By Karen Gutierrez
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Getting a GED instead of a diploma is about to become easier for high-school students in Kentucky.

And that has some critics worried that more young people will drop out.

"There's going to be tremendous pressure placed on schools to push kids into this thing," says Richard Innes, a researcher for the Bluegrass Institute, which is a statewide education watchdog group.

The GED, or General Educational Development certificate, is like an alternative diploma for high-school dropouts.

Currently in Kentucky, students who leave high school must wait a year before they can enroll in GED programs, which are run by adult education centers. They must seek out the programs on their own, which can be difficult.

"It was basically a fluke that I managed to find it," said Vicky Dixon, 41, an Erlanger resident studying for her GED at Boone County's Adult Education Center, 99 Center St. in Florence.

For teenagers, at least, the process is about to get easier under a new policy approved last week by the Kentucky Board of Education.

It authorized a second GED system to be run by school districts. High-school guidance counselors could refer students to the classes. If those students leave school and pass the GED exam by October of the following year, they would not be counted as dropouts in the statistics for their schools.

It's not yet clear how soon the new system will start or whether GED classes will be offered within every high school.

The change puts Kentucky in line with states that do not count such students as dropouts, supporters say. It's also a way of reaching out to teenagers for whom the system has failed, said Kentucky Education Secretary Virginia Fox.

"If you can pass the GED, we could at least give you a shot at a second chance," she said.

That was the thinking behind House Bill 178, which authorized the change in the dropout calculation. The bill, signed last week, cleared the way for the state Board of Education's action.

It's not as if the GED is a "wimpy little test" that students will see as an easy way out, Fox said.

The exam is designed to be hard enough that 36 percent of high-school seniors cannot pass it. The company that produces it, the GED Testing Service, gives it to 3,500 seniors a year to set the passage rate.

Critics argue, though, that high schools should be expecting more from all students, including those who can't pass the GED yet manage to earn a regular diploma.

The GED "is not a rigorous test," said Joseph Garcia of Achieve Inc., a national group promoting tougher standards for high schools.

The math portion, for instance, contains no questions covering algebra II or high-school geometry, Garcia said.

"It's a hard issue that (Kentucky) is trying to address," he said. "If a kid is bound and determined to drop out of high school, passing the GED is better than the alternative."

But, at the same time, the state runs the risk of ending up with more students earning GEDs than it had dropouts in the first place, he said.

The change in Kentucky's dropout calculation may encourage schools to shuttle low-performing students into the alternative programs, said Jim Waters, director of policy and communications for the Bluegrass Institute.

"We shouldn't be looking to lower our dropout rates in this way," he said. "We should be working to provide a quality education, so students can be confident that if they stay in school, it will be worth it."

E-mail kgutierrez@enquirer.com