The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights is scheduled to meet with top officials at the GED Testing Service this week to discuss its concerns that a major redesign of the exam could raise costs and make it unaffordable for the people most in need of taking the exam.
In an April 13 letter to Nicole M. Chestang, the executive director of the GED Testing Service, the two highest officials of the civil rights coalition, President Wade Henderson and Nancy Zirkin, the executive vice president for policy, expressed their concerns about affordability and requested the meeting, which is set for May 11.
The GED is undergoing its biggest overhaul in seven decades. There will be two performance levels on the new one: one gauging high school equivalency and another for college and career readiness.
Tight fiscal times have prompted some states to cut back on subsidies they pay to reduce the cost for test-takers. The testing service has reduced its initial estimates for the cost of the new computer-based tests from $140 to $120 apiece.
