Educational Testing Service

Tort law offers an appropriate vehicle for handling the increased prevalence of standardized testing in the wake of the No Child Left Behind Act and the potential miss-scoring problems that arise with standardized tests. This incentivizes the use of reasonable care in scoring standardized tests and justly compensates for miss-scoring harms when doing so does not unduly burden testing agencies.  Neither contract law nor the existing Truth-in-Testing law adequately affords the sort of remedies and protections the issue of standardized testing and miss-scoring pose.

The ability for tort liability to adequately hold testing agencies accountable for miss-scoring errors and afford relief to test-takers will vary based on the actions or inactions of the testing agencies. The culpability of the testing agency and other considerations potentially give rise to actions for negligence and infliction of emotional distress, misrepresentation, defamation and false-light invasion of privacy, tortious interference with prospective advantage, or injurious falsehood—also known as disparagement. While some theories will rarely offer viable avenues for recovery, others, given particular facts, may provide a basis for relief.

Given the great, new weight placed on standardized tests in modern times, tort law posses the ability to best afford remedies to parties injured by miss-scorings on the part of testing agencies. However, relief should only be attained after a painstaking review of the facts of each case in light of principles of tort liability, seeking to incentivize the use of reasonable care in scoring standardized tests and compensating harm in meritorious cases.

This paper identifies three noncognitive domains relevant for academic achievement in K-12—student engagement, behavioral learning strategies, and school climate. The paper also documents empirical findings that show relationships between these three noncognitive domains and academic achievement, especially in the areas of reading and mathematics. Key words: K-12, noncognitive, academic achievement, reading, mathematics

LANGUAGE is a trademark of ETS. As part of its nonprofit mission, ETS conducts and disseminates the results of research to advance quality and equity in education and assessment for the benefit of ETS’s constituents and the field. ETS Research Reports provide preliminary and limited dissemination of ETS research prior to publication. To obtain a PDF or a print copy of a report, please visit:

The United States has recently seen falling test scores for mathematics problem solving in comparison to other countries. This paper reviews current approaches to diagnosing mathematics problem solving, and then introduces emerging technologies being developed at Educational Testing Service that address open areas found in the review. The application of these technologies to assessment design must be weighed against concerns for construct validity, equity, and access. The validity question is addressed by using evidence- ...

The United States has recently seen falling test scores for mathematics problem solving in comparison to other countries. This paper reviews current approaches to diagnosing mathematics problem solving, and then introduces emerging technologies being developed at Educational Testing Service that address open areas found in the review. The application of these technologies to assessment design must be weighed against concerns for construct validity, equity, and access. The validity question is addressed by using evidence-centered design (ECD) methods to build an evidentiary argument. An innovative project called Mathematics Intervention Module (MIM) for helping students improve their mathematical problem solving skills is described that uses ECD methods in concert with the emerging technologies, with a focus on diagnosis, feedback, practice, and items that integrate targeted knowledge and skills.

support and help on the project. It has been argued that in the knowledge economy, a graduate degree will become the new bachelor's degree, the minimal education credential that high-skills employers require. If that is so, then the United States is in peril of losing its competitive edge, with long-term consequences for our economy, our quality of life, and our global standing. This report examines the data behind these assertions, and proposes a set of recommendations to strengthen U.S. graduate education in partnership with industry and government. The United States' system of graduate education is a strategic national asset. Like all valuable assets, it must be attended to and nurtured in order to remain viable and strong. Other countries and regions of the world have recognized the value of graduate education as a vital component of economic development and are making investments accordingly. Europe already produces more doctorates in science and engineering than are pr...

The L2 field's first concerted effort in terms of computer-based testing (CBT) emerged in the mid-80s with the 1985 LTRC. The conference proceedings were published under the title Technology and Language Testing (Stansfield, 1986). The proceedings indicate that several papers presented at the conference dealt with CBT and the application of latent trait models to item-bank construction, item selection, and computer adaptive testing (CAT). The general measurement profession had been working with CBT and, more specifically, with CAT since the early 70s. The first conference on CAT was held in 1975. Perhaps the main reason the L2 field has lagged behind in this area is because it has long promoted performance-based assessment, a form of assessment that does not lend itself as readily to computerized administration as do more traditional test formats. In fact, the second section of the Stansfield volume deals primarily with performance-based assessment. So, whereas general measureme...

Abstract: This study responds to the Test of English as a Foreign Language [TM](TOEFL [R]) research agenda concerning the need to understand the processes and knowledge that test-takers utilize. Specifically, it investigates the strategic behaviors test-takers reported using ...

Developing a comprehensive strategy for postsecondary education that will meet the needs of America's diverse population and help ensure our ability to compete in the global economy is vital to the growth of our nation. Key to improving performance of our colleges and ...

It has been argued that in the knowledge economy, a graduate degree will become the new bachelor's degree, the minimal education credential that high-skills employers require. If that is so, then the United States is in peril of losing its competitive edge, with long-term ...

Due to some progress on the natural language processing (NLP) front, researchers are able to pursue the problem of automatic content assessment for free text responses with some success. In particular, a concept-based scoring method implemented in c-rater, Educational Testing Service’s (ETS) technology for content scoring of short free-text answers makes c-rater capable of giving instantaneous formative individualized feedback without