By Jill Colvin
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MIDTOWN — New York City has been selected for a $3 million pilot program to develop a new teaching program to better prepare General Educational Development test as part of a national plan to overhaul the exam.
The GED is a high school equivalency test that was originally developed to help returning WWII veterans take advantage of the GI Bill. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein and U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said the test had long been outdated.
A passing score was equivalent to a 6th grade level in writing and an 8th grade level in reading and math, Bloomberg said. "We don’t think that that standard is adequate for today’s world."
Early this year, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn singled out the GED system as one of the causes of unemployment in the state.
The pilot program will take place at the city's District 79 schools, which offer adult and continuing education, and cater to more than 30,000 people trying to get their GEDs a year.
Following the announcement, reporters were invited to join Klein, Duncan and Bloomberg as they toured several classes at the complex — something reporters were not permitted to witness when Cathie Black toured her first school last week in the Bronx.
Bloomberg gave the students a pep-talk, telling Mel Shaw's American History class that those who've been through hardship often experience the most success in life.
"If you can get through a tough life you know that not everything's going to go right every day and you've still got to get up in the morning," he said.
He also advised students to be the first to arrive and the last to leave at the end of the day.
"I'm not smarter than anybody else, but I can out-work 'em," he said.
