PRINCETON, N.J., Jan. 29, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- To expand access to high school equivalency testing, education officials from the U.S. territories of American Samoa, Guam, Palau and Northern Marianas have approved the Educational Testing Service (ETS) HiSET® program as an affordable alternative to the GED® test.
"We seek to provide everyone in our community with workforce development options, and being able to offer the HiSET high school equivalency exam at a considerably lower price allows more people to take advantage of this option," said Mary A.Y. Okada, president and CEO of Guam Community College. "Once people earn their high school equivalency, we want to channel them into postsecondary programs that can give them even more earning power."
These U.S. territories, along with 12 states, are the latest to choose the HiSET program, which offers computer- and paper-delivered testing options in English and Spanish to serve the greatest number of candidates.
"We're excited that HiSET provides test services at a reasonable cost, which gives a better chance for students to succeed and achieve their high school equivalency diploma," said Jubilee Kuartei, an education specialist in Palau's Ministry of Education.
The announcement follows adoption of the HiSET exam by California, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Tennessee and Wyoming in recent months. That number is expected to grow as states, educators, policymakers and employers look for an alternative high school proficiency exam that includes elements critical to providing out-of-school youth and adults with proof of their readiness for higher education or the workplace.
"We work hard to give options to our students, and the fact that it is paper based makes it even more attractive to those who are still not comfortable with tests that are computer based," said Lorraine C. Maui, state director adult basic education, Commonwealth of Northern Marianas Islands. "We are looking forward to launching HiSET in 2015."
Developed by ETS and Iowa Testing Programs (ITP), the HiSET exam covers the same content areas as the GED® test and is accepted in the same way by institutions of higher education as well as by commercial and government employers. However, the HiSET program's advantages include:
"ETS looks forward to working with educators in American Samoa, Guam, Palau and the Northern Marianas in providing adult learners with an affordable, accessible high school equivalency exam," said John Oswald, Vice President and General Manager, K–12 Student Assessment Programs, ETS. "Keeping test takers in mind, the HiSET exam is designed to be administered with existing resources and the program allows candidates to complete HiSET sections in groups or individually."
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 postsecondary education, and by 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
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