I’m taking a very long holiday in the Middle East. I hope to return home some day.  I’ve made a pledge to avoid spending too much time writing about English tests during this holiday, but if regular readers would like to keep themselves informed about goings-on in the test world without my assistance, there are a few things to watch for:

1. The annual audit of ETS will probably be available sometime around January 15.  The audits all show up on Propublica eventually, but you can find them first via the Federal Audit Clearinghouse.  These audits might be my favorite thing in the whole world of testing.  I spend a terrible amount of time reading charity audits and 990 forms.  Not just from testing companies… but non-profits of all sorts.  They are fascinating.
2. The British Council’s annual return is supposed to be available at the end of January, but of course these have all been late in recent years.
3. Duolingo’s Q4 report will be available around the end of January.  But you will have to wait a few extra days for the 10-Q form to find revenue figures from the DET.
4. Pearson’s trading update will be published January 14.  This will be followed by the full results sometime in February.
5. There are new TOEIC Program stats from that test’s biggest market (Japan) but I haven’t had time to write about them.  
6. The IRCC was supposed to fulfill my Access to Information request re: testing at the beginning of this month.  They haven’t done that.  If they give me what I want, I’ll sift through it when I return.  But in the meantime, I’ll be happy to dump all the data on anyone who asks for it.
7. IDP Education Ltd will publish a half-year report at the end of February, but I really hope to be home by then.
8. And, of course, the new TOEFL launches January 21.  I’ll take the test as soon as I get home.  I’ll convene an Office Hours session shortly thereafter.  Let me know if you want a registration link.

There is cheating on tests taken remotely.  There is cheating on tests taken at test centers.  Overall, there is more cheating than anyone really wants to admit.

It is true that providers of remote tests face issues that providers of on-site tests do not.  But given the ongoing (and long-lasting) issues with on-site testing, we cannot say that it is the “gold standard.”  We probably cannot even say that it is more secure than remote testing, as there is only anecdotal evidence to support that claim.

On-site testing is a wonderful thing.  But it is far from perfect.  And, by god, providers have been slow (very slow) to address some of its fundamental weaknesses.  Maybe that slowness has contributed to the quick growth of remote testing in recent years.

Those new English language requirements for the UK have been in effect since January 8. Specifically, Skilled Worker, Scale-Up and High Potential Individual visas require fluency at the B2 level (up from the B1 level).

According to recent report, the Educational Testing Service (ETS) has been ordered to pay Rs 76,000 to a would-be test taker in Hyderabad.  The test taker, M. Kiran Sumedha Gupta, registered for the test using her Aadhaar Card, but was denied the opportunity to take the test when she failed to produce a passport on test day.

According to the Siasat Daily:

“[The Hyderabad District Consumer Commission-3], after examining the case, noted that ETS’s own registration system, which accepts Aadhaar as a valid ID, created confusion for the candidate. It held that charging a high fee without giving clear, consistent guidelines and then refusing to help even after a formal complaint amounted to a deficiency in service. The Commission also observed that this denial caused the student to lose academic opportunities and suffer mental agony.”

I’ve long argued that test companies should always strive to provide “clear, consistent guidelines” (a bold position, I know).  ETS’s defence in this case is that guidelines regarding ID are listed in the TOEFL Bulletin.  That’s certainly true, but requiring test takers to pore over 45 pages of small print to find certain critical information might not be the clearest possible approach.

I suppose it is worth reminding readers that ETS stopped accepting the Aadhaar Card on test day around April of 2023. But for about twelve months following that policy change, the official TOEFL website for India continued to state that it was accepted. I believe that error was corrected when I drew attention to it in May of 2024 (which means it wasn’t a factor in this particular case, as it involved a July registration).

There are three new practice tests available in PDF format for the new TOEFL. You can find them in the ETS website for teachers (not the one for learners).

The College Board’s most recent 990 filing is now available via ProPublica.  It covers the year ending December 2024.  Some readers may find it interesting to compare and contrast the post-pandemic fortunes of that organization with those of its sometime partner, the Educational Testing Service.

It looks like the College Board has now fully bounced back from its pandemic-era doldrums.  After four fairly lean years, program service revenues now sit at just over one billion USD.  That’s down 42 million from 2019.

In contrast, program service revenues at ETS are currently down 273 million dollars from their pre-pandemic high. 

Likewise, the value of the assets controlled by the College Board have increased 55% since 2019 to reach a staggering 2.5 billion USD.

Meanwhile, in the same time frame, the value of the assets controlled by ETS have dropped by 15% and now sit at a total of 1.7 billion dollars.

I crunched some numbers and put them into an article on LinkedIn.  Note that these numbers will all be obsolete in just a couple of weeks when the next audit of ETS is published.

Anyways.  I’m asked now and then why I care about this stuff, so I’ll repeat my usual point that both of these untaxed and sometimes unregulated organizations still have a proud impact on the lives of millions of young people around the world.

The TOEFL Teacher Certification Program has launched (sort of).  As I wrote a few days ago, this is a paid certification program newly offered by the TOEFL program.  According to the website, it includes a self-paced course and a summative assessment.  Participants are also required to take the TOEFL test before being awarded a certificate.  Those who complete the program will have their names listed on the official TOEFL website.

Currently the program is only available in China (“global rollout coming soon”), though when I scanned the provided QR code with my WeChat app I didn’t get any information about how to get started.

It is unclear how much it costs to participate.