end of ETS Comprehensive Russian Proficiency Test

[Benjamin Rifkin]

To my knowledge, there is no standardized exam (except of course for the
ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview), although the Center for Applied Language
Learning maintains a database of exams in various languages.  This might be
the time for us as a profession to examine what tests we use at our
respective institutions and see if one or more of them might be worthwhile
considering as a profession-wide assessment instrument.

If this would be of interest to people, I would be happy to sponsor a
roundtable on assessment in Toronto:  people could come with their tests
and we could talk about the nature of the tests and consider trying some of
them out beyond the confines of our own institutions.

Please respond to me off list if this would be of interest to you.

Ben Rifkin
(Head of Pedagogy Division of Conference Program and Member of AATSEEL
Committee on Testing and Professional Development)



>     Dear Seelangers:
>
>     We have just received notice that Educational Testing Service (ETS)
>     will no longer be offering the Comprehensive Russian Proficiency Test
>     after June 30, 1997. The reasons given were that the test is dated and
>     can no longer be used in its current format and that since the number
>     of institutions using the test is small, ETS does not have the
>     resources to revise the test.
>
>     Does anyone know of any other standardized exam for Russian? I was
>     under the impression that ETS was the only one.
>
>     Thanks,
>
>     Karen Dubrule
>     Program Officer, Europe and Russia
>     Council on International Educational Exchange


**********************************
Benjamin Rifkin
Department of Slavic Languages & Literatures
University of Wisconsin-Madison
1432 Van Hise Hall, 1220 Linden Drive, Madison, WI  53706
voice (608) 262-1623; fax (608) 265-2814
e-mail:  brifkin at facstaff.wisc.edu