PRINCETON, N.J., Oct. 28, 2014 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ — Educational Testing Service (ETS) has received two of the highest certifications provided by the IMS Global Learning Consortium for its Item Banking Information System (IBIS). Both certifications relate to the production, sharing and delivery of test content by computer not only to vendors but to the greatest number of students.

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One certification is for the ability of IBIS to produce Accessible Portable Item Protocol™ (APIP ®) conformant test packages — a technical standard for digital interchange of assessment content. The other is for IBIS’s ability to both import and export individual test items and entire test packages according to APIP conformance. This certification ensures that individual test items and entire test packages delivered on computers are accessible to the greatest number of students possible.

“This is just fantastic news and a testament to ETS’s standing as a leader in development of and compliance with educational data standards,” says Daniel Wakeman, ETS Vice President and Chief Information Officer. “We have been working with IMS Global for nearly 15 years, and in fact, Question and Test Interoperability — the leading open standard for defining test questions and results — is based on The Four Process Model work done at ETS.”

“The Item Banking Information System is a scalable state-of-the-art tool that we created for ETS to provide end-to-end test item management,” adds Jenny Gray, ETS Director of Information Technology.

“The system has a wide range of capabilities and supports all of the integral aspects necessary — Item Acquisition, Internal/External Review, Coding, Scoring Information (both machine and human-scored items), Quality Control Checks, Test Assembly, Form Specifications Conformance Validations, Test Packaging, Delivery and Spiraling Specifications, Statistical Review, Legal and Regulatory Requirements, Exposure Metrics, and many more,” says David Baum, ETS Director of Systems & Capabilities.

“One of the system’s wide-ranging features includes its enhancements to support APIP standardization,” explains Gary Driscoll, Senior Strategic Advisor, Information Technology. “These enhanced features include the ability to import, review, update and export APIP conformance items in a straightforward and reliable manner. This makes it easier for educators and testing organizations to quickly and reliably address the needs of their students and test takers.”

ETS and ETS-owned Computerized Assessments and Learning (CA&L) also have received IMS APIP conformance certification for ETS’s Test Operations Management System (TOMS) and the CA&L Test Delivery system. The 2014 IMS Global Learning Consortium e-Assessment Conformance Certification Challenge Platinum Award went to ETS, while CA&L received the Silver Award.

With these two latest awards, ETS’s IBIS has achieved all available APIP certifications for item banking and authoring systems.

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 IMS Global Learning Consortium (IMS Global)
IMS Global is a nonprofit organization that advances technology that can affordably scale and improve educational participation and attainment. IMS members are leading suppliers, institutions and government organizations that are enabling the future of education by collaborating on interoperability and adoption initiatives. IMS sponsors Learning Impact, a global awards program and conference to recognize the impact of innovative technology on educational access, affordability and quality. For more information, visit www.imsglobal.org.