European Educators Warn of Chaos if ETS Expands Internet-Based English Test to 100 Countries

[Harold F. Schiffman]

>>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