Educational Testing Services creates and administers standardized tests, including the GRE and TOEFL, for higher education students. They strive to eliminate cultural bias in their tests, but their accuracy in assessing student abilities is debated.
Educational Testing Services is a private, not-for-profit organization that creates, administers, and grades many different standardized tests. These tests are usually targeted at higher education students, usually those looking to enter graduate programs or who are working towards a specific vocation. A number of different tests are offered by this organization, including the Graduate Records Examination (GRE), the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), and the Praxis Series of tests for prospective teachers. Educational Testing Services designs and administers these tests, but is not necessarily directly involved in establishing guidelines for how various schools use test results.
Educational Testing Services is generally recognized as a great developer and administrator of standardized tests for a variety of purposes. One of the most widely used tests developed by Educational Testing Services is the GRE. The GRE is used as a test for students completing their undergraduate degree, typically those completing a bachelor’s degree, who are interested in moving on to graduate work on a master’s or doctoral degree. There are three core components of the GRE General Test which include analytical writing, verbal reasoning and critical reading, and quantitative or mathematical reasoning.
The TOEFL is also a commonly used test that was developed and administered by Educational Testing Services. This test is generally required by graduate programs and some undergraduate programs as well in countries where English is the primary language for any student coming from a country where English is not the primary language. It is designed to test a prospective student’s fluency and critical reading and writing skills, allowing schools to ensure that students can effectively participate in classes taught in English. Educational Testing Services provides multiple testing locations for the TOEFL and other tests in multiple countries.
One of the main concerns with standardized tests is that the questions or the language used on these tests can be culturally biased. A test that asks questions about specific snow, beaches, cities, or other geographic conditions, for example, would be aimed at students who are familiar with those conditions. Educational Testing Services and other standardized test manufacturers often spend a great deal of time and money to ensure that tests are created with questions free of cultural, gender, or age bias. The success of such efforts, however, remains a source of much debate, and standardized tests alone may not necessarily be an accurate assessment of a student’s abilities.
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