GED test for ongoing high school students OK’d By MARIAN A. MARAYA

The American Council on Education recently approved the nationwide implementation of General Education Development tests for at-risk students still battling with the rigors of high school.

Adult Basic Education Director Fe Calixterio has disclosed plans to sell the new idea to the Public School System in collaboration with the Northern Marianas College.

But Ms. Calixterio, who recently came back from an off-island ABE conference, said she still has to discuss with the college president the feasibility of administering a GED option program.

The new program would involve close collaboration with two educational institutions, PSS and NMC, to prepare the high school students to take the examination.

Under the program, PSS is supposed to spearhead instructional education while the college takes care of the testing process.

“I have yet to sell this idea to the school system through our president. We need to do a lot of dialogues and negotiating with PSS leaders,” said Ms. Calixterio.

Ms. Calixterio explained the test is applicable to at-risk students while they are in high school. The ABE director qualified at-risk students to include those who are flunking school for reasons other than academic deficiencies.

“This means that the students are still academically capable but are at-risk because of other reasons…maybe family or personal problems, teen pregnancy or need for economic support,” she said.

Ms. Calixterio is hopeful the school system will take an interest in this new concept to decrease the rate of high school dropouts.
“This is a service we will be extending to the at-risk youth,” she said.

Based on 1995 Census records, more than 11,000 of CNMI’s total population either didn’t go beyond the 5th grade level, only reached 8th grade, or dropped out of school before securing a high school diploma.

Head of the General Education Diploma program at the Northern Marianas College, Ms. Calixterio was quick to note that CNMI’s dropout rate is relatively high every year.

“There are over 200 students who drop out of school every year. I may be painting a dismal picture here but this is the reality,” Ms. Calixterio earlier stated.

She added that as of 1995, close to 11,500 individuals in the CNMI are without high school diplomas.