ETS Technologies Offers TOEFL Writing Topics as Part of Criterion Online Writing Evaluation.Business Editors/Education Writers PRINCETON, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 30, 2001 ETS ETS Educational Testing Service (nonprofit private educational testing and measurement organization) ETS Emergency Telecommunications Service ETS Electronic Trading System ETS Engineering (&) Technical Services Technologies, Inc. and the Test of English as a Foreign Language program at Educational Testing Service The Educational Testing Service (or ETS) is the world's largest private educational testing and measurement organization, operating on an annual budget of approximately $1.1 billion on a proforma basis in 2007. have announced an agreement to offer TOEFL TOEFL A trademark for a standardized examination for proficiency in English as a foreign language. writing topics as part of ETS Technologies' Criterion Online Writing Evaluation service. Student users of the Criterion service will now be able to write practice essays on topics previously administered in the operational TOEFL test, and to receive scores from the e-rater scoring engine. Essay scores from e-rater are reported back to Criterion users within seconds. Access to the TOEFL topics and e-rater scoring will be available through institutional subscriptions to the Criterion service. Visit www.etstechnologies.com/criterion for more information and a free demonstration. E-rater is the groundbreaking automated scoring system Noun 1. scoring system - a system of classifying according to quality or merit or amount rating system classification system - a system for classifying things developed at ETS by researchers in natural language processing Natural language processing Computer analysis and generation of natural language text. The goal is to enable natural languages, such as English, French, or Japanese, to serve either as the medium through which users interact with computer systems such as , a subfield sub·field n. 1. A subdivision of a field of study; a subdiscipline. 2. Mathematics A field that is a subset of another field. of artificial intelligence. The system analyzes essays based on writing features specified in holistic scoring rubrics. Proven highly effective and accurate, e-rater has provided one of the two scores for more than 800,000 examinee responses to essay questions administered as part of the Graduate Management Admission Test Analytical Writing Assessment. The agreement rate, operationally defined as matching or adjacent scores, between e-rater and expert faculty readers of GMAT GMAT abbr. 1. Graduate Management Admission Test 2. Greenwich Mean Astronomical Time GMAT n abbr (US) (= Graduate Management Admissions Test) → essays consistently exceeds 98 percent. E-rater performance on TOEFL topics is also excellent. Research results indicate that e-rater scores assigned to TOEFL examinee essays match or are adjacent to scores assigned by faculty readers more than 93 percent of the time. The purpose of the TOEFL test is to evaluate the English proficiency of people whose native language is not English. More than 4,200 academic institutions, government agencies, scholarship programs, and licensing/certification agencies in over 80 countries use TOEFL test scores. "The TOEFL essay holistic scoring guide is a long-standing "gold standard" for the assessment of non-native speaker writing," says Richard Swartz, CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. of ETS Technologies. "We are excited to be able to model this standard with e-rater and offer retired TOEFL topics via Criterion to institutions that want to provide students with the opportunity to practice for the TOEFL test. Institutions interested in providing students with an opportunity to practice their writing skills in a risk-free online environment and to receive immediate feedback on their essays will find this an attractive service as well." "We are pleased to offer TOEFL topics through the Criterion service, as we place great value on giving students an opportunity to practice and improve their writing skills," says Marilyn Rymniak, executive director of TOEFL. "Receiving immediate evaluation on their essays and seeing sample essays with which to compare their level of writing will give students useful information about how to improve their writing." About the TOEFL Program The TOEFL program provides English proficiency testing services for international students planning to study in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. , Canada, and other countries where English is used in an academic environment. The TOEFL test is made available worldwide to all persons, regardless of age, gender, race, nationality, religion, or political view. ETS develops the test under the direction of the TOEFL Board, a group comprised of professionals drawn from the higher education higher education Study beyond the level of secondary education. Institutions of higher education include not only colleges and universities but also professional schools in such fields as law, theology, medicine, business, music, and art. community. About ETS Technologies ETS Technologies, Inc, is a subsidiary of Educational Testing Service. Established in May 2000, ETS Technologies, Inc. was formed to advance ETS's many technological innovations in the field of assessment. Its goal is to identify, develop, and deploy innovative technologies in support of online learning and assessment applications. Through ongoing, scientifically based research Scientifically based research or SBR is the required standard in professional development and the foundation of academic instruction under the guidelines of No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB).[1] References 1. , ETS Technologies aims to expand and improve educational opportunities by harnessing proven technologies in the service of learning. About Educational Testing Service Educational Testing Service is the world's largest private educational testing and measurement organization and a leader in educational research. A nonprofit company, ETS develops and annually administers more than 12 million tests worldwide. |
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