Adult Education and Post-secondary

(before)Development and Design of the NEDP

The National External Diploma Program (NEDP) grew out of a study designed to identify the reasons that the “over twenty-five” adult population in New York were not participating in existing adult high school completion programs. Results from that study led to the development of the NEDP, an adult applied-performance, competency-based assessment program awarding a high school diploma to skilled adults who have acquired many of their high school level abilities through their life experiences. As they complete the NEDP process, adults demonstrate their abilities in a series of simulations that parallel job and life situations. They are evaluated according to established performance criteria instead of by comparison with others.

A key feature that distinguishes this program from other high school completion programs is that it is an assessment program, not merely an instructional program.

Another key feature is that NEDP participants receive a traditional high school diploma — rather than an equivalency certificate — upon successful completion of program requirements.

This outstanding program consists of two phases: Diagnostics and Assessment.

The target population for NEDP is adults who have not recently attended school or had recent test-taking experience, but who have acquired high school level academic skills in ways other than through curriculum-based programs. NEDP also attracts adults who are anxious about taking tests. The average NEDP graduate is thirty-seven years old. This program allows adults who have successfully run households or held jobs to demonstrate their competence in the same manner they have been using those skills over the years — in context. NEDP attracts a different population from that currently served in other existing programs, owing largely to "user friendly" features that adults request such as:

• Flexibility of time and location
• Confidentiality, private sessions, ability to work at home
• Multi-method assessment (oral, written, performance)
• Credit for work and life experience
• Continuous feedback
• Opportunity to direct their own learning