California State University Students Take New ETS ICT Literacy Assessment.

PRINCETON, N.J. -- New Test Measures Students' Cognitive Abilities to Process and Communicate Information in a Technological Environment

ETS announced today that 3,000 students at all 23 California State University (CSU) campuses are among the first to take ETS's new Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Literacy Assessment as part of a large-scale assessment project. The simulation-based testing program measures postsecondary students' abilities to define, access, manage, integrate, evaluate, create and communicate information in a technological environment.

The CSU has been a leader among several colleges and universities working with ETS in the development of the assessment for the past two years. The CSU students are among about 8,000 students nationwide who will take the test by April 15th. ETS will use their scores to provide institutional-level aggregate score reports measuring the performance of particular groups.

"The ICT Literacy Assessment is the first tool that integrates and tests for both cognitive and technological competencies," says Dr. Ilene F. Rockman, Manager, Information Competence Initiative, The California State University, Office of the Chancellor, and a national authority on ICT literacy. "Many students can use technology to send an e-mail message, surf the Web, or download music, but that does not necessarily mean that they are ICT literate. The ICT Literacy Assessment is an interactive and performance-based tool that allows students to demonstrate that they can find, use, evaluate and communicate information ethically and legally . . . that they are critical consumers and ethical producers of information."

The ETS ICT Literacy Assessment is unique in that it emphasizes cognitive rather than technical aspects of proficiency and measures multiple aspects of ICT proficiency. Rather than pose multiple-choice questions, it requires test takers to apply basic technology as a tool to help them solve information problems. The test requires students to use technology to perform cognitive and information management tasks, such as evaluating the validity of information found on the Internet, extracting and synthesizing specific information from a database, using content to develop a spreadsheet, or composing an e-mail message summarizing research findings. Equipped with a PC in a proctored environment, along with paper and a pencil or pen for taking notes, students respond to multipart tasks during the two-hour test.

"Technology has transformed the classroom, the workplace, the global economy and our lives, and a student's ability to thrive in a technological environment has become a critical life skill," says Teresa Egan, ETS's ICT Project Manager. "Schools that effectively measure those skills can better evaluate the effectiveness of existing ICT-based curricula and identify areas in which ICT literacy resource allocations need to be placed."

For groups of students, the ICT Literacy Assessment provides a gauge of how well they can use information and communication technology as a practical resource. For two- and four-year colleges and universities, the test provides the type of information needed to better plan curriculum to address ICT literacy gaps and provide evidence to accrediting agencies on student learning outcomes as increased value is placed on ICT proficiency.

ETS convened an international panel of experts, chaired by CSU Sacramento faculty member Barbara O'Connor, that defined what it means to be literate in the 21st century, and to study the growing importance of the relationship among information, communication technologies, and literacy. The testing criteria for the ETS ICT Literacy Assessment evolved from the findings of that panel and its report, "Digital Transformation: A Framework for ICT Literacy."

For more information on the ETS ICT Literacy Assessment, visit www.ets.org/ictliteracy.

About ETS

ETS is a nonprofit institution with a long-held commitment to advance learning. The mission of ETS is to advance quality and equity in education by providing fair and valid assessments, research and related services for all people worldwide. In serving individuals, educational institutions and government agencies around the world, ETS customizes solutions to meet the need for teacher professional development products and services, classroom and end-of-course assessments, and research-based teaching and learning tools. Founded in 1947 and based in Princeton, New Jersey, ETS develops, administers and scores more than 24 million tests annually in more than 180 countries, at over 9,000 locations worldwide.