The GED, the General Educational Development test, is produced by the American Council on Education. In 2011, it  partnered with Pearson and the GED was aligned  with the Common Core State Standards. Pearson is heavily involved with both the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) and with Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) which are the assessment consortia developing assessments for the Common Core State Standards.

Beginning in 2014, students taking the GED took the revised test aligned with the Common Core State Standards

According to the e-newsletter SCENE, about 540,000 students earned their GED in 2013. In 2014 with the changes in the GED, that number has dropped to about 55,000. Read the article.

Some states have stopped requiring the GED and have begun to require alternate testing. See the map.

The GED’s new alignment with the Common core means that even students that were homeschooled must become knowledgeable about the Common Core standards if they want to earn their GED.

The new GED test will not only flunk more students but will discourage many from even attempting the exam.

Meet Jacob Barnett. His doctors and therapists advised his parents that due to his autism he would never talk. His mother, Kristine Barnett, decided to focus on what Jacob could do rather than what he could not do. Now, at fifteen years old, he attends Perimeter Institute in Waterloo, Ontario. Read more.

For many months the Romeike family, persecuted in Germany for homeschooling, has been seeking amnesty in the USA. They have been living in Tennessee and have been working with the Home School Legal Defense Association to obtain amnesty. Just this week, the US Supreme Court declined to consider their case, and the outlook appeared bleak, […]

If you are a student who took part of the GED and need to finish taking the rest, complete it before the end of December 2013, or you will have to start over. David Coleman, often called the “architect” of the Common Core State Standards, is now the president of the College Board which produces […]

In October 2012, David Coleman, often called the “architect” of the Common Core State Standards, became the president of the College Board which produces the SAT exam. More recently he announced he is  aligning the SAT with the Common Core State Standards. The ACT exam was already aligned with the Common Core State Standards in […]

For you homeschoolers, Tina Hollenbeck has done excellent work in compiling a list of curriculum providers which are remaining independent from the Common Core State Standards. The purpose of the list is for parents’ information, not to pass any judgment upon one curriculum or another, and it is posted on the Educational Freedom Coalition website. See the list.

Those posting the list at this website are not making judgments…..but I will. I recommend avoiding curricula which aligns with the Common Core State Standards; however, I also recommend evaluating any curricula carefully since they may be deficient for some other reason(s).

On May 14, 2013, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the current administration’s decision denying asylum to the Romeike family, a homeschool family who fled from Germany to retain their parents’ right to homeschool their children.

“If our Administration is willing to explore a policy of leniency for millions of immigrants, it is simply inexplicable why they cannot find room for one homeschooling family from Germany,” says Michael Farris of the Homeschool Legal Defense Association, which plans to appeal the decision.

Read the article.

“Anytime you’ve got a one size fits all attitude regarding education, it’s never good for the students, the parents, or education in general,..”

The Homeschool Legal Defense Association reports on the new figures (for 2010) researched by the National Homeschool Education Research Institute. See the press release.