Educational Testing Service, the provider of the new ETS high school equivalency test program known as HiSET, has partnered with the Maine DOE and other states who administer HiSET to appoint a governing board to help set overall direction for the program.
The governing board will help establish standards for performance through a systematic and established review process. As of January 2014, the State began offering HiSET in replacement of the GED to adults without a high school diploma in an effort to better support the college and career readiness of all Mainers.
The new ETS Governing Board has a senior-level representative from each state administering HiSET. In April 2014, ETS conducted a HiSET standard setting which included educators from classrooms in 11th and 12th grade, adult education, and correctional facilities in Maine and across the country. The standard-setting panel provided a performance standard recommendation for each of the subject areas.
In June 2014, the Governing Board met and reviewed these recommendations along with information about the current standards and test-taker performance to date. As a result of this review, the Governing Board recommended to ETS an adjusted passing score, which ETS accepted and will implement by August 2014. While the passing scaled score will remain the same, the raw score on each test that maps to that scaled score will change. The adoption of a revised passing score is consistent with HiSET’s commitment to a phased approach to increased rigor over time.
For more information about the HiSET and adult education in Maine please visit www.maine.gov/doe/adult.