The changing demographic population of GED test-takers from the period of returning World War II veterans to today's younger, recent high school dropouts invites debate as to whether GED instruction should utilize methods of adult education. The growth trends in the U. S. from 1989 to 2001 indicate increasing numbers of 16- and 17-year-olds receiving GED credentials, both in actual numbers and in percentages of total test-takers. Historically, the GED has been considered a landmark in adult education, but current trends place that characterization in jeopardy. The GED appears to be evolving into an alternative form of adolescent education--thereby losing its identity as adult education--with the pedagogical consequences such an evolution implies. (Contains 2 tables.)