One of the VPs over at ETS posted on LinkedIn about some initiative in Vietnam.  He wrote (emphasis mine, emojis not mine):

“A heavy focus on test-taking shortcuts over real skill development threatens long-term success. True global mobility isn’t just about passing exams—it’s about equipping students with the skills they need to thrive in academics and careers worldwide. 💡

At ETS, we go beyond assessments. We provide personalized, actionable learning solutions that build real-world proficiency, ensuring students aren’t just test-ready but future-ready. ✅ Vietnam’s progress proves that investing in education unlocks opportunity—now, we must ensure learning solutions match student aspirations.”

I liked it.  But it begs the question:  what solutions are those?

I’ve spent the last couple of years wondering what everyone at ETS is really up to.  Sometimes it seems like the answer is “not much.” Obviously acquiring PSI was a big deal.  That brought in new revenue and products. But as far as “ETS proper” goes?   It seems to consist of a handful of tests with slowly shrinking volumes that haven’t been meaningfully adjusted in more than a decade.  

Amit makes the rounds doing keynote addresses at all the big events, and there is plenty of motivational content shared on LinkedIn.  But I’ve seen very little by way of new products and assessments.  There are a whole lot of posts about “Skills for the Future,” but that project doesn’t seem to have produced much more than superficialities.  And, hey, it looks like the College Board might beat them to the punch.

My server logs indicate that there is a strong Lawrence Township contingent visiting the blog.  Do let me know in the comments if I’m off base here.  Normally I would post this on LinkedIn myself, but I don’t want to be overly catty today.

Here’s a story from The Guardian about the gigification of online English lessons provided by the British Council. It looks like the “British Council Teachers” who teach those lessons (including IELTS lessons) get a pretty raw deal.

Not a great headline at a time when the British Council is seeking a financial bailout from the UK government.

Now and then people ask me about pursuing a long-term career in TEFL. But since entry-level work seems shabbier and shabbier with every passing day, it is hard for me offer advice. More on that later.

Edit: One long-gestating idea of mine has been to join one of the many “gig based” tutoring platforms for a few weeks to see what that sort of work is like first hand in 2025. I think it would make for a nice long-form article (a la Barbara Ehrenreich’s “Nickel and Dimed“). But I’m afraid it will never come to be.

Many reports this afternoon that people are getting the following email from ETS:

“Dear [name], Great news! The scores from your recent TOEFL iBT® test are now available online. Open the Official TOEFL® app now to view your scores and send official score reports to institutions. We wish you nothing but success as you continue your journey toward your academic dreams.” 

But the scores are not actually available.  When they log in to their account, it still says “scoring in progress.”

I guess you have to keep waiting.  Leave a comment if you are experiencing this problem.

Update:  A workaround has been shared.  If you log in to TOEFL TestReady and then click on “insight” you can see your most recent test score in the “Skill Trends” section

A few developments on the NAEP front over the past few weeks:

• The Department of Education cancelled the national test of 17-year-olds.
• NCES commissioner Peggy Carr was placed on administrative leave.
• Mark Schneider, who ran the Institute for Educational Sciences in the previous Trump administration was asked about this situation by “the 74.”  They reported that “he’d prefer the next commissioner to have state-level experience and to be more ‘critical of these big research houses’ like ETS, which has held NAEP contracts for roughly 40 years and just won another competition in January. “
• Liam Knox just reported that the NCES has “closer to five than 10” employees following this week’s mass layoffs at the Department of Education.
• Update: Politico reports that the Institute of Educational Sciences is down to a single employee.

It almost seems like irrelevant small potatoes at this point, but one imagines that ETS may lose some amount of its NAEP-related revenues despite decisions to scrub references to DEI from their public-facing materials.

The College Board messed up a recent administration of the SAT. On March 8, tests were submitted at 11:00 sharp, whether or not test takers had actually finished.  This was possible because the SAT is delivered digitally nowadays.  Affected test takers were given a refund and a voucher for a free re-test.  The incident attracted some media attention: Scott White wrote an article about it for Forbes (which has been viewed 53,000 times in three days) and a few local outlets also ran items.  But the College Board’s screw up isn’t really the point of this post.

I just want to mention that this story highlights one reason why I write so much about standardized tests of English.

When the College Board messes up, it makes headlines. Media outlets report on it, people discuss the screw up, and there’s some amount of accountability. There is often consideration of how certain groups are more affected when a test administration is bungled.

But when English proficiency tests are badly run it gets very little attention. Sometimes no attention at all. I might roll out of bed and write something on LinkedIn while waiting for my morning coffee.  But not always.

I’ll give you an example.

In April of 2023 ETS stopped accepting the Aadhaar Card for admission to TOEFL test centers in India.  But for 13 months, the front page of the official TOEFL website for India still proclaimed that “ETS is temporarily accepting the Aadhaar Card as primary ID until further notice.”  The page also linked to a copy of the TOEFL Bulletin which repeated this incorrect statement.

For 13 months, students registered for the test, paid the hefty fee, showed up at their local test center… and were turned away for not having proper ID.  ETS kept their registration fees.

My friends at ETS might argue that the correct information was listed elsewhere, or that it was included in emails sent before test day.  And, yes, a majority of students probably got the correct instructions eventually.  But the incorrect information was very prominently displayed.  For a very long time.

Had something like that happened in the USA during an administration of the SAT it might have made the New York Times.  But since it involved an English test it attracted no attention whatsoever.  For 13 months!

That’s today’s point.

There’s a good reason why this sort of thing doesn’t get any attention.  Needless to say, writing about English tests doesn’t pay the mortgage.

Since problems with English testing will never be closely examined, it is incumbent upon testing firms to strive to do the best they can for their communities. No one is looking over your shoulder… but you STILL have to try as hard as you can to deliver for your test takers.