Missouri Joins Growing List of States Choosing HiSET™ As Alternative for the GED® Test

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ETS's HiSET™ offers affordable, accessible option for high school equivalency

PRINCETON, N.J., Aug. 14, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Missouri has become the fourth state to announce that it will use the HiSET™ program for high school equivalency testing. Beginning in 2014, the state will begin using the HiSET program developed by nonprofit Educational Testing Service (ETS) and the University of Iowa's Iowa Testing Program (ITP).

The announcement follows Montana's, New Hampshire's, and Tennessee's adoption of the HiSET test during the last several months. Missouri joins an increasing number of states, educators, policymakers and employers looking for a high school proficiency exam alternative that includes elements that are critical to providing out-of-school youth and adults with proof of their readiness for higher education or the workplace. 

"Missouri is excited about the prospect of working with ETS and the HiSET test," said Tom Robbins, the High School Equivalency Coordinator. "We feel the pricing gives the most value to our citizens while also providing the needed rigor."

The HiSET test covers the same content areas as the current GED, and will be accepted by institutions in the same way, however, the HiSET program's advantages include:

• Affordable test fees to keep this valuable credential accessible for candidates, states and educational programs
• Up to two retests in the same calendar year, for no additional cost
• Flexibility with the use of existing test centers, test prep and curricula English and Spanish versions of the test
• Test design and validation by experts in assessment development for fair and reliable results

"ETS welcomes the opportunity to work with educators in Missouri to provide learners in their state with a high-quality high school equivalency exam that measures the test taker's readiness for higher education or the workplace," said John Oswald, Vice President and General Manager, K–12 Student Assessment Programs, ETS.

"The Phase 1 HiSET test, which will launch in January 2014 will be compatible with current instructional materials used for high school equivalency assessment," added Oswald. "It will measure the more rigorous college- and career-readiness standards that most states will use beginning in 2014–2015, such as the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in reading, writing, and mathematics as well as the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)."   

Phase 2 HiSET will align even more fully with the CCSS and NGSS once instructional programs for those standards are developed and instructional providers learn how to teach to the new standards. ETS and ITP will work with the states in designing the Phase 2 assessments.

For more information about the ETS HiSET program, please visit http://hiset.ets.org/.

About ETS
At ETS, we advance quality and equity in education for people worldwide by creating assessments based on rigorous research. ETS serves individuals, educational institutions and government agencies by providing customized solutions for teacher certification, English language learning, and elementary, secondary and post-secondary education, as well as conducting education research, analysis and policy studies. Founded as a nonprofit in 1947, ETS develops, administers and scores more than 50 million tests annually — including the TOEFL® and TOEIC® tests, the GRE® tests and The Praxis Series™ assessments — in more than 180 countries, at over 9,000 locations worldwide. www.ets.org

SOURCE Educational Testing Service