Curious about the economic impact of the GED? Wonder whether what you have noticed over the years—that males struggle more with the writing test, females with the math—has been corroborated in research findings? Looking for ideas on how to convince your students that they should go on to postsecondary education after finishing their GEDs?

The National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy (NCSALL) has teaching materials, research reports, and a whole issue of Focus on Basics devoted to the GED. Click on ncsall.gse.harvard.edu/teach/beyond_ged.pdf for Beyond the GED: Making Conscious Choices about the GED and Your Futures, teaching materials that provide GED students with practice in graph and chart reading, analysis of data, reading, and writing, while they learn about the labor market, the role of higher education, and the economic impact of the GED. Focus on Policy, which provides information on the economic benefits of the GED, is at ncsall.gse.harvard.edu/fop/v1_1.pdf. NCSALL researcher John Tyler's research reports, as well as summaries of the research, are available at ncsall.gse.harvard.edu/publication.html under NCSALL Reports and NCSALL Research Briefs. And, for articles covering similar information in other issues of Focus on Basics, go to ncsall.gse.harvard.edu/fob/ti_ged.html.

Barbara Garner is a senior program officer at World Education and the editor of Focus on Basics. She can be reached at: bgarner@worlded.org