PRINCETON, N.J., April 14, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Educational Testing Service (ETS) and ETS-owned Computerized Assessments and Learning (CA&L) have received IMS Accessible Portable Item Protocol™ (APIP™) conformance certification for ETS's Test Operations Management System (TOMS) and the CA&L Test Delivery system. This certification ensures that tests delivered on computers are accessible to the greatest number of students possible.
The two assessment systems were certified through the IMS Global Learning Consortium's inaugural APIP Conformance Certification Challenge. The challenge was designed to ensure that the various e-assessment products, systems and items that are developed will have a high degree of interoperability and accessibility when they are deployed in the field.
"The Test Operations Management System is a tool that we created for ETS's K–12 Testing Programs," said Daniel Wakeman, ETS Vice President and Chief Information Officer. "The system has a wide range of capabilities and is used to manage statewide assessment systems across the country."
"One of the system's wide-ranging features includes its enhancements to support APIP Personal Needs Profiles," said Gary Driscoll, Senior Strategic Advisor, Information Technology, ETS. "These enhanced features include the ability to import, review, update and export APIP Personal Needs Profiles in a straightforward and reliable manner. This makes it easier for educators to quickly and reliably address the needs of their students."
The CA&L Test Delivery system is a flexible testing platform that can support multiple question types and incorporates a number of built-in accommodations. Some of the easy-to-use accommodations that are available to students include auditory support, in which the computer reads test questions to students; the ability to access color-adjusting tools to make the screen easy to read; and a magnification mechanism to enlarge assessment content for students with visual impairments.
In addition to certifying the TOMS and CA&L Test Delivery system's compliance with APIP Standards, the IMS Global Learning Consortium also entered the two systems as finalists in the in the upcoming IMS Learning Impact Awards competition, which will be held during the 2014 Learning Impact Leadership Institute gathering in Louisiana later this year.
For more information about TOMS, please contact Fred Manno, ETS Business Technology Liaison, at fmanno@ets.org. To view the TOMS demonstration video, click here.
For more information on the CA&L Test Delivery system, please visit https://caltesting.org/. To view the CA&L IMS APIP demonstration video, click here.
About ETS
At ETS, we advance quality and equity in education for people worldwide by creating assessments based on rigorous research. ETS serves individuals, educational institutions and government agencies by providing customized solutions for teacher certification, English language learning, and elementary, secondary and postsecondary education, and by conducting education research, analysis and policy studies. Founded as a nonprofit in 1947, ETS develops, administers and scores more than 50 million tests annually — including the TOEFL
® and TOEIC
® tests, the GRE
® tests and The Praxis Series
® assessments — in more than 180 countries, at over 9,000 locations worldwide. www.ets.org
About Computerized Assessments and Learning, LLC
Computerized Assessments and Learning (CA&L), LLC, operates as an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of ETS. CA&L is an industry-leading computerized assessment company based in Lawrence, Kansas. CA&L's adaptive testing platform provides products and services to support instructional and learning processes for K–12 education systems. CA&L provides online formative, interim and summative testing for large-scale and local assessment programs that meets or exceeds federal and state testing requirements and produces valid and reliable results.
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SOURCE Educational Testing Service