Educational Testing

Over the past decade, the Educational Testing Service of Princeton, N.J., has transformed itself from a small nonprofit educational institution into the world's largest testing company, administering 9 million yearly examinations that help determine the future of millions of people trying to get into good schools or professions.It has quietly grown into a multinational operation, complete with for-profit subsidiaries, a reserve fund of $91 million and revenue last year of $411 million.As it celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, ETS has come under fire not only for its failure to address increased incidents of cheating and fraud, but also for what its critics say is its transformation into a highly competitive business operation.

Maryland has quietly stopped its longstanding practice of allowing teachers to review test booklets up to two weeks before its annual reading and math examinations were given. State officials said they changed the practice before this year's Maryland School Assessments after questions arose about whether teachers were reviewing the test for content, which would not be an appropriate use of the booklets. The change, state officials contend, has had no effect on test results and was not made in relation to the testing scandal at George Washington Elementary School in Baltimore that came to light earlier this year.

Thomson Prometric, a Baltimore computer testing company, has landed a $1 billion contract with the New Jersey company that administers the SAT and Advanced Placement exams. Prometric, a division of the Canadian electronic media conglomerate Thomson Corp., will get more than $83 million a year for the next 12 years from Educational Testing Services of Princeton, N.J., the companies announced yesterday. Under the deal, Prometric will help Educational Testing Services introduce a version of the Test of English as a Foreign Language next year.

Thomson Prometric, the Baltimore-based educational testing company that was once part of the former Sylvan Learning Systems, has been sold again - this time to Educational Testing Service, administrator of the SAT, for $435 million. ETS is Prometric's largest customer, a partnership that began nearly 20 years ago, ETS officials said yesterday. Prometric delivers the TOEFL, GRE and Praxis teaching licensing exams for the Princeton, N.J.-based educational assessment and research company.

Three years ago, a shudder went through the hearts of female students and their tuition-paying parents when research by a women's advocacy group concluded that the Educational Testing Service's Scholastic Aptitude Test, or SAT, is biased against girls and women.Each year, more than 1.7 million students who want to go to college, many of them seeking scholarships, plunk down $17 to take the test. Fifty-two percent are female.A riveting study of SAT scores for verbal and mathematical skills in 1989 by Phyllis F. Rosser, director of the Equality and Testing Project in Holmdel, N.J., showed that the gap between SAT scores of females and males was 57 points, with girls averaging 878 points out of a possible 1,600 and boys averaging 935."

Jacqueline Callier wanted to ace the Scholastic Assessment Test today, but miserable weather has put the exam on ice for her and hundreds of other students in the Baltimore area.It is the second SAT postponement for Jacqueline in three weeks. The college entrance test also was snowed out Jan. 22.The Educational Testing Service, the Princeton, N.J. company that administers the exam, was itself closed by the weather yesterday. Individual schools decide whether to offer the test. Students scheduled to take the SAT today were advised to listen to the radio to see if their test center would be open or if makeup dates had been set.For weeks, Jacqueline, a Centennial High School junior, has prepared an hour a day -- two hours a day on weekends -- for the test that many colleges require for admission.

The state school board has approved a new exam and qualifying score for elementary teachers to qualify for an exemption from Maryland's tougher reading course requirements. But passing the test will be far from easy, even for experienced teachers. The qualifying score set by the school board last week means that only 29 percent of the first 250 teachers to take the exam earned passing marks. The decision by the state board allows elementary school teachers who are renewing their teaching certification to take an exam developed by the Educational Testing Service, rather than enroll in additional courses in reading instruction.

Thomson Prometric, the Baltimore-based educational testing company that was once part of the former Sylvan Learning Systems, has been sold again - this time to Educational Testing Service, administrator of the SAT, for $435 million. ETS is Prometric's largest customer, a partnership that began nearly 20 years ago, ETS officials said yesterday. Prometric delivers the TOEFL, GRE and Praxis teaching licensing exams for the Princeton, N.J.-based educational assessment and research company.

"The Big Test: The Secret History of the American Meritocracy," by Nicholas Lemann. Farrar, Strauss and Giroux. 368 pages. $27.Nicholas Lemann started out thinking he would probably write a history of the Educational Testing Service, the organization that markets the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) to prospective university students. Somehow, he persuaded the management at the secretive organization to open its archives to him. What he found turned out to be fascinating.But alert readers will note that the title of Lemann's new book says nothing specifically about the Educational Testing Service, and fails to mention the SAT by name.

CHICAGO -- This is usually a high-anxiety season for college seniors, what with deadlines looming for getting applications to graduate school in order.But this Christmas break, many students left campus with a double dose of jitters, trapped in the middle of a multiple-choice espionage drama.Two years ago, the Graduate Record Examination, which is generally required of candidates for graduate programs, entered the electronic age.Instead of using the traditional pencil-and-paper format, students were able to take the GRE by computer, an innovation touted as being more accurate and less vulnerable to cheaters.

As any educator knows, cheating is as old as testing. So news that three students at Severna Park High School may have cheated on an Advanced Placement test is not surprising. But it's certainly disturbing. The Educational Testing Service, which administered the exam on behalf of the College Board, has rightly canceled the scores for more than 40 students in one testing room after finding that a proctor didn't do his job. Anne Arundel County school officials made the correct decision to keep those students from retaking the test tomorrow.

The State Department of Education has granted appeals to six Anne Arundel County schools where special-education students did not meet state standards on the Maryland School Assessment last year. The successful appeals mean that the schools are now considered to have made "adequate yearly progress" under the guidelines of the federal No Child Left Behind act. If schools fail to make such progress, they can be designated as needing improvement and could face restructuring if they fail to meet state standards for several years in a row. North County High School, however, was denied its appeal for special-education students who did not meet standards on the state's geometry test, meaning that it will remain in the category of schools in need of improvement.

Testing company Thomson Prometric plans to move its Baltimore headquarters and 400 employees next year to one of the city's newest developments on its eastern fringe, the company will announce today. The subsidiary of The Thomson Corp., an information technology company based in Stamford, Conn., will move next November from Harbor East to the new 17-story tower at Canton Crossing in Canton. Prometric, which was owned by Baltimore-based Sylvan Learning Systems Inc. from 1997 to 2000, has been based at 1000 Lancaster St. at Harbor East since 1996, when the building opened.

Taking advantage of recently relaxed rules, several area districts have persuaded the state to remove schools from a list of those that had failed to demonstrate "adequate yearly" academic progress under the federal No Child Left Behind law. The results of the appeals - based on a change in how children with learning disabilities are treated under the state's accountability program - came as a relief to school systems. Remaining on the list could subject the schools to an escalating list of sanctions that includes, ultimately, a state takeover.

MONDAY, the Educational Testing Service - the folks who brought us the SAT - will begin offering a new test for rising college juniors on "information and communication technology," another big step in digital fluency becoming a fourth literacy in addition to the good old 3 R's. Schools as renowned as UCLA may use it for entry to higher-level courses, community colleges to certify their graduates, and employers for hiring. All of which prompts several reactions - hyper-linked, shall we say, at Internet speed: Western civilization is over: Whatever happened to the literacy test of diagramming sentences?

Thomson Prometric, a Baltimore computer testing company, has landed a $1 billion contract with the New Jersey company that administers the SAT and Advanced Placement exams. Prometric, a division of the Canadian electronic media conglomerate Thomson Corp., will get more than $83 million a year for the next 12 years from Educational Testing Services of Princeton, N.J., the companies announced yesterday. Under the deal, Prometric will help Educational Testing Services introduce a version of the Test of English as a Foreign Language next year.

As any educator knows, cheating is as old as testing. So news that three students at Severna Park High School may have cheated on an Advanced Placement test is not surprising. But it's certainly disturbing. The Educational Testing Service, which administered the exam on behalf of the College Board, has rightly canceled the scores for more than 40 students in one testing room after finding that a proctor didn't do his job. Anne Arundel County school officials made the correct decision to keep those students from retaking the test tomorrow.

MR. GOLDEN, Mrs. Tilly, Mrs. Holmes, Mr. Scott -- if you are still living in Baltimore and are still alive and about to read this column, please don't. You're probably all retired now and don't need the annoyance.Bob Draine, I hear you're the acting principal at Patterson High School. You don't need to read this either. Just toss this section of the paper into the nearest wastebasket.I was one of your many students at Harlem Park Junior High School from 1963 to 1966. You may remember me as the one with the largest forehead.

The state school board has approved a new exam and qualifying score for elementary teachers to qualify for an exemption from Maryland's tougher reading course requirements. But passing the test will be far from easy, even for experienced teachers. The qualifying score set by the school board last week means that only 29 percent of the first 250 teachers to take the exam earned passing marks. The decision by the state board allows elementary school teachers who are renewing their teaching certification to take an exam developed by the Educational Testing Service, rather than enroll in additional courses in reading instruction.

WASHINGTON - Most public school students would be tested a lot more often under legislation Congress is expected to pass soon, but there is no guarantee that those who do poorly would score much better in the future, education experts say. Congress is poised this week to pass key elements of President Bush's education plan, potentially the most sweeping change in federal schools policy in more than three decades. Essentially, the measure would tie federal aid to schools to their performance on new mandatory tests for students in grades three through eight.