ETS Capabilities, Services and Products: An overview for the BE and TEA SIGs

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ETS Capabilities, Services and Products An
overview for the BE and TEA SIGs

• IATEFL Educational Testing Service, Europe
• Pre-Conference www.ets.org/etseurope
• April, 2005 Jenny Dalalakis, jdalalakis_at_ets-europ
  e.org

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Presentation overview

• introduction to ETS capabilities, services
  products
• mission, approach, research
• overview of global business English needs
• academic, corporate, government, personal
• quality control, policy
• assessment science developments
• technology, assessment design
• profiles in business English market and ETS
• higher education admissions, human resources,
  horeca

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Educational Testing Service
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Educational Testing Service

• ETS is the worlds largest private educational
  testing and measurement organisation and a leader
  in educational research.
• ETS is a non-profit company dedicated to serving
  the needs of individuals, educational
  institutions and agencies, and government bodies
  in 181 countries.
• ETS develops and annually administers more than
  24 million tests worldwide on behalf of clients
  in education, government and business.
• www.ets.org

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Why was ETS created?

• In 1947, the American Council on Education, the
  College Board, and the Carnegie Foundation
  created ETS as a non-government, non-profit
  organisation to
• Provide institutions and individuals with
  educational assessments
• Improve fairness and equity in the selection and
  placement process
• Improve the quality and efficiency of assessment
  through research and experimental development

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ETS mission statement in 1947

• Testing to promote education for all, regardless
  of social or economic circumstances.

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ETS mission statement today

• To help advance quality and equity in education
  by providing fair and valid assessments, research
  and related services.
• Our products and services measure knowledge and
  skills, promote learning and performance, and
  support education and professional development
  for all people worldwide.

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Quality and equity in education

• Commitment to integrity in all that we do
• Fairness and validity in all our tests
• Support for fair and equal access to educational
  and career opportunities for all, regardless of
  social or economic circumstances

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Educational Testing Service

• Locations
• Princeton
• London
• Utrecht
• Paris
• Berlin
• Warsaw
• Jordan
• Staff
• 2500 employees including more than 250 in
  Research Development

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Fair, reliable and valid assessments

• for those whose L1 is not English
• TOEFL ca 1 m
• TSE ca 50 000
• TWE ca 100,000 (excluding the TOEFL candidates)
• TOEIC 4 million

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Research

• More than 250 Research Development Division
  staff engage in research and analysis
• To support existing assessments
• To generate ideas for future assessment products
  and services.
• To contribute to the field of educational
  measurement and policy research more broadly

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ETS research programmes

• The Research Development Division carries out a
  wide range of research
• The division is organized into research centers
• Assessment Design and Scoring
• Assessment for Learning
• Data Analysis and Technology Research
• Education Policy and Research
• Global Assessment
• Large-Scale Assessment
• Measurement Models
• New Constructs
• Statistical Theory and Practice
• Statistical Analysis
• Validity Research

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Research is freely accessible

• www.ets.org/research

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EnglishLanguage research
you can download research pdf files
at www.ets.org/ell/research or you can request
to regularly receive research notes
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Global business English needs
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Academic domain

• international education programmes
  (English-taught)
• large-scale admissions assessments
  (undergraduate, graduate)
• field-specific assessments (management,
  accounting)
• quality control (security, research,
  accountability, transparency)
• professional development (degree accreditation,
  licensing)

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Academic domain

• Examples
• admissions assessments (TOEFL, TOEIC, TSE, SAT,
  GRE)
• quality control (auditing of programmes,
  publishing of research)
• professional development (Major Field Tests,
  Praxis, Pathwise)

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Corporate domain

• onsite testing, online testing (flexibility,
  accessibility)
• human resource management (hiring, promoting)
• mobility (international posts, international
  relations, transfers)
• progress monitoring (benchmarking, external or
  internal training)

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Corporate domain

• Examples
• onsite testing (TOEIC), online testing
  (Criterion, TAST)
• human resource management (licensing of trained
  consultants)
• progress monitoring (consultative testing)

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Government domain

• policy in assessment of foreign languages (CEF)
• policy in crediting competences (ECTS,
  output-defined)
• recognition of assessments (hiring, equivalency)
• national international projects (PISA)
• capacity building (National Assessment projects)

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Personal domain

• confidentiality (score reports sent only by
  candidate request)
• accountability (score validity, fairness,
  reliability)
• mobility (international recognition)
• accessibility (online registration, online
  testing, affordability)

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Assessment science
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Assessment science developments

• assessment technology
• assessment design

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ETS and assessment science

• state of the art technological developments
• creating items (item type, difficulty level)
• delivering tests (PBT, CBT, iBT)
• scoring tests (OSN, digital files, scorer
  training)
• test design statistical analysis
• evidence-centred design (TOEFL iBT)
• differences in item response (DIF)
• test candidate profile (L1, country, percentiles)

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Market profiles and ETS
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Educational institution needs

• international programmes
• major field trends
• business, engineering, travel services
• degree accreditation, programme comparison
• higher education admissions, exchange, placement
• non-native language proficiency
• analytical skills
• non-cognitive skills
• online recommendation letters
• instructors
• non-native language proficiency
• licensing
• language support
• for staff and students

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Educational institution needs and ETS

• international programmes
• major field trends
• online tests for Business studies
• allow students and universities to know how their
  studies rank
• higher education admissions, exchange, placement
• language tests TOEIC, TOEFL, TOEFL ITP, TSE,
  TAST
• language support
• for identifying proficiency levels of staff and
  students Criterion, LanguEdge, retired tests,
  online discussion lists, professional development
  workshops

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Corporate needs

• life-long learning in organizations
• human resources
• hiring, promotion
• language training assessment
• in-house, preferred partners
• capacity building
• licensing certification
• needs analysis

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Corporate needs and ETS

• life-long learning in organizations
• human resources
• reliable, fair, valid assessment scores
  (research)
• flexible online learning tools (Criterion, TAST)
• language training assessment
• compare effectiveness of training (in-house/
  external)
• capacity building cases
• corporate content, consultative assessment design
• assessment scoring platform application
  licensing

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Improving Service Value

• Helping you make evidence-based decisions
  (research based)
• Providing performance feedback on test taker
  score reports
• Competency descriptors
• Suggestions for improvement provided to support
  learning
• Accomodating special needs (physical, learning
  impairments)
• Enabling online registration, registration by
  phone or by post
• Facilitating online score reporting
• Scores viewable 15 business days after test
• For test takers, for institutions
• Print friendly format, with photo
• Sortable database to assist in matching scores
  with applications

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ListeningLearningLeading
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Working together to advance English Language
Learning

• Listening
• we are committed to improving English language
  teaching, learning and assessment
• your needs drive us to develop products and
  services that help build English and measure
  English communication skills

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Understanding your needs

• customer forum series
• surveying needs
• conferences, online information
• professional workshops
• auditing our products

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Working together to advance English Language
Learning

• Learning
• research guides us every step of the way
• we use our research knowledge to develop tools
  that help you prepare students fro success in
  school, at work, and in life

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Serving you

• new generation of products and services
• TOEFL iBT
• Criterion, TAST
• flexible accessibility
• online information
• test centers
• consultative services
• large-scale assessment
• onsite assessment
• capacity building

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Working together to advance English Language
Learning

• Leading
• our mission goes beyond testing
• we integrate professional development,
  informative assessment and dynamic learning tools
  to support educators and students

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Our competence

• global assessment standards
• consultative guidelines
• capacity building
• focus on improving education for all

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Discussion
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We want to keep you informed

• Visit us online
• score user guidelines score taker profiles per
  year
• http//www.ets.org/tse/learners/download.html
• other TOEFL research
• http//www.ets.org/ell/research/index.html
• http//www.ets.org/ell/cef.html