According to a recent presentation by ETS, there have been about 7000 registrations for the TOEFL Essentials Test since it launched in August of last year.

Update:  ETS now has an official list of accepting schools, so I will retire this page!

Okay, it begins!  On this page I will list the schools that accept and do not accept the TOEFL Essentials Test.  Keep checking back for updates.  I will  maintain this list until ETS makes their own.  When that happens I will post a link.  

If there is a school you want to know about leave a comment down below and I will contact them in August.

I’m pretty sure that the NABP will not accept the test.

Edit: I’ve bumped this post to the front of the blog to highlight all of the recent additions.

Schools that Accept TOEFL Essentials

• Western Illinois University (source)
• Carnegie Mellon University (source)
• Bryn Mawr College (source)
• Macalester College (source)
• Grinnell College (source)
• Vanderbilt University Graduate School of Business (source)
• South Dakota State – Graduate School (source)
• Loyola University (source)
• Drexel University (source)
• University of Rochester – Simon Business School (source)
• Fuller Seminary (source)
• Illinois State (source)
• Texas A & M – Graduate School (source)
• NC State University (source)
• Purdue University (source)
• Cascadia College (source)
• UT Southwestern – School of Health Professions (source)
• Boston University – Various Undergrad (source)

In addition, here is a list that came from the office of ETS Global BV Korea.  These schools will likely accept the test, but have not announced it.  As I find official announcements, I will move the schools to the above list.

• Los Angeles Piece College
• University of San Francisco
• Gulf Coast State College
• Campbellsville University
• Temple University Beasley School of Law
• Perkiomen School (High School)
• Bob Jones University
• Clemson University
• Marquette University
• Huazhong University of Science and Technology
• Northwestern Polytechnical University
• Shandong University of Technology
• Wenzhou-Kean University
• Wuhan University of Technology
• City University of Macau

Schools that do not Accept TOEFL Essentials

• NYU (source)
• Johns Hopkins – School of Engineering (source)
• Santa Clara University (source)
• Colorado State University – Graduate School (source)
• Boston University – Dental School (source)
• Northwestern University – School of Medicine (source)
• Duke University – Graduate School (source)
• University of Nebraska Omaha (source)
• Case Western University – Graduate School (source)
• Stanford University – Graduate School (source)
• Brigham Young University – Idaho (source)
• Northeastern University (source)
• University of Chicago School of Law (source)
• Penn State Great Value Graduate School (source)
• Johns Hopkins – Carey Business School (source)
• Stanford University – Graduate School (source)
• Dickinson College (source)
• University of Illinois Urbana Champaign Economics (source)

Buried in an article in the “Learning English” section of Voice of America is some news about which schools will accept the new TOEFL Essentials Test:

Some schools like Temple University Law School, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the University of San Francisco have told ETS they will accept results from the new test. And ETS said it will publish a list of universities that intend to accept the Essentials test after the first phase of testing.

That’s nice.  In the near future I will start a blog post that lists schools which will accept the test.

The TOEFL Essentials page for test takers has launched.   It contains a ton of good information, but the most important is obviously the collection of three sample TOEFL Essentials Tests.  Check them out.  Obviously you will also want to check out the list of TOEFL Essentials Content.

For my take on this content, you should watch my video about the question types.

Here are a few random details about TOEFL Essentials that have trickled out via the regular webinars hosted by ETS.  Yes, I watch every single one of them:

• The reading, listening and writing sections of the test will be adaptive.  The speaking section will not.
• At launch, the e-rater and SpeechRater automated scoring technology will NOT be used.  Only human graders will be used.  Automated scoring will be introduced later.
• Scoring rubrics will be published in June.
• The default voice (that gives instructions) will have a mild British English accent.
• Right now the “foundational skills” will consist of vocabulary knowledge and sentence construction.  Additional skills will be added later.
• The score recipients will have access to two writing and two speaking samples.  Plus the unscored video interview from the end of the test.
• At launch, the test will be available one day per week.  It will be expanded up to three days per week, depending on demand.
• The TOEFL ITP will continued to be administered. 
• Some of the documentation that was to be delivered in May has been delayed to June.

If you were hoping to get some details about the new test this week, you can keep waiting.

The site used to say: “after the score requirements guidance and score concordance tools are released in early May.” Now it says: “after the score requirements guidance and score concordance tools are released in early June.”

Likewise, score requirements were “expected to be available in May 2021.” But now they are “expected to be available in June 2021.”

The “assessment framework document” is still promised for May, though.

See also: https://www.ets.org/s/toefl-essentials/score-users/scores-admissions/

Hey, this might be related to the simulated conversation that will be on the new TOEFL Essentials Test! Check out this page. There is a video.  The video was added within the last week or two.

It hasn’t been confirmed, but I suspect that’s the tech being used on the test.  A few more notes following the screenshots.

There is an article describing the tech over here.  It includes a schematic illustration of the possible flow of a conversation simulating a job interview. Another article discusses how ETS has been developing avatars to make the conversations a bit more vivid.