MENLO PARK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE via COLLEGIATE PRESSWIRE)--Mar 20, 2003--Educational Testing Service (ETS) and Ordinate Corporation announced a joint agreement today for the delivery and scoring of the ETS Test of Spoken English (TSE) using Ordinate`s telephone-based testing technology to begin in March 2003.
The TSE is used to determine how the oral language ability of nonnative speakers of English might affect their ability to communicate successfully in a professional or academic setting. The TSE is used widely by health organizations for selecting and certifying health professionals and by North American academic institutions for the selection of international teaching assistants.
The TSE has traditionally been administered using cassette tape recordings. The test-taker would go to the test site, listen to tape-recorded prompts played by the test proctor and then record responses on an individual recorder. Tapes were then sent to ETS for scoring by specially-trained raters who listened to each submitted tape.
With Ordinate`s new telephone-based delivery system, the test-taker will go to a test center and under the supervision of a trained ETS test proctor, dial a phone number, enter a personal identification number, listen to the test prompts and respond over the phone. Phoned responses will be digitally recorded and securely stored in Ordinate`s database. To score tests, ETS raters will call Ordinate and listen to digital recordings of tests, also over the phone. TSE content will not change, only the method of delivery.
''We are very happy to work with Ordinate to make administering and scoring the TSE easier and more efficient,'' said ETS vice president of Teaching and Learning Mari Pearlman. ''But the real beneficiaries of this new technology are the test takers. After registering and going to the test center, all they will need to complete the test is a telephone.''
''Ordinate is excited to begin this partnership with ETS. The use of Ordinate`s testing system as a platform for the TSE reinforces the strength of Ordinate`s technology in spoken language testing,'' said Brent Townshend, CEO of Ordinate Corporation.
About Educational Testing Service
With estimated consolidated revenues of $700 million for FY2002, Educational Testing Service (ETS) is the world`s largest private educational testing and measurement organization and a leader in education research. The company is dedicated to serving the needs of individuals, educational institutions, and government bodies in nearly 200 countries. ETS develops and administers more than 12 million tests worldwide. For more information on ETS, please see the ETS website at www.ets.org.
About Ordinate Corporation
Ordinate Corporation, a privately held company, was founded in 1996 to develop advanced technology for language testing systems. See Ordinate`s website at www.ordinate.com for more information.
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