I learned here...
>
> I examined the relationship between basic skills -- specifically 
> literacy and math -- and earnings and employment patterns.  In most 
> economic research, these skills have been measured in English, but in 
> this instance, skills were measured in the Spanish via Spanish GED 
> test scores.  Among the findings were 1) with respect to employment, 
> literacy skills have a positive effect for females but a negative 
> effect for males (there may be some dynamic, such as self-employment, 
> at work that I could not control for in my study the accounts for my 
> male findings)
> * math has a positive effect on males' employment but no effect for women
>
> 2) with respect to earnings,
> * literacy skills have a positive effect for males and females around 
> age 20 but not for eitehr gender in their 40s. * math skills have a 
> positive effect on the earnings  of males only
>
> I hope this is of some interest to list readers. Feel free to contact 
> me for more information or share your reactions, or check out my 
> dissertation through dissertation abstracts.
> Thanks,
> Lisa Soricone
>
>
>
>
>
> On Fri, 13 Aug 2004 12:44:18 -0600
>  Kathleen Muro <kathleenmuro at aol.com> wrote:
>
>> The Spanish GED is a big boost in finding a job. Many employers use 
>> the GED as a screening device for job applicants. They often want 
>> oral English proficiency and a GED, and a Spanish GED is no barrier 
>> to that. Likewise, an individual can meet federal ability to benefit 
>> standards to get financial aid to go to college with a Spanish GED.
>>
>> I think it is a mistake for WIA to refuse to support the Spanish GED. 
>> We have no official language in the US, (so how is this not a 
>> violation of one's rights?) and the existance of the Spanish and 
>> French versions of the GED test is testimony to the large numbers of 
>> returning WWII veterans who were language dominant in Spanish or 
>> French. Good enough to die for the US, but not good enough to get 
>> into government-sponsored job training programs? Doesn't this apply 
>> now with our present military involvements? I cannot believe the 
>> military, for whom the GED was created, would be happy with this.
>>
>> Here on the border, I was one of the first advocates of Spanish GED 
>> and programs I worked in generated thousands of new GED graduates 
>> using Spanish GED. Before, a Spanish language student would sit in a 
>> class for English GED for several years without ever passing the GED, 
>> and usually dropped out in frustration with nothing. With a Spanish 
>> GED program, such a student would earn a GED in two or three months, 
>> and move on to college, ESL, or job training, with the added 
>> advantage that many employers would now take a look at them for a 
>> job, rather than screening them out.
>>
>> I see this as one more step in proving the irrelevance of most of WIA 
>> to the real world. (It has already been demonstrated that federal job 
>> training programs have no impact on employment and earnings.) It is 
>> unfortunate that Adult Ed funds will be wasted keeping discouraged 
>> students in classes for long periods of time for an English GED, when 
>> they could already be moving on to their next educational or 
>> employment accomplishment. Finally, this is an effective reduction in 
>> seat space for everyone else.
>>
>> One last point: we discovered that it was too confusing for students 
>> to combine Spanish GED with ESL, so we did them sequentially. With 
>> the Spanish GED, attainment was rapid (two to three months) and 
>> almost universal, so earning it was a major ego boost to the student. 
>> Given the frustrating task of learning English, which is a 'long 
>> haul' effort, it was beneficial for students to attain a major 
>> accomplishment so quickly.
>>
>> Kathleen Bombach
>> El Paso, Texas & Sunland Park, New Mexico
>>
>>
>
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