Fake GED tests being offered on the Web
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
DAYTON — A series of recent complaints at state GED testing centers spurred the American Council on Education to issue a warning last month about Web sites purporting to offer GED testing online.
State GED administrators have reported increasing numbers of complaints from people who paid as much as $500 to online companies to take what they thought were official GED tests, then discovered the credential they earned was not the GED after a potential employer tried to verify it, said C.T. Turner, spokesman for the General Educational Development Testing Service at the council.
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ACE, a coalition of about 1,800 colleges, universities and higher-education groups, is the sole provider of the General Educational Development (GED) test. The GED is administered at state-run testing sites, and can only be taken in person, not online or through correspondence, the council warned.
The GED is a battery of tests in reading, writing, social studies, science and math and is accepted by most colleges and universities in lieu of a high school diploma.
A half-dozen Web sites "use the GED® testing and credentialing process in a misleading manner," Turner said.
ACE compiled a list of online high school Web sites offering diplomas or high school equivalency diplomas whose advertising is infringing on the GED trademark, the group said in January.
"They hook somebody who searches for 'GED' on a search engine with the advertising by using the term, then sell them their high school equivalency diploma or other diploma," Turner said. Such diplomas, ACE said in its warning statement, could be of dubious value depending on the schools' accreditation.
One of the Web sites on ACE's list, Excelhighschool.com, has a paid Google advertisement that reads "GED exam online diploma." Clicking through the ad directs the browser to www.excelhighschool.com/ppc/index, which offers a high school equivalency diploma through its Fast Track program for $299.
But Excel High School, a for-profit corporation registered in Edina, Minn., said in an e-mail Jan. 18 it does not claim to offer a GED certificate, but instead offered a full-time high school, a high school equivalency diploma program and GED test prep on its Web site.
"We offer an HSED program, which is very similar to a GED program. We are very clear to students that Excel High School issues a high school diploma and not a GED certificate," said Rod Clarkson, chief executive officer and owner of the school's parent company, Excel Group, Inc., in the e-mail.
When asked about its Google ad, Clarkson wrote in a Jan. 22 e-mail that since Excel uses an approved GED prep vendor "we are also able to use 'GED' in our marketing to promote our GED prep program."
On its Web site, Excel says it is accredited through the National Private Schools Accreditation Alliance, and is registered with the Florida Department of Education. Florida statute requires private schools to register with the education department, but the department does not accredit, regulate approve or license K-12 private schools.
In Ohio, the GED administrator is the Ohio Department of Education. An application for the test costs $55, and can be waived if a test-taker completes a practice test.
About 21,500 Ohioans passed the GED test in 2006, according to the council. Nearly 1.4 million adults in Ohio age 16 and older do not have high school diplomas.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-7404 or sgottschlich@DaytonDailyNews.com.
