The WDSG is creating opportunities for high school dropouts to meet the same academic standards as students in traditional high schools. High school dropout rates exceed 50 percent in many urban school systems and almost one-third of young people nationally do not graduate from high school in four years. In response, NCEE created new, standards-based materials for use in alternative-education programs. The new curriculum, GED Access Point, is designed to provide students with an understanding of the content as well as helping students prepare for the General Educational Development (GED) exam. We are currently piloting the materials with the Mississippi Community College System, as well as training teachers on the use of these materials and on a variety of standards-based instructional strategies.