Have you ever listened to a teacher or adult talk to a
student who is thinking about quitting school and getting a
GED? If so, you probably heard the
teacher try to convince the student that staying in school and graduating would
be the smarter choice. The teacher might
offer a number of reasons for this, but it usually includes a claim that the
diploma will get you a higher paying job than a GED. Most teachers don’t really know whether this
opinion is true or not. They believe it
because they finished high school and it seemed to work for them. They also believe it because everyone else
does. Graduation is just something you
have to do; nobody questions it.
This popular belief is sometimes supported by research that you
might read about in the news, or hear about from your guidance counselor. It’s good to consider research when you are
making a decision, but there are several reasons why you should think carefully
before letting these studies discourage you.
The first thing you might consider is that experts who
conduct this kind of research are typically very committed to the traditional
education process. Normally they are
people who’ve done well in school and school has worked out well for them. Most of the time they work very hard to be
objective when doing their analyses, but they are still human and will be somewhat biased in favor of school when interpreting their findings.
Such bias, however, is a relatively minor problem. A more important concern is that most studies
showing bad outcomes for people with GEDs are based on correlations. A correlation means that two things happen
together in a pattern. In the case of
GEDs there may be a pattern that people with a GED make less money than people
with high school diplomas. However, when
you look at the details in individual people’s lives you realize that there is
a lot going on that affects what kind of job a person has beyond what type of
diploma they received. It’s a classic
case where “correlation does not imply causation.” (Read more about this idea here and here.) Because people believe that a diploma is
better than a GED, they generally only choose to pursue a GED if they have struggles
that make finishing high school very difficult.
Those same struggles have a tendency to affect work life as well as
school.
Another aspect of research on GEDs is that
they usually drop anyone from the analysis who goes
to college. If you get a GED and then go to college, the problems discovered by these kinds of studies won’t apply to you.
One final concern to be aware of with research on GED
outcomes is the age of the data used. In
order to do this kind of study effectively the researchers need information
that tracks a large number of people over the course of at least several
years. Collecting data like this is
expensive and takes a long time.
Consequently, it is not done very often and any analysis may be done
using information that is too old to say very much about what the experiences
and expectations of current high school students will be.
The bottom line is, if you are considering leaving high
school early and getting a GED, you may need to resist the intimidation of a
culture that insists graduation is necessary.
Instead, you should take a rational look at your own goals and
circumstances to make a correct choice for your life.
