Educational Testing Service
Encyclopedia
Educational Testing Service (ETS), founded in 1947, is the world's largest private nonprofit educational testing and assessment organization. It is presently headquartered near Princeton, New Jersey
.
ETS develops various standardized test
s primarily in the United States
for K–12 and higher education
, and it also administers international tests including the TOEFL
(Test of English as a Foreign Language), TOEIC
(Test of English for International Communication), GRE
(Graduate Record Examinations) General and Subject Tests, and The Praxis test
Series — in more than 180 countries, and at over 9,000 locations worldwide. Many of the assessments it develops are associated with entry to US tertiary
(undergraduate) and quaternary education (graduate) institutions, but it also develops K–12 statewide assessments used for accountability testing in many states, including California, Texas, Tennessee and Virginia. In total, ETS annually administers 20 million exams in the U.S. and in 180 other countries.
created in 1947 by three other nonprofit educational institutions: the American Council on Education
(ACE), The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
, and The College Entrance Examination Board
. ETS was formed in 1947 to take over the testing activities of its founders (whose organizations were not well suited to running operational assessment programs), and to pursue research intended to advance educational measurement and education. Among other things, ACE gave to the new organization the Cooperative Test Service and the National Teachers Examination; Carnegie gave the GRE; and the College Board turned over to ETS the operation (but not ownership) of the SAT.
and education
but also such related areas as statistics
, educational evaluation
, and psychology, particularly cognitive
, developmental
, personality
, and social psychology
. This broad-based research program attracted many individuals who distinguished themselves in their fields, often while at ETS but also in subsequent professorial positions. Among the more influential scientists have been Harold Gulliksen (whose book, "Theory of Mental Tests," helped codify classical test theory)
; Frederic Lord
(Item Response Theory
); Samuel Messick
, (modern validity theory
); Robert Linn
(currently known for testing and educational policy); Norman Frederiksen
(performance assessment); Ledyard Tucker
(test analysis, including inventing the "Angoff Method" of standard setting
); Donald Rubin
(missing data
and causal modeling from observational data
); Karl Joreskog (structural equation modeling
and confirmatory factor analysis
); Paul Holland (differential item functioning
, test equating, causal modeling); John Carroll
(language testing and cognitive psychology); Michael Lewis
(infant cognitive, social, and emotional development); Irving Sigel (children's cognitive development); Herman Witkin
(cognitive and learning styles); K. Patricia Cross
(adult education); Samuel Ball
(an evaluation researcher who documented the positive educational effects of Sesame Street
); and David Rosenhan
(known for the Rosenhan experiment
, which challenged the validity of psychiatric diagnosis).
Members of the ETS staff have been among the presidents of the National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME); the Psychometric Society; the Measurement and Evaluation Division of the American Educational Research Association
(AERA); the Evaluation, Measurement and Statistics Division of the American Psychological Association
(APA); the APA Developmental Psychology Division; and the Jean Piaget Society. They have been among the executive editors of the Journal of Educational Measurement, Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics
, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, Journal of Educational Psychology, Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, and Discourse Processes. Major citations have included the APA Distinguished Contributions to Knowledge Award (Norman Frederiksen, 1984), the APA Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award (Frederic Lord, 1988); the AERA E.F. Lindquist Award (William Turnbull, 1981; Frederic Lord, 1988; Samuel Messick, 1994; Paul Holland, 2000; Wendy Yen, 2008); the NCME Career Contributions to Educational Measurement Award (Frederic Lord, 1990; Paul Holland, 2004; Neil Dorans, 2010); and the Jean Piaget Society's Lifetime Achievement Award (Irving Sigel, 2002); among many other awards.
The high caliber of scientific staff allowed ETS to produce both new knowledge and methodology, especially in measurement and statistics, much of which has been taken up by assessment organizations around the world. Among the key scientific contributions were:
in Lawrence Township
, Mercer County
, New Jersey
; processing, shipping, customer service and test security is in nearby Ewing. ETS also has a major office in San Antonio, TX, which houses its K–12 Assessment Programs division, and smaller offices in Philadelphia, PA, Washington, DC, Hato Rey, PR, and Concord, Sacramento, and Monterey, CA. Overseas office locations, all of which are associated with for-profit subsidiaries that are wholly owned by ETS, include Amsterdam (ETS Global BV headquarters), London (ETS Global BV), Seoul (ETS Global BV), Paris (ETS Global BV), Amman (ETS Global BV), Warsaw (ETS Global BV), Beijing (ETS China), and Kingston, Ontario (ETS Canada). Not including its for-profit subsidiaries, ETS employs about 2,700 individuals, including 240 with doctorates and an additional 350 others with "higher degrees."
To help support its nonprofit educational mission, ETS, like many other nonprofits, conducts business activities that are unrelated to that mission (e.g., employment testing). Under US tax law, these activities may be conducted (within limits) by the nonprofit itself, or by for-profit subsidiaries. Most of the "off-mission" work conducted by ETS is carried out by such wholly owned, for-profit subsidiaries as Prometric
, which delivers tests for hundreds of third-party clients, ETS Global BV, which contains much of the international operations of the company, ETS China, and ETS Canada.
About 25% of the work carried out by ETS is contracted by the College Board
, a private, nonprofit membership association of universities, colleges, school districts, and secondary schools. The most popular of the College Board's tests is the SAT
, taken by more than 3 million students annually. ETS also develops and administers The College Board's Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test(PSAT/NMSQT
) and the Advanced Placement program, which is widely used in US high schools for advanced course credit.
Since 1983, ETS has conducted the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), known as the "Nation's Report Card," under contract to the US National Center for Education Statistics
. NAEP is the only nationally representative and continuing assessment of what US students know and can do. ETS is currently responsible for coordination among the nine NAEP Alliance contractors, for item development, and for design, data analysis, and reporting.
In addition to the contract work that ETS undertakes for nonprofit and government entities like the College Board, the National Center for Education Statistics, and state education departments, the organization offers its own tests. These tests include the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) (for graduate and professional school admissions), the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) (for post-secondary admissions), the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) (for use by business and industry), and the Praxis Series (for teacher licensure and certification).
In England and Wales ETS Europe
, a unit of the ETS Global for-profit subsidiary, was contracted to mark and process the National Curriculum assessment
s on behalf of the government. ETS Global took over this role in 2008 from Edexcel
, a subsidiary of Pearson
, which had encountered significant and repeated problems in carrying out the marking and processing contract. As was the case for Edexcel, The first year of ETS Global's operation was struck by a number of problems, including the late arrival of scripts to examiners, a database of student entries being unavailable, and countrywide reports of problems with the marking of the papers. The opposition Conservative party criticized the awarding of the contracts to ETS, and produced a dossier listing previous problems with ETS's service. The ETS contract with the QCA
was terminated in August 2008, with an agreement to pay back £19.5m and cancel invoices worth £4.6m. Subsequently, the contract for National Curriculum assessment marking and processing was again awarded to Edexcel. Like the two prior contracts, the Edexcel contract has encountered significant quality problems and the tests themselves, the focus of longstanding controversy in the English education community and among the public, have been subjected to a massive boycott by schools.
In 2009, ETS released the My Credentials Vault Service with Interfolio, Inc to "simplify the entire letter of recommendation process".
Due to its legal status as a non-profit organization, ETS is exempt from paying federal corporate income tax on many, but not all, of its operations. Furthermore, it does not need to report financial information to the Securities and Exchange Commission, though it does annually report detailed financial information to the IRS on Form 990, which is publicly available.
In response to growing criticism of its monopolistic power, New York state passed the Educational Testing Act, a disclosure law which required ETS to make available certain test questions and graded answer sheets to students.
Problems administering England's national tests in 2008 by ETS Europe were the subject of thousands of complaints recorded by the Times Educational Supplement
. Their operations were also described as a "shambles" in the UK Parliament
, where a financial penalty was called for. Complaints included papers not being marked properly, or not being marked at all and papers being sent to the wrong schools or lost completely. It has even been suggested that the quality of service is so poor that the Department for Children, Schools and Families
(formerly the Department for Education and Skills) might not be able to publish the 2008 league tables of school performance. However, the contract was ended by "mutual consent". The UK government asked Lord Sutherland to conduct an inquiry into the failure of the 2008 tests. The report included in its main findings:
• primary responsibility for this summer’s delivery failure rests with ETS Global BV, which won the public contract to deliver the tests;
• ETS’s capacity to deliver the contract proved to be insufficient. A lack of comprehensive planning and testing by ETS of its systems and processes was a key factor in the delivery failure;
In 1983, students of James A. Garfield High School
in East Los Angeles, California
, achieved unexpectedly high exam results on the ETS Advanced Placement Exam. ETS implied the that the students may have cheated to obtain such results based on common mistakes across different exams. The students were required to prove their abilities and innocence by taking a second exam.
Americans for Educational Testing Reform (AETR) claims that ETS is violating its non-profit status through excessive profits, executive compensation, and governing board member pay (which the IRS specifically advises against). AETR further claims that ETS is acting unethically by selling test preparation materials, directly lobbying legislators and government officials, and refusing to acknowledge test-taker rights. It also criticises ETS for forcing GRE test-takers to participate in research experiments during the actual exam.
Princeton, New Jersey
Princeton is a community located in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. It is best known as the location of Princeton University, which has been sited in the community since 1756...
.
ETS develops various standardized test
Standardized test
A standardized test is a test that is administered and scored in a consistent, or "standard", manner. Standardized tests are designed in such a way that the questions, conditions for administering, scoring procedures, and interpretations are consistent and are administered and scored in a...
s primarily in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
for K–12 and higher education
Higher education
Higher, post-secondary, tertiary, or third level education refers to the stage of learning that occurs at universities, academies, colleges, seminaries, and institutes of technology...
, and it also administers international tests including the TOEFL
TOEFL
The Test of English as a Foreign Language, or TOEFL , evaluates the ability of an individual to use and understand English in an academic setting....
(Test of English as a Foreign Language), TOEIC
TOEIC
The Test of English for International Communication measures the ability of non-native English-speaking examinees to use English in everyday workplace activities.-Overview:...
(Test of English for International Communication), GRE
Graduate Record Examination
The Graduate Record Examinations is a standardized test that is an admissions requirement for many graduate schools in the United States, in other English-speaking countries and for English-taught graduate and business programs world-wide...
(Graduate Record Examinations) General and Subject Tests, and The Praxis test
Praxis test
A Praxis test is one of a series of American teacher certification exams written and administered by the Educational Testing Service. Various Praxis tests are usually required before, during, and after teacher training courses in the U.S....
Series — in more than 180 countries, and at over 9,000 locations worldwide. Many of the assessments it develops are associated with entry to US tertiary
Tertiary education
Tertiary education, also referred to as third stage, third level, and post-secondary education, is the educational level following the completion of a school providing a secondary education, such as a high school, secondary school, university-preparatory school...
(undergraduate) and quaternary education (graduate) institutions, but it also develops K–12 statewide assessments used for accountability testing in many states, including California, Texas, Tennessee and Virginia. In total, ETS annually administers 20 million exams in the U.S. and in 180 other countries.
History
ETS is a U.S.-registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organizationNon-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
created in 1947 by three other nonprofit educational institutions: the American Council on Education
American Council on Education
The American Council on Education is a United States organization, established in 1918, comprising over 1,800 accredited, degree-granting colleges and universities and higher education-related associations, organizations, and corporations....
(ACE), The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
Founded by Andrew Carnegie in 1905 and chartered in 1906 by an act of the United States Congress, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching is an independent policy and research center, whose primary activities of research and writing have resulted in published reports on every level...
, and The College Entrance Examination Board
College Board
The College Board is a membership association in the United States that was formed in 1900 as the College Entrance Examination Board . It is composed of more than 5,900 schools, colleges, universities and other educational organizations. It sells standardized tests used by academically oriented...
. ETS was formed in 1947 to take over the testing activities of its founders (whose organizations were not well suited to running operational assessment programs), and to pursue research intended to advance educational measurement and education. Among other things, ACE gave to the new organization the Cooperative Test Service and the National Teachers Examination; Carnegie gave the GRE; and the College Board turned over to ETS the operation (but not ownership) of the SAT.
Scientific contributions
In keeping with the purposes for which it was established, ETS developed a program of research that covered not only measurementPsychometrics
Psychometrics is the field of study concerned with the theory and technique of psychological measurement, which includes the measurement of knowledge, abilities, attitudes, personality traits, and educational measurement...
and education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
but also such related areas as statistics
Statistics
Statistics is the study of the collection, organization, analysis, and interpretation of data. It deals with all aspects of this, including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys and experiments....
, educational evaluation
Educational evaluation
Educational evaluation is the evaluation process of characterizing and appraising some aspect/s of an educational process.Q. 3 Discuss the role of standards and criteria in educational evaluation...
, and psychology, particularly cognitive
Cognitive psychology
Cognitive psychology is a subdiscipline of psychology exploring internal mental processes.It is the study of how people perceive, remember, think, speak, and solve problems.Cognitive psychology differs from previous psychological approaches in two key ways....
, developmental
Developmental psychology
Developmental psychology, also known as human development, is the scientific study of systematic psychological changes, emotional changes, and perception changes that occur in human beings over the course of their life span. Originally concerned with infants and children, the field has expanded to...
, personality
Personality psychology
Personality psychology is a branch of psychology that studies personality and individual differences. Its areas of focus include:* Constructing a coherent picture of the individual and his or her major psychological processes...
, and social psychology
Social psychology
Social psychology is the scientific study of how people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others. By this definition, scientific refers to the empirical method of investigation. The terms thoughts, feelings, and behaviors include all...
. This broad-based research program attracted many individuals who distinguished themselves in their fields, often while at ETS but also in subsequent professorial positions. Among the more influential scientists have been Harold Gulliksen (whose book, "Theory of Mental Tests," helped codify classical test theory)
Classical test theory
Classical test theory is a body of related psychometric theory that predict outcomes of psychological testing such as the difficulty of items or the ability of test-takers. Generally speaking, the aim of classical test theory is to understand and improve the reliability of psychological...
; Frederic Lord
Frederic M. Lord
Frederic M. Lord was a psychometrician for Educational Testing Service. He was the source of much of the seminal research on item response theory, including two important books: Statistical Theories of Mental Test Scores , and Applications of Item Response Theory to Practical...
(Item Response Theory
Item response theory
In psychometrics, item response theory also known as latent trait theory, strong true score theory, or modern mental test theory, is a paradigm for the design, analysis, and scoring of tests, questionnaires, and similar instruments measuring abilities, attitudes, or other variables. It is based...
); Samuel Messick
Samuel Messick
Samuel J. Messick III was an American psychologist professor whose work at the Educational Testing Service examined construct validity....
, (modern validity theory
Test validity
Test validity concerns the test and assessment procedures used in psychological and educational testing, and the extent to which these measure what they purport to measure...
); Robert Linn
Robert L. Linn
Robert L. Linn is an educational psychologist who has made notable contributions to the understanding of educational assessments. He has studied technical and policy issues relating to the application of test data, and the effects of high-stakes testing on teaching and learning...
(currently known for testing and educational policy); Norman Frederiksen
Norman O. Frederiksen
Norman “Fritz” Frederiksen was an American research psychologist and leading proponent of performance assessment, an approach to educational and occupational testing that focused on the use of tasks similar to the ones individuals actually encounter in real classroom and work environments...
(performance assessment); Ledyard Tucker
Tucker decomposition
In mathematics, Tucker decomposition decomposes a tensor into a set of matrices and one small core tensor. It is named after Ledyard R. Tuckeralthough it goes back to Hitchcock in 1927....
(test analysis, including inventing the "Angoff Method" of standard setting
Standard-setting study
A standard-setting study is an official research study conducted by an organization that sponsors tests to determine a cutscore for the test. To be legally defensible in the USA and meet the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing, a cutscore cannot be arbitrarily determined, it must...
); Donald Rubin
Donald Rubin
Donald Bruce Rubin is the John L. Loeb Professor of Statistics at Harvard University. He was hired by Harvard in 1984, and served as chair of the department from 1985-1994....
(missing data
Missing values
In statistics, missing data, or missing values, occur when no data value is stored for the variable in the current observation. Missing data are a common occurrence and can have a significant effect on the conclusions that can be drawn from the data....
and causal modeling from observational data
Rubin Causal Model
The Rubin Causal Model is an approach to the statistical analysis of cause and effect based on the framework of potential outcomes. RCM is named after Donald Rubin, Professor of Statistics at Harvard University...
); Karl Joreskog (structural equation modeling
Structural equation modeling
Structural equation modeling is a statistical technique for testing and estimating causal relations using a combination of statistical data and qualitative causal assumptions...
and confirmatory factor analysis
Confirmatory factor analysis
In statistics, confirmatory factor analysis is a special form of factor analysis. It is used to test whether measures of a construct are consistent with a researcher's understanding of the nature of that construct . In contrast to exploratory factor analysis, where all loadings are free to vary,...
); Paul Holland (differential item functioning
Differential item functioning
Differential item functioning occurs when people from different groups with the same latent trait have a different probability of giving a certain response on a questionnaire or test. DIF analysis provides an indication of unexpected behavior by item on a test...
, test equating, causal modeling); John Carroll
John Bissell Carroll
John Bissell Carroll was an American psychologist known for his contributions to psychology, educational linguistics and psychometrics.- Early years :...
(language testing and cognitive psychology); Michael Lewis
Michael Lewis (psychologist)
Michael Lewis is University Distinguished professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry, and Director of the Institute for the Study of Child Development at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School – University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey...
(infant cognitive, social, and emotional development); Irving Sigel (children's cognitive development); Herman Witkin
Herman Witkin
Herman A. Witkin was an American psychologist who specialized in the spheres of cognitive psychology and learning psychology. He was a pioneer of the theory of Cognitive styles and Learning styles...
(cognitive and learning styles); K. Patricia Cross
K. Patricia Cross
Kathryn Patricia Cross is a scholar of educational research. Through her career, she has explored adult education and higher learning, discussing methodology and pedagogy in terms of remediation and advancement in the university system....
(adult education); Samuel Ball
Samuel Ball (educator)
Samuel Ball BA MEd PhD, FAPA was an Australian researcher and academic in the field of education. He was employed by ETS in Princeton, New Jersey where he conducted research and carried out several major program evaluation studies, before returning to Australia where he held a number of positions...
(an evaluation researcher who documented the positive educational effects of Sesame Street
Sesame Street
Sesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...
); and David Rosenhan
David Rosenhan
David L. Rosenhan is an American psychologist. He is best known for the Rosenhan experiment.Rosenhan received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Yeshiva University...
(known for the Rosenhan experiment
Rosenhan experiment
The Rosenhan experiment was a famous experiment into the validity of psychiatric diagnosis conducted by psychologist David Rosenhan in 1973. It was published in the journal Science under the title "On being sane in insane places." The study is considered an important and influential criticism of...
, which challenged the validity of psychiatric diagnosis).
Members of the ETS staff have been among the presidents of the National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME); the Psychometric Society; the Measurement and Evaluation Division of the American Educational Research Association
American Educational Research Association
The American Educational Research Association, or AERA, was founded in 1916 as a professional organization representing educational researchers in the United States and around the world....
(AERA); the Evaluation, Measurement and Statistics Division of the American Psychological Association
American Psychological Association
The American Psychological Association is the largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the United States. It is the world's largest association of psychologists with around 154,000 members including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. The APA...
(APA); the APA Developmental Psychology Division; and the Jean Piaget Society. They have been among the executive editors of the Journal of Educational Measurement, Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics
Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics
Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics is a scientific journal sponsored jointly by the American Educational Research Association and the American Statistical Association. Since its founding in 1976, JEBS has published papers on statistical methods and applied statistics in the...
, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, Journal of Educational Psychology, Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, and Discourse Processes. Major citations have included the APA Distinguished Contributions to Knowledge Award (Norman Frederiksen, 1984), the APA Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award (Frederic Lord, 1988); the AERA E.F. Lindquist Award (William Turnbull, 1981; Frederic Lord, 1988; Samuel Messick, 1994; Paul Holland, 2000; Wendy Yen, 2008); the NCME Career Contributions to Educational Measurement Award (Frederic Lord, 1990; Paul Holland, 2004; Neil Dorans, 2010); and the Jean Piaget Society's Lifetime Achievement Award (Irving Sigel, 2002); among many other awards.
The high caliber of scientific staff allowed ETS to produce both new knowledge and methodology, especially in measurement and statistics, much of which has been taken up by assessment organizations around the world. Among the key scientific contributions were:
- co-invention of Item Response TheoryItem response theoryIn psychometrics, item response theory also known as latent trait theory, strong true score theory, or modern mental test theory, is a paradigm for the design, analysis, and scoring of tests, questionnaires, and similar instruments measuring abilities, attitudes, or other variables. It is based...
, an integrated framework for asking and answering a variety of practical problems related to the design and analysis of tests;
- creation of an approach and software for structural equation modelingStructural equation modelingStructural equation modeling is a statistical technique for testing and estimating causal relations using a combination of statistical data and qualitative causal assumptions...
and confirmatory factor analysisConfirmatory factor analysisIn statistics, confirmatory factor analysis is a special form of factor analysis. It is used to test whether measures of a construct are consistent with a researcher's understanding of the nature of that construct . In contrast to exploratory factor analysis, where all loadings are free to vary,...
(LISRELLISRELLISREL, an acronym for linear structural relations, is a statistical software package used in structural equation modeling. LISREL was developed in 1970s by Karl Jöreskog, then a scientist at Educational Testing Service in Princeton, NJ, and Dag Sörbom, later both professors of Uppsala University,...
), used throughout the social sciences to test theoretical relationships among variables;
- seminal contributions to modern validity theoryTest validityTest validity concerns the test and assessment procedures used in psychological and educational testing, and the extent to which these measure what they purport to measure...
, including the idea that validity was a unitary concept and that the evaluation of score meaning requires consideration of the consequences of test use as those consequences may imply functional problems with the test;
- development of widely used approaches to data analysis when there are missing dataMissing valuesIn statistics, missing data, or missing values, occur when no data value is stored for the variable in the current observation. Missing data are a common occurrence and can have a significant effect on the conclusions that can be drawn from the data....
;
- generation of approaches to causal modeling from observational dataRubin Causal ModelThe Rubin Causal Model is an approach to the statistical analysis of cause and effect based on the framework of potential outcomes. RCM is named after Donald Rubin, Professor of Statistics at Harvard University...
;
- invention of the In-Basket Test (used throughout the world to assess applicants for managerial jobs in a wide variety of industries);
- development of methods for detecting test unfairness, including invention of the Standardization approach to Differential Item FunctioningDifferential item functioningDifferential item functioning occurs when people from different groups with the same latent trait have a different probability of giving a certain response on a questionnaire or test. DIF analysis provides an indication of unexpected behavior by item on a test...
(DIF) and application of the Mantel-Haenszel method;
- creation of the holistic-scoring approach to writing assessment, a means of rapidly and reliably judging the quality of essay text, which allowed direct writing assessment to become a more affordable alternative to multiple-choice questions for large-scale testing programs;
Current status
ETS' international headquarters is located on an 376 acres (1.5 km²) campus outside of Princeton, New JerseyPrinceton, New Jersey
Princeton is a community located in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. It is best known as the location of Princeton University, which has been sited in the community since 1756...
in Lawrence Township
Lawrence Township, Mercer County, New Jersey
Area residents often refer to all of Lawrence Township as Lawrenceville. Lawrenceville is a census-designated place and unincorporated area located within Lawrence Township...
, Mercer County
Mercer County, New Jersey
As of the census of 2000, there were 350,761 people, 125,807 households, and 86,303 families residing in the county. The population density was 1,552 people per square mile . There were 133,280 housing units at an average density of 590 per square mile...
, New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
; processing, shipping, customer service and test security is in nearby Ewing. ETS also has a major office in San Antonio, TX, which houses its K–12 Assessment Programs division, and smaller offices in Philadelphia, PA, Washington, DC, Hato Rey, PR, and Concord, Sacramento, and Monterey, CA. Overseas office locations, all of which are associated with for-profit subsidiaries that are wholly owned by ETS, include Amsterdam (ETS Global BV headquarters), London (ETS Global BV), Seoul (ETS Global BV), Paris (ETS Global BV), Amman (ETS Global BV), Warsaw (ETS Global BV), Beijing (ETS China), and Kingston, Ontario (ETS Canada). Not including its for-profit subsidiaries, ETS employs about 2,700 individuals, including 240 with doctorates and an additional 350 others with "higher degrees."
To help support its nonprofit educational mission, ETS, like many other nonprofits, conducts business activities that are unrelated to that mission (e.g., employment testing). Under US tax law, these activities may be conducted (within limits) by the nonprofit itself, or by for-profit subsidiaries. Most of the "off-mission" work conducted by ETS is carried out by such wholly owned, for-profit subsidiaries as Prometric
Prometric
Prometric is a U.S. company in the test administration industry. Prometric operates a test center network composed of over 10,000 sites in 160 countries...
, which delivers tests for hundreds of third-party clients, ETS Global BV, which contains much of the international operations of the company, ETS China, and ETS Canada.
About 25% of the work carried out by ETS is contracted by the College Board
College Board
The College Board is a membership association in the United States that was formed in 1900 as the College Entrance Examination Board . It is composed of more than 5,900 schools, colleges, universities and other educational organizations. It sells standardized tests used by academically oriented...
, a private, nonprofit membership association of universities, colleges, school districts, and secondary schools. The most popular of the College Board's tests is the SAT
SAT
The SAT Reasoning Test is a standardized test for college admissions in the United States. The SAT is owned, published, and developed by the College Board, a nonprofit organization in the United States. It was formerly developed, published, and scored by the Educational Testing Service which still...
, taken by more than 3 million students annually. ETS also develops and administers The College Board's Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test(PSAT/NMSQT
PSAT/NMSQT
The Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test is a standardized test administered by the College Board and National Merit Scholarship Corporation in the United States.This test is offered by the College Board....
) and the Advanced Placement program, which is widely used in US high schools for advanced course credit.
Since 1983, ETS has conducted the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), known as the "Nation's Report Card," under contract to the US National Center for Education Statistics
National Center for Education Statistics
The National Center for Education Statistics is the part of the United States Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences that collects, analyzes, and publishes statistics on education and public school district finance information in the United States...
. NAEP is the only nationally representative and continuing assessment of what US students know and can do. ETS is currently responsible for coordination among the nine NAEP Alliance contractors, for item development, and for design, data analysis, and reporting.
In addition to the contract work that ETS undertakes for nonprofit and government entities like the College Board, the National Center for Education Statistics, and state education departments, the organization offers its own tests. These tests include the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) (for graduate and professional school admissions), the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) (for post-secondary admissions), the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) (for use by business and industry), and the Praxis Series (for teacher licensure and certification).
In England and Wales ETS Europe
ETS Europe
ETS Europe is the European arm of Educational Testing Service, an American company, involved in scholastic assessment in Europe.It is headquartered in Utrecht in the Netherlands...
, a unit of the ETS Global for-profit subsidiary, was contracted to mark and process the National Curriculum assessment
National Curriculum assessment
National Curriculum assessments are a series of educational assessments, colloquially known as Sats or SATs, used to assess the attainment of children attending maintained schools in England...
s on behalf of the government. ETS Global took over this role in 2008 from Edexcel
Edexcel
Edexcel, a UK company, is one of England, Wales and Northern Ireland's five main examination boards, and is wholly owned by the private-sector Pearson PLC, a UK-based media and publishing conglomerate. Its name is a portmanteau word derived from the words "educational" and "excellence"...
, a subsidiary of Pearson
Pearson PLC
Pearson plc is a global media and education company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is both the largest education company and the largest book publisher in the world, with consumer imprints including Penguin, Dorling Kindersley and Ladybird...
, which had encountered significant and repeated problems in carrying out the marking and processing contract. As was the case for Edexcel, The first year of ETS Global's operation was struck by a number of problems, including the late arrival of scripts to examiners, a database of student entries being unavailable, and countrywide reports of problems with the marking of the papers. The opposition Conservative party criticized the awarding of the contracts to ETS, and produced a dossier listing previous problems with ETS's service. The ETS contract with the QCA
Qualifications and Curriculum Authority
The Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency is an exempt charity, and an executive non-departmental public body of the Department for Children, Schools and Families...
was terminated in August 2008, with an agreement to pay back £19.5m and cancel invoices worth £4.6m. Subsequently, the contract for National Curriculum assessment marking and processing was again awarded to Edexcel. Like the two prior contracts, the Edexcel contract has encountered significant quality problems and the tests themselves, the focus of longstanding controversy in the English education community and among the public, have been subjected to a massive boycott by schools.
In 2009, ETS released the My Credentials Vault Service with Interfolio, Inc to "simplify the entire letter of recommendation process".
Criticism
ETS has been criticized for being a “highly competitive business operation that is as much multinational monopoly as nonprofit institution”.Due to its legal status as a non-profit organization, ETS is exempt from paying federal corporate income tax on many, but not all, of its operations. Furthermore, it does not need to report financial information to the Securities and Exchange Commission, though it does annually report detailed financial information to the IRS on Form 990, which is publicly available.
In response to growing criticism of its monopolistic power, New York state passed the Educational Testing Act, a disclosure law which required ETS to make available certain test questions and graded answer sheets to students.
Problems administering England's national tests in 2008 by ETS Europe were the subject of thousands of complaints recorded by the Times Educational Supplement
Times Educational Supplement
The Times Educational Supplement is a weekly UK publication aimed primarily at school teachers in the UK. It was first published in 1910 as a pull-out supplement in The Times newspaper. Such was its popularity that in 1914, the supplement became a separate publication selling for 1 penny.The TES...
. Their operations were also described as a "shambles" in the UK Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...
, where a financial penalty was called for. Complaints included papers not being marked properly, or not being marked at all and papers being sent to the wrong schools or lost completely. It has even been suggested that the quality of service is so poor that the Department for Children, Schools and Families
Department for Children, Schools and Families
The Department for Children, Schools and Families was a department of the UK government, between 2007 and 2010, responsible for issues affecting people in England up to the age of 19, including child protection and education...
(formerly the Department for Education and Skills) might not be able to publish the 2008 league tables of school performance. However, the contract was ended by "mutual consent". The UK government asked Lord Sutherland to conduct an inquiry into the failure of the 2008 tests. The report included in its main findings:
• primary responsibility for this summer’s delivery failure rests with ETS Global BV, which won the public contract to deliver the tests;
• ETS’s capacity to deliver the contract proved to be insufficient. A lack of comprehensive planning and testing by ETS of its systems and processes was a key factor in the delivery failure;
In 1983, students of James A. Garfield High School
Garfield High School (Los Angeles County, California)
James A. Garfield High School is a public, year-round high school founded in 1925 in East Los Angeles, an unincorporated section of Los Angeles County, California. The school was made famous by the film Stand and Deliver about a teacher named Jaime Escalante...
in East Los Angeles, California
East Los Angeles, California
East Los Angeles is an unincorporated area and census-designated place in Los Angeles County, California, United States...
, achieved unexpectedly high exam results on the ETS Advanced Placement Exam. ETS implied the that the students may have cheated to obtain such results based on common mistakes across different exams. The students were required to prove their abilities and innocence by taking a second exam.
Americans for Educational Testing Reform (AETR) claims that ETS is violating its non-profit status through excessive profits, executive compensation, and governing board member pay (which the IRS specifically advises against). AETR further claims that ETS is acting unethically by selling test preparation materials, directly lobbying legislators and government officials, and refusing to acknowledge test-taker rights. It also criticises ETS for forcing GRE test-takers to participate in research experiments during the actual exam.
Tests administered
- Graduate Record Examinations (GRE)
- SATSATThe SAT Reasoning Test is a standardized test for college admissions in the United States. The SAT is owned, published, and developed by the College Board, a nonprofit organization in the United States. It was formerly developed, published, and scored by the Educational Testing Service which still...
(formerly Scholastic Aptitude Test) - Advanced Placement
- Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying TestPSAT/NMSQTThe Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test is a standardized test administered by the College Board and National Merit Scholarship Corporation in the United States.This test is offered by the College Board....
(PSAT/NMSQT) - College Level Examination ProgramCollege Level Examination ProgramThe College Level Examination Program is a group of standardized tests that assess college-level knowledge in several subject areas. Many colleges grant credit to students who meet their minimum qualifying score. Qualifying scores vary by school but are typically 50...
(CLEP) - Test of English as a Foreign LanguageTOEFLThe Test of English as a Foreign Language, or TOEFL , evaluates the ability of an individual to use and understand English in an academic setting....
(TOEFL) - Test of English for International CommunicationsTOEICThe Test of English for International Communication measures the ability of non-native English-speaking examinees to use English in everyday workplace activities.-Overview:...
(TOEIC) - Test de français internationalTest de français internationalThe Test de français international is a language proficiency test for non-native speakers of French. It is administered by the Educational Testing Service ....
(TFI) - California High School Exit ExamCalifornia High School Exit ExamThe California High School Exit Exam is a requirement for high school graduation in the state of California, created by the California Department of Education to improve the academic performance of California high school students, and especially of high school graduates, in the areas of reading,...
(CAHSEE) - the Praxis testPraxis testA Praxis test is one of a series of American teacher certification exams written and administered by the Educational Testing Service. Various Praxis tests are usually required before, during, and after teacher training courses in the U.S....
(successor to the NTENTENTE may refer to:* Network termination equipment* Negative thermal expansion, a physicochemical process* Not-To-Exceed, a pollution emission standard* IATA code of Nantes Atlantique Airport* Nord-Trøndelag Elektrisitetsverk, a power company in Norway...
) - the National Assessment of Educational ProgressNational Assessment of Educational ProgressThe National Assessment of Educational Progress is the largest continuing and nationally representative assessment of what our nation’s students know and can do in core subjects. NAEP is a congressionally mandated project administered by the National Center for Education Statistics , within the ...
(NAEP) - the Examen de Admisión a Estudios de Posgrado (EXADEP)
Further reading
- Bickerstaffe, George, "Students Without IT Need Not Apply", Financial Times (London), October 26, 1998, p. 17.
- Brennan, Lisa, "ETS, Kaplan in Legal Skirmish over Test Security", New Jersey Law Journal, January 23, 1995, p. 3.
- Celis, William, III, "Computer Admissions Test Found to Be Ripe for Abuse" New York Times, December 16, 1994.
- Elson, John, "The Test That Everyone Fears", Time, November 12, 1990.
- Honan, William, "Computer Admissions Test to Be Given Less Often", New York Times, January 4, 1995.
- Kladko, Brian, "Computer Technology Passes Judgment on Students' Essays", Record (Bergen County, N.J.), July 9, 2001.
- Merritt, Jennifer, "Why the Folks at ETS Flunked the Course", Business Week, December 29, 2003, p. 48.
- Nairn, Allan, The Reign of ETS: The Corporation That Makes Up Minds, New York: Ralph Nader, 1980.
- Nissimov, Ron, "SAT Officials to Stop Flagging Disabled Students' Tests", Houston Chronicle, July 22, 2002.
- Nowlin, Sanford, "Standardized Test Giants Lock Horns in Court over Allegedly-Stolen Secrets", San Antonio Express-News, April 8, 2001.
- Owen, David, None of the Above: Behind the Myth of Scholastic Aptitude, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1985.
- Sidener, Jonathan, "Educational Testing Service of Princeton, N.J., Develops New Grading System", Arizona Republic, February 1, 1999.
- Tabor, Mary B.W., "Disabled to Get an Extra Chance for S.A.T.s", New York Times, April 1, 1994.
- "Testing Company Claims State's Bidding Process Is Unfair", Associated Press State & Local Wire, January 6, 2003.
- Vickers, Marcia, "Hate Exams? Here's a Chance to Profit from Them", New York Times, Business Section, October 5, 1997, p. 4
- Weinstein, David, "ETS to Create Standardized English Test for Chinese Government", Associated Press State & Local Wire, July 9, 2002.
- Williams, Dennis A., "Testers V. Cram Courses", Newsweek, August 12, 1985.
- Winerip, Michael, "No. 2 Pencil Fades as Graduate Exam Moves to Computer", New York Times, November 15, 1993.