Hello

 

We are happy to send you the second issue of our ETS Europe corporate newsletter. We hope that you enjoyed the first issue (sent in June) and that you found it informative. If for some reason you missed reading it, you can still read it in our newsletter archives.

 

In this issue, you will find updates on what has been happening at ETS Europe, as well as an important and interesting article on the TOEFL ITP test - how to avoid misuse of this test.

 

For more information on ETS Europe, our assessments and related services, please visit www.etseurope.org.

At ETS, we are proud of the TOEFL (TEST OF ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE™) test as a fair, valid and reliable measure of a student’s language proficiency. In November 2005, we launched the new version of the TOEFL test – TOEFL iBT (Internet Based Testing). Until this new version is fully available worldwide, the test will continue to exist in one of three formats: as a Paper-Based Test (PBT), as a Computer-Based Test (CBT), and as an internet-Based Test (iBT). All three versions of the test measure academic English skills of non-native speakers and do so in a highly-secure environment (in certified ETS test centres) so that the test scores may be used externally (that is, beyond the test centre) for making high-stakes decisions such as admitting students to a graduate study programme.

 

The aim of this article is to highlight the differences between the formal, secure, high-stakes TOEFL tests (PBT, CBT and iBT versions) and the informal, low-security, low-stakes test known as the TOEFL ITP (Institutional Testing Programme).

 

What is the TOEFL ITP?

Retired TOEFL tests become part of the TOEFL ITP test. The TOEFL test is significantly different from the parent test on a number of dimensions that affect price and use: security and score confirmation, test structure, and test delivery. Let us consider each in turn.

 

Security and Score Confirmation:

The TOEFL ITP has been especially developed, as the name suggests, for institutions to use internally. As such, institutions can use it to measure language skills of students or staff in order to see where their academic English level is at, and, quite often, to place them in remedial language classes. TOEFL ITP users self-administer the test on-site and on dates of their choice. Since ETS is not responsible for the test-administration security, and ETS does not keep the test scores in a database, ETS cannot guarantee or vouch for the authenticity of the scores to third parties.

 

ETS safeguards the secure TOEFL test scores (PBT, CBT, and iBT) for test takers and shares them with institutions only at the written request of the test taker. The confidentiality of the student is thus protected. Score users such as university admissions offices receive secure TOEFL (PBT, CBT, or iBT) scores directly from ETS and can be assured of the authenticity of these. This way, ETS protects score users from fraud. TOEFL ITP scores are not kept by ETS at all and cannot be reported by ETS either to the test takers or to third parties. In fact, they remain with the institution that has used the test.

 

In addition to these security differences, there is another: TOEFL ITP exists in a finite set of test forms whereas the TOEFL PBT, CBT and iBT all exist in a continuously refreshed set of forms which are equated by ETS researchers in order to have unique sets of questions of equal validity. This means that if, in principle, the same person takes the TOEFL ITP repeatedly, he/she may see the same test form more than once. In contrast to this, with the TOEFL PBT, CBT, and iBT, no matter how often one takes the test, they will never see the same test form twice.

 

In terms of score use, these security-feature differences mean that the TOEFL ITP scores are not suitable for sharing with third parties (such as other institutions), not appropriate for high-stakes decisions when the candidate is likely to be frequently retested, and test scores cannot be authenticated by ETS. In terms of price, it means that the TOEFL ITPcan be less expensive than the secure, high-stakes versions of the test (PBT, CBT, and iBT).

 

Test structure:

Whereas the TOEFL high-stakes test measures all four language skills and uses integrated-skill questions, the TOEFL ITP measures two core skills: Listening and Reading, and there is a section specifically measuring structure and grammar. The test scores of TOEFL ITP are therefore lacking information on productive skills; this makes the test flexible to score, but also less comprehensive in what it measures compared to the high-stakes test. If score users wish to have information on productive skills, then the secure, high-stakes test is more appropriate.

 

Test delivery:

Whereas the TOEFL secure test exists currently in three formats (PBT, CBT, and iBT), the TOEFL ITP is currently solely a paper-based test. This also keeps the test cost more accessible for language schools on a modest budget. The higher security in delivering and scoring the high-stakes TOEFL test is inevitably reflected in the higher fee that test takers pay.

 

Clearly, there are significant differences between the TOEFL and the TOEFL ITP tests in their:

• Purpose
• Design
• Delivery and security
• Use of the Scores

At ETS, these distinctions are important, particularly when it comes to ensuring that we maintain the high standards, validity and credibility of our tests. So if you are unsure about which TOEFL test to recommend please contact your local TOEFL / ETS Europe representative.

 

And a final word of caution from Jenny Dalalakis (Government and Academic Relations, ETS EMEA and the resident language expert), "The TOEFL ITP is great for institutions such as Language Centres because they can assess their students’ capability both on entry and at the end of a course. However, TOEFL ITP score users need to be aware that the scores should be used primarily for internal purposes either to place students in the right class or to measure progress in language proficiency."

 

For more information on the TOEFL test, please visit our website.

ETS Europe announced today that around 4.5 million candidates from around the world sat for the TOEIC test in 2004-05. The TOEIC® (TEST OF ENGLISH FOR INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION™) test is recognised worldwide as a reliable, standard measurement of competency in professional English. The TOEIC test has been developed by ETS (Educational Testing Service), the company that is also the developer of the TOEFL® (TEST OF ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE™) test.

 

Japan and Korea continue to be the biggest markets for the TOEIC test, accounting together for more than 3.9 million of the test takers; however, the European market, which is relatively young, has also shown a good rate of growth, accounting for around 150,000 candidates last year. Predictably, the period from September to March showed the maximum number of tests taken, as candidates prepared to graduate or apply for new jobs in the market.

 

"The number of candidates taking the TOEIC test each year has been steadily increasing," points out Philippe Grosskost, Managing Director, ETS EMEA. "We hope that this figure will reach a landmark 5 million test takers in 2005-06!"

 

Within Europe, the TOEIC test is available through the ETS Europe offices in more than 15 European countries. The test is administered in ETS Europe test centres, in open test centres authorised by ETS Europe, or in private sessions organised by companies, language schools and academic institutions. ETS Europe also facilitates access to the TOEIC Bridge test (a test of professional English for language learners who are beginners, or at the intermediate level) and the Test de Français International (a business French proficiency test).

 

"As European academic structures strive to become more uniform, and people work increasingly beyond their borders in international environments, every company, institution and person is beginning to realise that we need to hone, and prove our English language competency," asserts Benoit Thao, Director, Sales and Marketing, ETS EMEA. "And of course, they are looking for a reliable certification that, by its international nature, will accord language competency the recognition it deserves anywhere in the world. These people are turning to the TOEIC test."

 

A valuable certification to have on the CV, the TOEIC test is used by

• More than 2000 medium-sized and large companies, and public services agencies in Europe as a recruitment and training tool
• Different European governments to recruit and promote civil servants
• Language schools as a placement and certification tool
• Business and technical schools as one of the graduating criteria

"Armed with English language skills and the certification to prove this, each European will soon be a global citizen!" concludes Thao.

ETS (Educational Testing Service), the world leader in academic and business assessment, has announced that management responsibility for the Middle East and Africa will be transitioned to the ETS Europe Division of ETS Global BV, ETS' wholly owned subsidiary.

 

The newly created entity, ETS EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) will be led by Philippe Grosskost who joined ETS Global BV in 2004. Grosskost will act as Managing Director, ETS EMEA and will be responsible for the overall management, sales, delivery and business development for EMEA.

 

"This merger represents a tremendous opportunity for ETS to further enhance its position and reputation in the EMEA markets by expanding our brand and product positioning," says Grosskost. "All of us are looking forward to the challenges and rewards that this effort will entail."

 

• The ETS Europe Division currently has branch offices in Belgium, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Poland, Spain, and the United Kingdom, and offers its products and services in 35 other European countries through a network of representatives.
• The regional head office of ETS Middle East is in Amman, Jordan, and ETS EMEA is looking to rapidly expand operations to other countries in the region.
• In Africa, ETS EMEA will concentrate on the countries of the North African belt – Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria. In 2007, they will evaluate opportunities in other African countries, including South Africa and Nigeria.

Grosskost’s objective for the new regions is to drastically accelerate growth. "The Middle East and Africa show high potential, and this, combined with the established quality of our products, leads me to believe that EMEA will grow rapidly and will succeed in expanding the ETS social mission successfully in yet another area of the world."

Sales, marketing, communication and legal operations for the whole of EMEA will be managed by one centralised team, working in combination with the regional offices. The advantages of this are apparent: uniform strategies, and the leveraging of synergies and complementary competencies across the organisation.

"Though we are one organisation now – EMEA – the different markets are equally important. Hence, we follow a ‘glocal’ approach, providing infrastructure and support at the divisional level, with emphasis on localising all operations in each country," claims Benoit Thao, Director, Sales and Marketing, EMEA. In keeping with this, the product portfolio offered in Middle East and Africa will be similar to that offered in Europe (the TOEIC, TOEFL and TFI tests, as well as all new assessments that will be offered in the near future); alongside, each region will also offer particular products adapted to its market. In addition, cross-functional teams from across ETS EMEA will work together to respond to government tenders across the regions.

With a comprehensive strategy in place to ensure the efficiency of operations, and an approach that combines pan-organisational strategies with local execution, ETS EMEA is all set to rapidly grow its existing markets and enter new ones.

ETS EMEA has launched a new "institutional" website - http://www.etseurope-pi.org/. The objective of the site is to support the business goals of ETS EMEA. As such, it aims to make accessible to the public, in-depth information targeted at policy makers, researchers, and professionals in the field of education. It presents the different solutions that we offer, detailing their broader scope and usage.

 

The website is managed by the Institutional Department, a division of ETS EMEA responsible for carrying out educational policy research and disseminating the findings through reports, seminars and web portals. The Institutional Department combines its in-house expertise with that of a network of experienced partners to meet the information needs of the present and the future educational world.

 

The Institutional Department has a strong record in successfully bidding for and implementing international projects for governmental and non-governmental organisations involved in educational reform, and academic and professional development. With experience in educational reform projects and a network of professional and research partners, the Institutional Department is well qualified to serve current and future educational policy needs.

(Transcript of speech made by Paul Ramsey, Senior Vice-President, Global Division, ETS)

 

 

Introduction to ETS

… It may be that some of you don’t know much about ETS as until fairly recently it was a US-based-only organization. ETS and its subsidiaries have offices and/or staff in 14 countries outside the US. (Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Jordan, Korea, Poland, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Singapore, Spain, Netherlands, United Kingdom). We will soon have offices in Japan and Latin America. ETS is a not-for-profit research organization that for more than 50 years has worked to help people pursue their dreams by providing them with assessments and products and services that accurately measure what they know and can do.

 

We try to help policymakers, educational authorities, parents, and teachers by providing and analyzing data so they can know what is and isn’t working with their students. We perform macro-level research related to accountability and standards, as well as micro-research on classroom practices and individual students.

ETS is becoming a global organization and is learning from and sharing its expertise with educational institutions, businesses, and governments around the world to provide data-driven educational solutions to the challenges facing educators worldwide.

 

In my work as senior vice president of the Global Division of ETS, I’ve had the opportunity to travel around the world to try to learn firsthand about the global educational landscape. I have the opportunity to meet with governmental and educational officials and practitioners world-wide, and I have noticed that in both developed and developing countries the questions among those who really care about students are the same: "How does what we are doing and/or proposing benefit our children?" "Is it efficacious?" "How will it ultimately contribute to the well-being of our children and thus our nation?"

 

Educational Reform

I’d like to spend a few moments sharing some thoughts with you on what is taking place in primary and secondary education in the United States, as I think there are some interesting parallels with the educational issues the United Kingdom is grappling with.

 

Over the past decade and a half, the United States has been actively and passionately engaged in an effort to reform its educational system. The real effort began with the vigorous push towards standards-based education. More recently a new dimension has been added to the standards-based model: an addition that entails monitoring students’ progress so that we know what is and isn’t working and can react accordingly. This so-called new dimension has been christened "test-based accountability," but, as I implied previously, this approach to monitoring learning is one ETS Research has fostered since its inception in 1947. What has made this approach seem new in the eyes of US educators is its codification in the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) federal legislation. This law applies to all 50 states and is designed to hold teachers, students, schools, and states accountable for student performance. In some ways this legislation is akin to the education component of your Every Child Matters (ECM) legislation, though, if I understand it correctly, ECM is intended to be much more comprehensive than the educational purview of NCLB. NCLB mandates that each state set learning standards, and then holds schools accountable for their students’ progress vis-à-vis these standards. To measure and track student academic progress, the law requires annual assessments.

 

In very general terms, the law requires that each of the 50 states adopt actionable plans for ensuring that all their students meet high academic standards. The federal government must approve these state plans and students’ academic progress is measured by their scores on standardized tests given annually for age groups 8-14 in reading and mathematics. In addition, science assessments must be developed and put into place by the 2007-08 school year, and each student must be tested at least 3 times during primary and secondary education in science.

 

Let me say a few words about some of the features of NCLB that may be of particular interest to you.

 

• States are expected to raise student performance goals so that by 2014 all students, and all subgroups of students, will be performing at a pre-determined proficiency level. Each year schools and all subgroups of students in those schools must make "Adequate Yearly Progress" towards this proficiency level.
• States must report test scores not only for individual schools but also for each subgroup of students within each school, e.g., low-income students, those belonging to racial or ethnic minorities, students with disabilities, students with limited English proficiency, etc.
• At least 95 percent of students in a school and 95 percent of each subgroup must participate in each assessment or the school will be considered not to have made Adequate Yearly Progress.
• If schools or the subgroups in a school do not make the so-called Adequate Yearly Progress for two years in a row, the school will be considered to be "in need of improvement". Federal funds could then be cut, and the school could be restructured or taken over by the state or by a private educational firm.

As you can see, there is some similarity with what happens here in England in that there is a heavy emphasis on testing to measure the extent to which students are or are not mastering the content and performance standards set for them, as well as to sanction those schools that are unsuccessful in assuring that their students do, indeed, master the standards.

 

The Importance of Well-Constructed Tests

Assessments must be aligned with the content standards that specify what students should know and be able to do. If there is misalignment here, the test cannot be a valid measure for standards-based accountability. If you’re teaching one thing but testing another, who knows what the students know in such a misaligned system?

 

Even if the test is closely aligned to the content standards, performance on the test could be meaningless if the curriculum and instruction do not provide students the opportunity to meet those standards, i.e., the Opportunity to Learn (OTL). It is, therefore, essential for curriculum and instruction to be aligned with the content standards and the test. Students cannot be expected to do well on a test that measures content they have not been taught.

 

Tests, as I’ve indicated, are a necessary component of standards-based education reform, but they are not sufficient. Tests by themselves can no more improve learning than thermometers can cure patients.

 

• There must be structures in place to provide teachers with Professional Development in appropriate methods for standards-based teaching.
• There should be transparency or adequate notice given to students and their parents that new standards for promotion and graduation are being put in place, and there should be a clear articulation of what those standards are.
• There should be, as I said above, an adequate opportunity for students to learn the material that will be tested and an opportunity to become familiar with the test format that will be used.
• When the testing is over and the results are in, there should be meaningful learning experiences for students who performed poorly so they can improve, i.e., they should be given other opportunities to learn. Students who performed poorly initially should be allowed to take comparable forms of the test, so they can demonstrate that they have learned.
• Test results should be examined to determine if changes need to be made in curriculum, instruction materials, teaching methods, and/or the tests themselves so as to ensure that these seminal components remain relevant and aligned with each other.
• There also should be a reporting system for the test results that is understandable and meaningful to the public and actionable by teachers, i.e., teachers should be able to determine what they need to do or teach in light of these results.
• It is also very important to look at the consequences – both intended and unintended – of testing. Testing will and should change instruction, but it will change it for the better only if we have constructed tests worth teaching to. Also, we need to look at what is happening in those content areas that are not being tested. Are they receiving the appropriate emphasis? Too, we also need to look at the school-leaving rate. We need to understand whether enforcing higher standards is pressuring more students to leave school – a possible detrimental effect of testing – or whether improved teaching associated with articulated standards is making it easier for students to succeed and thereby encouraging them to stay in school and complete their education.

The Goal: Better Instruction

Having test results that give an idea of what students know and can do on an individual, class, school, or district level is a good, but if you cannot translate this good into better learning opportunities for students, what difference does it really make? If the tests don’t lead to opportunities to learn, you end of with testing, not for learning’s, but for testing’s sake. A critic of too much testing once said, "Weighing a pig often doesn’t make it fatter."

 

One thing ETS does is help schools to understand data better and supports them in finding ways to use the data to drive instructional practices that can improve student achievement. Instead of developing a learning management system that is basically an administrative tool, we’ve developed one with the goal of promoting individual and classroom learning. Teachers and headmasters are better able to improve their instruction and curriculum if they are given the tools to use data intelligently to align curriculum, instruction and assessments, and to discern trends in what their students do and don’t understand.

The heart of this learning system is a calibrated item bank with questions that teachers can use to build interim assessments that indicate whether students are mastering what they are being taught, e.g., whether they are achieving benchmark levels the school has set and how quickly they are progressing. The tests provide immediate information on what students are and aren’t understanding. Teachers can analyze interim assessment results by school, grade, or sub-groups vis-à-vis individual questions or groups of questions. If linked to national test results, schools can determine how near or far they are from identified performance targets. The tool also allows schools to give parents secured access so they can see how well their child is doing in general or on each standard in particular.

 

A Caution

Let me end with a caution about testing this audience hardly needs to hear. A test score is like a snapshot. It is static, capturing a moment in time within a fixed context. A knowledgeable eye analyzing a photograph can evoke thoughts about how the picture might have turned out differently with, say, a slight change in lighting. Analyzing the results of tests in the context of other factors can lead educators to embark on new directions to improve student learning, classroom instruction, and the school environment.

Too often, however, hasty, uninformed judgments about test results lead to superficial responses to complex educational issues, rather than to a meaningful, truly educational response to the scores. Rather than a guide, the tests become a cudgel. Educators need to interpret test scores carefully, determine how to use them to provide better learning opportunities for their students, and consider them in assessing changes that are needed in curriculum, instruction, and the tests themselves.

It is important always to remember that while tests are a very important part of the educational picture or puzzle, they are only one part of a very complex, multi-dimensional picture that must be interpreted by knowledgeable educators, and even by them with great care….

Colleges and universities now have 90 additional topics to choose from when assigning essays through the ETS’ Criterion^SM Online Writing Evaluation service. The new topics are part of the Criterion v6.2 product upgrade and more than double the number of topics available to college faculty.

The Criterion service is an online writing practice and remediation tool that uses automated scoring technologies to evaluate student essays online. It is ideally suited for use in campus writing labs and remedial writing courses, first- and second-year writing courses, and with any writing assignment required across the curriculum. More than 40,000 students at two- and four-year institutions have used the Criterion service.

The Criterion service helps instructors evaluate student writing skills more quickly by scoring essays that students submit and providing annotated diagnostic feedback in real time about the use of grammar, usage, mechanics, style, and organisation and development. After the Criterion service reviews a submission, faculty can add comments and offer feedback through pop-up notes or a private message board.

Faculty can choose from a library of persuasive, expository, descriptive and narrative essay topics or create their own topics. Of the 90 new topics, 40 present business scenarios to especially appeal to instructors of business-related courses.

"Writing proficiency is a critical life skill, and higher education institutions invest significant time and resources to help each student improve that skill," says Donna Hollenbach, ETS’s Criterion Product Manager. "Students become proficient writers through constant practice, but college instructors have little time to thoroughly review and score each writing assignment. The Criterion service gives students the opportunity to work independently in a computer lab or at home to improve their writing. It also reduces the amount of time that an instructor needs to spend reviewing each essay and gives them the information they need to determine which students are improving, and which need more practice or targeted remediation."

Faculty and administrators can make the Criterion service available to students in two ways: they can make an institutional purchase for student subscriptions, or they can specify that students purchase a semester-long subscription through the campus bookstore as part of a course requirement. Campus bookstores can place orders with ETS for Criterion subscriptions using the same process by which they supply textbooks and other course materials.

Watch an online demo of Criterion.

The ETS Communications & Public Affairs (C&PA) division has developed the Education Research E-Newsletter to promote ETS' research materials to colleagues in the organisation and practitioners in the field.

"The e-newsletter lets us reach out to various audiences to keep them informed on the latest in ETS research," says Ida Lawrence, Senior Vice President of the Research & Development Division (R&D). "We have invested a lot of effort to make our materials accessible on ETS' website and the e-newsletter is one of the vehicles we are using to drive people to this important content."

"All of this material enhances ETS' reputation as a leader in the field," she adds.

The newsletter includes R&D and Policy Evaluation & Research Center monographs - detailed works that usually cover a single topic or a group of related topics. It also includes research reports and policy publications. The newsletter will be issued quarterly, and will also provide information that will allow recipients to acquire a PDF or hard copy of the publications featured in the newsletter. Recipients include educators, researchers, policymakers and others whose work interests are consistent with the company's research goals and standards.