New high school equivalency diploma option now available in Mississippi

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) - High school dropouts may face challenges with job opportunities. But a new option in the state could open the door to other choices.

”In Mississippi, we have more than 330,000 people currently that are without a high school diploma,” described Mississippi Community College Board Interim Executive Director Kell Smith.

But some of the roadblocks to getting a high school equivalency diploma are being removed.

“People who may have struggled passing the full battery of either test can now combine scores to earn a high school equivalency,” added Smith.

That’s becoming available through something called TotalTranscript. Community College Board Interim Executive Director Kell Smith explains how it will work.

“Folks who pass say three of the four portions of the GED or four or the five portions of the HiSet, they can take the HiSet portion for what they did not pass for the GED, and then earn their high school equivalency,” noted Smith. “And vice versa.”

It’s a development that’s welcomed by the state’s office of workforce development, Accelerate Mississippi.

“You’re looking at 10% of the population is maybe lacking a diploma and positioned to benefit from this,” said Nathan Oakley, Deputy Director for K-12 and Innovation with Accelerate Mississippi. ”That’s pretty remarkable.”

Check out this stat from the Office of Adult Education at the Mississippi Community College Board. By 2022, 57% of Mississippi jobs will require some education or training past a high school equivalency diploma.

“Completion of that could be a confidence builder for them to say, alright, I’ve done this, I’ve knocked out that step,” said Oakley. “I’m ready to take that next step and explore what those other training opportunities look like.”

We checked on any time frame limitations and learned that if you took part in your GED tests before 2014, you would have to start over. If you’ve taken them since you could just work on the portions you haven’t passed before.

For additional information, please visit https://www.mccb.edu/offices/adult-education or contact 601-432-6518 or info@mccb.edu.

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