[EDLING:1196] European Educators Warn of Chaos if ETS Expands Internet-Based English Test to 100 Countries

[Francis M Hult]

via lg-policy...

> >From the Chronicle of Higher Education, Wednesday, January 25, 2006
> 
>  http://chronicle.com/daily/2006/01/2006012503n.htm
> 
> European Educators Warn of Chaos if ETS Expands Internet-Based English
> Test to 100 Countries
> 
> By AISHA LABI
> 
> Educators in Europe who have complained about mishandled changes in a key
> foreign-study test have renewed their criticism and are demanding that the
> organization that runs the exam -- the Test of English as a Foreign
> Language -- halt plans to introduce its new online format in March in more
> than 100 countries. Critics of the planned change in the examination, a
> gateway to study at American universities, say the troubles could be
> preventing many foreign students from pursuing dreams of study in the
> United States. Many universities use the test to evaluate foreign
> applicants' proficiency in English.
> 
> Representatives of the Educational Testing Service, the nonprofit
> organization that owns and administers the Toefl, as the test is known,
> said on Tuesday that they take the educators' concerns seriously and have
> made adjustments accordingly. The expansion of Internet-based testing will
> not be delayed, but ETS is "augmenting the process," said Paul A. Ramsey,
> the executive overseeing the transition. "Our plan had been to introduce
> Internet-based testing and then stop computer-based testing and
> paper-and-pencil testing," he said. "We now realize that we are not going
> to proceed like that because of the problems we've had with capacity." The
> Internet-based Toefl was introduced in France, Germany, and Italy in
> October, and administering the test in France and Germany has been
> especially problematic (The Chronicle, January 6). In a letter last month
> to ETS, officials of the commission that administers the Fulbright Program
> in France expressed their "deepest concern" about the situation.
> 
> "Our member institutions," the letter said, "keep reporting to us
> countless instances of malfunctioning, such as students traveling across
> France only to find out that they cannot be accommodated by the local
> center, students telling us that they cannot find a date until next March,
> students having to travel to other countries in order to secure the
> much-prized score." The situation is unchanged since then, said Lindsay
> Turlan, the French Fulbright commission's educational adviser, who has
> personally experienced the problems. Her husband was unable to secure a
> date to take the exam and was finally told by the business school he is
> applying to that, since he had attended school in Britain, he would not
> have to take the Toefl.  "Don't worry, we know there is a problem," he was
> told by the school.
> 
> Other students, said Ms. Turlan, have been less fortunate. Some Fulbright
> programs have waived the Toefl requirement because of the problem, but
> most American institutions continue to rely on the exam. "Everyone in
> France is facing this problem," she said. "I'm an informed consumer and
> have a contact who thinks she can find me a date, but are these schools
> going to realize that they're not going to have as many students applying
> because they can't take the exam? Students are throwing their hands up in
> the air and saying, Why bother?"
> 
> Charlotte Securius-Carr, of the Fulbright commission in Germany, reported
> similar experiences. "I've seen the comments from ETS saying that, Yes,
> we're aware of the problem and are installing additional test centers. But
> my experience has been that it was not clear to test takers where those
> were and when additional dates would be available," she said. Many
> students who have located test centers did so only after spending
> considerable time and money on the process, she said. "This is testing
> tourism, with candidates traveling to the U.K., the Netherlands, Austria,
> and elsewhere to take the exam. This is something that has enraged
> students that, on top of the very expensive test fees, they have to travel
> and won't get any reimbursements for that."
> 
> Lonnie R. Johnson, executive director of the Austrian-American Educational
> Commission, which manages the Fulbright Program in Austria, is acting as
> the spokesman for the 25 Fulbright commissions in Europe on issues related
> to ETS and its administration of the Toefl. He said that ETS's failure to
> acknowledge the scale of the problem will have a direct impact on the
> applicant pool for institutions that rely on the exam. "There are massive
> problems with this, but if you go to the ETS Web site, you're not going to
> find one bit of information about it," he said. "It tells you they're
> introducing these extra test dates, but that's all. It's really
> irresponsible."
> 
> With the planned expansion of the Internet-based test to 100 more
> countries, what has been a regional problem in Europe will quickly become
> a global one, said Mr. Johnson, although its full scope is difficult to
> assess. "Dimensions of this are sort of hard to grasp, but ETS won't give
> us the numbers," he said. ETS officials said that their figures
> demonstrate that the nonprofit organization has been responsive to
> concerns.
> 
> "As of early January we have completed more than 30,000" Internet-based
> tests "in the countries where we have launched," Mr. Ramsey said in an
> e-mail message. "From November, when we had 462 seats available in France,
> Germany, and Italy, we now have 1,068 in these countries, and we're adding
> more."
> 
> "We already have 19 test sites in France, with 46 computer labs provided,"
> he wrote. "We have 20 locations in Italy offering 31 computer labs for
> testing. In Germany, we have 20 sites offering 35 testing labs. Finally,
> over all, we are signing up 82 percent of the centers we need to sign up
> worldwide and the numbers are rising."
> 
> As for the number of students who have been unable to register to take the
> test, Mr. Ramsey said the figure was very small. "I can't deny and I don't
> want to deny anyone's experience," he said. "I do, however, think that
> those are by far the exception rather than the rule."
> 
> ETS's critics are not convinced and say that the company's plan to shift
> to an Internet-based format for another of the tests it administers, the
> Graduate Record Examination, in October, has ominous implications for
> American universities. "It makes you shudder, if they're going to repeat
> this," said Ms. Securius-Carr, "because with the GRE there is no
> alternative."
> 
> 
> 
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> Copyright  2006 by The Chronicle of Higher Education