Serendipity35

The Educational Testing Service (ETS) has changed the name of its ICT test (information & communication technology). This is a test that measures skills in retrieving, analyzing, and communicating online data.

The test will now be called the iSkills assessment.

Their site says that "iSkills is the new ICT Literacy Assessment and more than just a new name. The iSkills assessment provides colleges and universities with new customizable score reports and lower pricing."

We all know ETS for the GRE®, SAT®, and AP® tests. They are a non-profit with quite a range of products and they also design, develop and implement customized assessment systems.

The iSkills test uses scenario-based tasks to measure both cognitive and technical skills and is intended to guide institutional information/communication technology literacy initiatives, guide curricula innovations, measure progress standings, and assess individual student proficiency. ETS says that educational institutions can receive test scores in a form that allows them to compare their students' performance with those of students from similar institutions.

What are they calling "literacy proficiency"?

"It is the ability "to use digital technology, communication tools and networks appropriately to solve information problems in order to function in an information society. This includes the ability to use technology as a tool to research, organize, evaluate and communicate information, and the possession of a fundamental understanding of the ethical/legal issues surrounding the access and use of information."

I'm not an any kind of authority on the ICT (though some field testing was done at NJIT & one of our professors here was involved in this assessment), but I wonder if the change had more to do with the response and field testing of the original version which reportedly showed students at lower than expected levels.

Is the move to "skills" like the back-to-basics movement that once swept (like a virus) through the K-12 world?

ETS also supports K-12 education with products like its System Suite that combines assessment, data analysis, instructional strategies and professional development tools.

I would suggest looking at ETS' effective teaching section and at their research area. With so many schools involved in assessment programs whether they are imposed by the federal government.