New York State implemented a more rigorous high school equivalency exam to replace the General Educational Development Test (GED) this past January. According to a recent article by DNAInfo New York, the roll out of the new test has been slow, leaving test centers unable to adequately prepare their students on the new, more content-based curriculum, which will gradually increase in difficulty until it is fully aligned to the Common Core by 2017. The new, high school equivalency exam tests knowledge of science and social studies, areas not previously tested on the GED.
Critics of the new exam point to the fact that the New York Board of Regents has delayed pegging high school graduation requirements to the Common Core until 2022. This is five years after the high school equivalency test. This means that for at least this five year period, adults seeking a GED certificate will be held to a higher standard than high school students.