Performance of General Educational Development (GED) recipients and high school graduates enrolled in a public research university

The General Educational Development (GED) test provides a secondary education alternative for many high school dropouts who plan to pursue further education. The purpose of this study was to determine whether academic performance differed at a state research university for GED and high school graduates and to determine the extent to which selected factors can be useful in predicting GED recipients' successful college graduation. The study group included the total population of all the admitted freshmen between 1988 and 1998 who were GED graduates. A comparison group was selected from the population of freshmen who were high school graduates and were similar in demographic characteristics, so that the two groups differed only in the nature of their high school credential. Several variables related to the academic performance of the study groups were analyzed. Among the findings, graduation rate was found to be significantly lower for GED graduates than for high school graduates. GED graduates' grade point average (GPA) was significantly lower in the first and the second semester, but there was no difference for the later semesters. GED graduates' completed and attempted credit hours ratio was lower in the first year. GED score was found to be an effective predictor of GED recipients' performance at the university.