Adult education on public television : an historic overview of the 1986-87 GED-On-TV Pilot Project in East Central Indiana

The purpose of this study was to examine the GED-ON-TV project operated by Muncie Community Schools in 1986-87, and to look at the effect of the program on under-educated adults in east central Indiana. The study also offered recommendations for improving the operation of the GED-ON-TV project for use by other adult education providers throughout Indiana and the country.GED-ON-TV began to broadcast a series of 43 television in Muncie, Indiana, in November, 1986. The programs were designed by Kentucky Educational Television specifically for adult high school drop-outs who wished to prepare to take the General Educational Development (GED) Tests, and earn a high school equivalency credential. The series featured programs on reading, social studies, science, writing and math.The target population for the series was the 41,150 drop-outs in the six east central Indiana counties, who received the WIPB-TV signal, and who left high school somewhere between theprocedures used ninth and eleventh grade. The counties participating in the project were Blackford, Delaware, Henry, Jay, Madison and Randolph.A massive advertising campaign was launched to recruit students from throughout the area. The promotional campaign resulted in 994 inquiries to an "800" telephone number. Of these, 498 students enrolled in the program. At the end of the series, 157 adults took the GED Tests and 134 passed and received a high school equivalency certificate.The project surveyed all students who enrolled in the program and learned that over 58 per cent claimed that the learn-at-home series was the first contact they had had with any adult education program.This study explains in detail the operating by the project and offers 11 specific recommendations for improvement of the project that may be used by other adult education providers wanting to begin a GED-ON-TV program.Department of TelecommunicationsThesis (M.A.