The small room at the back of the Harlem Center for Education looks like a typical high school classroom. The backbenchers giggle, the instructor frowns and asks, “Are you over there text messaging?” When she mentions next week’s test, a collective groan arises.

But the students here are all unemployed adults who dropped out of high school, and are taking a class through the Educational Opportunity Center, a federally funded program to help adults without high school diplomas get the equivalency certificates necessary to enter college and land jobs.

They’re taking the General Education Development (GED) exam, a rigorous seven-hour test of reading, writing, and math skills.  It’s equivalent to a high school diploma, though “the GED is much harder,” says David Perez, director of the Harlem Center for Education, which has prepared students for the GED since 2002. These students still have seven weeks till the exam, according to the countdown written on the whiteboard at the front of the classroom. Considering the obstacles GED takers uptown face, these students are going to have to make the most of this time.

People without a high school diploma are less likely to find jobs, a recent study by the Community Service Society shows, and when they do, they often work fewer hours for lower pay.

The study documents how the city suffers too.

Undereducated and unemployed adults place a great burden on public coffers; over their lifetimes, they cost the city $135,000 more than they pay in taxes, for expenses from incarceration to shelters. Those who complete high school or pass the GED contribute over $190,000 more, on average, to the city treasury.

One way out of poverty is to study for the GED exam which offers a faster track towards a job. “It’s code for people.  The GED is a code used to explain that I need to return to education to improve myself,” says Bruce Carmel, deputy executive director at Turning Point in Brooklyn, which provides adult education services.

But local GED test-takers may have more to reckon with than those elsewhere.

New York State has very low GED pass rates; with only 60 percent passing, the state ranks 48th in the country. New York City does even worse, with only 47.5 percent passing. Despite the fact that 1.1 million city residents are eligible for the GED, only 28,000 took the test in 2007, just under 3 percent of the eligible population, according to the American Council on Education.

The CSS study indicated even worse results for uptown Manhattan, where 30 to 40 percent of working-age adults lack a high school diploma or its equivalent, a higher proportion than any city neighborhood except the South Bronx. GED pass rates here are low, and lack of information about the test and a badly functioning school system are to blame, Perez says.

The GED was not the Harlem Center for Education’s primary focus when it opened, Perez says.  The center started offering the GED only seven years ago. “But we need it because this is East Harlem,” he says. “Students come in with a lack of skills and a lot of it is foundational – they just don’t know how to read and write.”  So GED programs uptown have more work to do than those elsewhere, Perez says, because they have to start with the basics.

Maritza Ptsos, the program director at HANAC, a state-funded GED testing center that’s free for welfare recipients, agrees. “Many of them barely have the skills to start studying for the GED, forget passing it,” she says.

The problems are also personal. “There is so much baggage, and the big problem is a lack of self esteem,” Ptsos finds. “One year ago we had a student who was involved in a gang, in prostitution, when she joined our program. How can anyone be expected to study under such circumstances?”

Often, personal problems lead to high levels of absenteeism and attrition. At the Harlem Center for Education, the attrition rate is almost 70 percent, Perez says. To combat this, the Center and other test programs uptown like HANAC offer students counseling for their personal problems.

“Most of our students are from the Bronx and upper Manhattan,” says Glykeria Manis, a counselor at HANAC. “Many live in shelters. And when they go home at night, are they going to be concerned about feeding themselves and their kids, or about doing their math homework?”

However, the problems also lie within the system.  Reduced funding has led to a lack of seats at testing sites like SUNY. “GED sites are overwhelmed,” says Perez. “Sometimes people just don’t get to take the test, even if they’ve prepared for it.”

Manis agrees that funding cuts have made it much harder for her students. Since HANAC lost all its November and December funding, it is offering fewer testing dates. “What we need is a change in policy perspective,” she says.

Ever since welfare reforms during the Clinton administration, students at centers like HANAC must work at jobs three days a week and come to class only two days. In order to take the GED for free, they have to work 35 hours a week. “They complain that if we want them to get the GED, then how come we expect them to work more than they study?” Manis says.

The study shows that the State Education Department allocates $3.9 million per year for GED examinations — not enough to cover even administration costs, according to Jacque Cook, author of the recently published education book, “Our Chance for Change.” Providing information to test-takers about how the GED is structured, and why it is useful, is the first step towards achieving better results for students, she argues, but the state offers little help.  According to the Community Service Society study the city’s Department of Education spends about $1000 per GED student taking the test in New York  — definitely not enough, Perez agrees.

Information seems another key factor in explaining abysmal test scores. “There is no one place where students can get all the information they need, and the state needs to provide one,” says Ptsos, who fields hundreds of questions from prospective students every day. “People put in three different applications in three different sites, and then there are seats left vacant, and people still can’t get a seat.” Her message is clear: the state needs to create a comprehensive information system to clear up such confusion.

Moreover, the study reveals a distinct lack of standardization in instruction. Some GED teachers work for the city’s education department, which generally pays them better, while others work for private testing centers. There are no standards for what qualifies them to become GED instructors; usually, a bachelor’s degree in any subject is sufficient.

“I think they need to be certified teachers and expert in a specific subject matter,” says Perez. At his center, the instructor, wizened and friendly, has a master’s degree and a decade of teaching experience under her belt. “There is no set criteria that is disseminated by the state or the city on what these programs need to cover,” Perez adds. Does his staff just take a shot in the dark, then? “We try our best, we look at preparation materials, but this could all be so much easier.”

His center tries to teach students more than just how to pass the GED. “We are trying to build a framework, to encourage good habits.” The wall of the classroom is covered with motivational quotes. “You want to pass the GED or not?!” says one poster. “If you don’t have time to study, then you don’t have time to pass,” says another.

Though the GED provides a route out of unemployment and towards a career for those without a high school education, Perez thinks that in the long term, that’s not enough. Five years down the line, he said, a non-GED holder’s income catches up. “If the GED holder does not move forward and get at least a year of post graduate education, then the non-GED holder will gain job experience, and it will all be same,” he says. “What we need is to foster a sense of momentum.”

Daniel Rodriguez, who structures the program at Perez’s center, agrees. “I keep trying to tell the students that this is just the beginning. I start them off and get them to pass, and then I pass them along to Marlene, who gets them into college.”

Marlene Flax works with the college portion of the center’s comprehensive program. “We get them into good colleges, anywhere that they want to go, but mostly within the CUNY system. The GED is just a starting point,” she explains. “We get them financial aid, and we do all this within the community, by putting up flyers and banners.”

New York’s poor performance has a lot to do with its government’s attitude, according to Perez. “This city does a good job of absorbing these people, under lots of money poured into welfare programs,” he says. He notices better results in other states like Oregon and Michigan, whose GED programs coexist with courses for college credits. Students there can study for the GED and take college level classes at the same time, making them better equipped to handle the job market. In New York, no such system exists. “[Government authorities] don’t feel the need to develop the homegrown workforce like others do. They don’t care about these people,” Perez says.

“Where are these people going? If this was anywhere else, we’d have outrage on the streets. Here, it’s all quiet.”