I saw this interesting article in The Koala yesterday. It mirrors what I’ve observed happening in Australia – since the beginning of 2024 I’ve noticed Duolingo’s Australian office bringing some really talented people into the fold. They are working hard to increase acceptance of DET scores.
Says the article:
“Reflecting on Duolingo’s entry into the Australian market, Blacker noted that Duolingo is working on gaining Australian government acceptance for visa purposes, however, he expressed optimism and cited the overwhelmingly positive response from institutions across the sector and a willingness to accept the DET where possible.”
Earlier, I predicted government acceptance of the DET by governments in 5 to 10 years. I’ve mentioned Australia as being the trickiest of all cases, and acceptance there probably coming closer to the end of that time period. But maybe we’ll see some movement before 2034.
When I mention government acceptance of DET to insider-ish people the response is generally “Nah, never going to happen.” Or “Never going to happen unless X, Y and Z happen first.”
This sort of head-in-sand approach to score use can be risky. Just ask all the ETS folk who were darn certain that American schools would stop accepting the DET once the pandemic ended.