Adults pursuing high school equivalency have until Oct. 1 to finish unpassed sections of an exam that will be phased out next month.
Since 2014, students seeking the equivalent of a high school diploma have taken the Test Assessing Secondary Completion, or TASC. The test replaced the General Education Development, or GED test. The TASC has five sections: math, reading, writing, social studies and science. More states, however, are switching to the High School Equivalency test, or HiSET, and Indiana will make the same move Oct. 1.
Students who have passed certain portions of the TASC will have to start over with the HiSET if they don’t pass the remaining sections of the TASC before the exam is retired, said Michelle Davis, adult education director at Central Nine Career Center.
“Just a handful of states use the TASC test,” Davis said. “More states use the HiSET, and the test format is pretty much the same.”
When Indiana switches to the HiSET, students will be less likely to face a situation that has them partially completing an exam and starting from scratch after moving to a state that uses a different exam, she said.
To assist students who have partially completed the TASC finish the exam before the end of the month, Central Nine is advertising opportunities to complete the exam at its adult education center. The next and final opportunity to do so will be at 4:45 p.m. Sept. 30, Davis said.
“We were just doing a social media campaign and advertising to make sure people are aware of the change,” Davis said. “We’ve done extensive data pulls since we found out about this in late April. We have tried to reach people who have taken the TASC test in the last two years if they didn’t pass a section. We tried to reach them through emails, phone numbers (and) letters to try and reach out to those people here before the TASC test goes away.”
Central Nine’s adult education office will also offer sessions for the HiSET exam. Those sessions will take place at 4:45 p.m. on both Sept. 27 and 28. The $115 exam fee will be waived for adult education students at Central Nine, she said.
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Central Nine Career Center’s adult education office will administer the TASC and HiSET exams on site:
TASC
- Sept. 30, 4:45 p.m.
HiSET
- Sept. 27, 4:45 p.m.
- Sept. 28, 4:45 p.m.
To register: call 317-888-4401, ext. 222
Source: Central Nine Career Center
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