PRINCETON, N.J., Feb. 10, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- With a number of new and improved features, ETS has launched the latest version of its award winning Criterion® Online Writing Evaluation Service. The Criterion service is a web-based instructional tool that helps elementary, secondary and college-level students plan, write and revise essays.
"The Criterion service is a valuable instructional tool that is used across the world by schools, universities and aspiring graduate students to help them develop their writing skills," says Scott Weaver, ETS Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer. "This latest version includes several improvements that have been requested by teachers and administrators to help them address the needs of their students by allowing them to minimize the time they spend working on the technical aspects of writing while maximizing their time on higher-level writing skills."
In addition to the Criterion service's enhanced ability to provide immediate scoring and feedback on an essay's grammar, spelling, word usage, mechanics, organization and development, the new version also allows for the creation of customizable student and group reports. These reports allow teachers and administrators to analyze student performance at the district level, highlight where teacher training is needed and determine if adjustments need to be made in a teacher's curriculum.
Some of the Criterion service's other new and improved features include a topic library that allows instructors to choose from over 570 essay assignments at different skill levels, compatibility across multiple platforms including a number of tablets, and a new Peer Review Tool that allows students to work together and comment on each other's work.
The Criterion service was featured at the International Society for Technology Education 2013 conference, and has won numerous awards including a 2005 ComputEd Gazette Education Software Review Award and the IMS Global Learning Consortium's 2007 Platinum Level Learning Impact Award for helping hundreds of thousands of elementary, middle, high school and college students practice their writing skills.
For more information about the Criterion service, visit www.ets.org/criterion.
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 post-secondary education, as well as 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
SOURCE Educational Testing Service