Reinforcing disadvantage or increasing opportunity? The GED as an alternative route to postsecondary educational attainment

In the latter part of the twentieth century, the U.S. educational system witnessed major expansion, with increasing enrollment of individuals from all backgrounds at all levels of educational attainment. The introduction of the General Education Development (GED) certificate in 1942, expansion of the community college, and the growth in vocational training have opened up new secondary and postsecondary educational opportunities. Today, as educational pathways become more complex, with expanded opportunities for schooling being provided through alternate routes and entry points, researchers have remained interested in the question of increased opportunities for whom?; My study investigates whether individuals from different social origin and racial/ethnic backgrounds utilize the GED route to postsecondary attainment. I analyze data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88), which contains information on a nationally representative sample of 8th graders originally sampled in 1988 and followed over time in four subsequent waves of data collection. I investigate the effect of social background on postsecondary schooling for GED recipients in comparison to both high school dropouts and high school diploma holders. I use the existing distributions of dropouts, GED recipients and diploma holders to present expected rates of postsecondary participation for each respective route of high school exit across socioeconomic status. To address selection bias, I conduct a set of sensitivity analyses---using a propensity score blocking technique---to hypothesize and specify the mechanism that generates the selection of students into the three possible high school exit routes.; My study reveals that, when evaluating postsecondary entry, the GED functions within the existing system of stratification; it neither exacerbates it by advantaging individuals from higher socioeconomic status, nor reduces it by attenuating the effects of socioeconomic status on postsecondary entry. Inspecting expected rates of postsecondary participation as a result of choosing particular high school exit routes, I find that the GED clearly presents an alternative entryway for postsecondary schooling for some students, not those from the most disadvantaged backgrounds---who may have had the resources to get a GED but not to pursue postsecondary studies, but also not the most affluent students, who primarily obtain a diploma and rarely choose the GED route out of high school.