TOEFL non-transparency? re: Contractors within ETS & TOEFL? Ask PROMETRIC and COLLEGE BOARD
Debbie Smythe
I discovered that in very late 2006, when TOEFL iBT went
international, that ETS, who makes TOEFL and SAT and GRE, was sold to
Prometric, by the College Board of USA in Washington DC.
https://www.prometric.com/Services/Company/MichaelBrannick.htm
Prometric is a giant software global company that makes IQ measurement
tests [some for the US military contractors] and also MBA exams for
universities in globally outsourcing India, and maybe will make all
exams for the whole world in another ten years, one big Orwellian
Brother! PROMETRICS have had complaints in India and Australia and
other countries in the "profit one world web" for "conflict of
interest" and poor quality at times. Prometric also has contracts
with IBM and MicroSoft. Shocking!!
College Board is part of the U.S. government, for the people.
Prometric is commercial, non government, for profit.
Our United States universities are geared up for profits from
foreigners, more than to train an educated class of U.S. citizens.
Even our deans and presidents of our universities are becoming more
and more led by foreigners. Why?
More Foreign-Born Scholars Lead U.S. Universities
By LISA W. FODERARO
Published: March 9, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/10/education/10presidents.html?scp=1&sq=More%20Foreign-Born%20Scholars%20Lead%20U.S.%20Universities&st=cse
The General Counsel and VP of ETS is a recent executive for the
Department of Defense [military]
defense industry, the most recent being with then Martin Marietta (now
Lockheed Martin).
Tony comes from the defense industry, the most recent being with then
Martin Marietta (now Lockheed Martin). He was long a practicing
attorney in Lancaster, PA, the spider capital of the USA.
https://www.prometric.com/Services/Company/TonyScicchitano.htm
Tony Scicchitano, Senior Vice President and General Counsel
Tony was promoted to the role of Senior Vice President and General
Counsel in 2007. His current responsibilities include General Counsel
and responsibility for a number of activities at Prometric including
Channel Security, Purchasing, Insurance, and Real Estate.
Tony originally joined Prometric in October of 1995 to organize a
contracts department for management of non-US customer and supplier
contracts. Since 1995 he has held increasingly responsible positions
within Prometric including Director of Contracts, Vice President of
Contracts, Vice President of Contracts & Legal, and Vice President of
Global Operations Support & Legal. During his tenure at Prometric he
has organized and staffed a contracts department and a legal
department, re-organized and re-built the channel security department,
and organized and staffed a purchasing department. Tony was a member
of the legal team that organized a highly successful joint venture in
Japan, which fueled strong growth in the international market. In
2003 he served as interim CEO of the JV and in 2006 was instrumental
in converting the JV to a wholly owned subsidiary. The Japanese
business continues to drive strong growth.
Prior to joining Prometric, Tony was in private practice specializing
in commercial and tax law in Lancaster, PA. Prior to his time in
private practice Scicchitano spent six years in various contracting
and legal positions in the defense industry, the most recent being
with then Martin Marietta (now Lockheed Martin). He has a Juris
Doctor degree from University of North Carolina and a Bachelor of Arts
degree from University of Delaware.
Company
PROMETRIC: Global and Growing
TOEFL is actually designed by PROMETRIC
a USAID, AED contractor
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/17/education/17sat.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=general
"SAT’s Reality TV Essay Stumps Some", article in New York Times
casting doubt on the efficacy of the new SAT test design
administration......
> It really does seem that Big Brother is playing with reality over who
> gets into Ivy League universities and the best state universities,
> dependent on theirTOEFLscores, if they are a foreigner, which is big
> bucks in USA, maybe over 25 percent of their higher education student
> body.
> Somebody is tipping off Chinese and Korean students how to get higher
> scores on TOEFL through unofficial channels, like NED and Dept. of
> Education and US embassies abroad, .... could it be the devilish CHEMONICS tie-in?
----
https://www.prometric.com/Services/Company/MichaelBrannick.htm
Michael Brannick, President and Chief Executive Officer
Michael joined Prometric as president and chief executive officer in
May 2001. He manages all operations of the 3000 person, multi-
national company, including a global technology infrastructure, test
center network and the delivery of over seven million certification,
or licensure examinations each year. For more than two decades,
Michael has been involved in a broad range of developmental and
research activities in the education and testing industry. He has
experience in global expansion, business development, integration of
business systems and planning. Michael is continually focused on the
operational improvements that provide benefit to Prometric’s client
base, thereby spurring revenue growth for Prometric.
During his tenure at Prometric, he has led the company to achieve
double digit growth through increasing test volumes for clients and
the addition of new, value-added services. During the latter part of
2006 and through 2007 he spearheaded the successful sale of Prometric
from Thomson to ETS, Prometric’s current parent company. During this
most recent period he has led the company through a significant
transition process for Prometric into its new environment as an
independent, for-profit subsidiary of ETS. Michael continues to be
responsible for Prometric’s global expansion strategy and for setting
the direction of the company in the rapidly growing testing and
assessment market.
Prior to joining Prometric, Michael served as president and chief
executive officer of Thomson Peterson’s. In this role, Michael built
a new infrastructure for the company’s databases and business systems,
driven by a strategy to transform the company from a print-based
publisher of data to an integrated education information service,
employing print, software and Internet tools. Additional
responsibilities included oversight of Peterson’s strategic planning
and development functions.
Before coming to Peterson’s, Michael served as senior vice president
of business development for Jostens Learning Corporation. He joined
Jostens in 1994 as vice president of product marketing, was promoted a
year later to vice president, strategy and planning, and then
ultimately to senior vice president. He also spent eight years with
the National Education Corporation in a variety of senior marketing
roles.
Michael holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Niagara
University and a Master of Science degree in Industrial Psychology
from California State University at Long Beach. He also holds
specialty certifications from the Wharton School of Business at the
University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University and the University of
Southern California. He has authored several executive articles and
position papers for various higher education trade publications and
books.
------------------------
Chris Derr, Chief Financial Officer
As CFO, Chris Derr has responsibility for operational accounting and
planning, financial reporting, forecasting, internal audit, statutory
compliance, cash management and tax functions within Prometric.
During the process of Prometric's sale to ETS, Chris stepped into a
highly visible leadership role and took ownership of Prometric's
financial operations. A new member of the management team, he has been
an integral part of successfully transitioning Prometric's business to
its new parent company. Most recently, Chris has led Prometric's
effort to integrate Prometric's financial systems into its new
operating environment.
Chris began his time at Prometric as Vice President Worldwide
Controller. In this capacity he was responsible for financial
reporting, client billing, Sarbanes Oxley compliance and accounting
controls in support of Prometric global operations. He served in
previous positions with Thomson, including as Vice President of
Finance for the Thomson Healthcare Medical Education division
(2000-2004), and as a CFO for several strategic marketing groups in
Thomson Newspapers (1995-2000). Prior to Thomson, he held various
senior financial executive positions, including CFO, for a division of
the Tribune Company.
Chris holds a MBA from the University of Central Florida and a BS in
accounting from Rollins College. He is a CPA and a CMA.
Paul Forrester, Chief Technology Officer
Paul Forrester joined Prometric in October 1999 and was named CTO in
June, 2006. Paul currently works to create, implement and maintain a
technology strategy for Prometric that is aligned with its business
objectives and leverages technology advances to meet customer needs.
Paul regularly works with our clients to understand their business
needs and to represent their expectations in Prometric's business and
technology planning processes.
Paul has worked on a number of key technology initiatives for
Prometric. He led the development of Prometric's Business Continuity
program, helped drive the adoption of a standards-based technology
service management methodology and implemented Prometric's data
management strategy. He helped create a technology planning process
to drive the implementation of technology initiatives that sharpened
market and customer focus and extended Prometric's portfolio of
products and services. Paul also managed the simplification of
Prometric's technology environment to increase efficiency, increase
reliability and enhance system functionality.
Prior to joining Prometric, Paul held a number of technology
management positions, most recently in the managed healthcare
industry. Paul received his masters in business administration from
the University of Baltimore, in Baltimore, MD, with a focus on
information technology management. Paul also holds a Bachelor of
Science in electrical engineering from the University of Maryland.
_________
SAS is one of the key partners of the new PROMETRICS management of ETS
products, such as TOEFL, SAT and GRE.
SAS, spooky partner with Prometric, new owners of ETS & Toefl
http://www.sas.com/solutions/fraud/index.html
*
Partners
*
Company
*
Support & Training
* Log In
* Welcome Click to edit your profile [Log out]
*
Worldwide Sites
Corporate Site (www.sas.com)
Worldwide Sites
o Albania
o Argentina
o Australia
o Austria
o Belgium
o Bosnia & Herz.
o Brazil
o Canada
o Chile
o China
o Colombia
o Croatia
o Czech Republic
o Denmark
o Estonia
o Finland
o France
o Germany
o Greece
o Hong Kong
o Hungary
o Iceland
o India
o Indonesia
o Ireland
o Italy
o Japan
o Korea
o Luxembourg
o Macedonia
o Malaysia
o Mexico
o Middle East
o Montenegro
o Netherlands
o New Zealand
o Norway
o Pakistan
o Peru
o Philippines
o Poland
o Portugal
o Romania
o Russia / CIS
o Serbia
o Singapore
o Slovakia
o Slovenia
o South Africa
o Spain
o Sweden
o Switzerland
o Taiwan
o Thailand
o Turkey
o United Kingdom
o United States
o Venezuela
Worldwide Contacts
If you don't find your country in the list, see our worldwide
contacts in:
Africa | Asia/Pacific | Europe | Latin America & Caribbean |
Middle East | North America
* Contact Us
Products & Solutions / Fraud Prevention & Detection
Enterprise Fraud and Financial Crimes
Prevent, detect and manage fraud across the enterprise
Banks, insurance companies, health care organizations and government
entities are all seeing an increase in the incidence and
sophistication of fraud, waste and abuse activities, fueled in large
measure by the financial turmoil gripping the world's economy. To
fight fraud effectively, organizations must continually improve the
monitoring of customer behavior across multiple accounts and systems.
SAS® Enterprise Financial Crimes Framework provides a technology
infrastructure that integrates fraud detection, alert management,
network analysis and case management – giving organizations the upper
hand in detecting fraud in any form, at any touch point.
Read about SAS solutions for fighting enterprise fraud and financial
crimes:
* For banking.
* For insurance.
* For government.
* For health care.
* For supply chain.
Components of SAS® Enterprise Financial Crimes Framework
SAS Enterprise Financial Crimes Framework comprises software
components designed to detect and prevent financial crimes, as well as
manage efforts against them, for organizations in banking, health
care, insurance and government. The framework includes components for:
* Detection and alert generation – Enables systematic detection of
suspicious activity.
* Alert management – Provides capabilities for scoring, de-duping,
prioritizing and routing of pertinent alerts to appropriate resources.
* Social network analysis – Uncovers previously hidden linkages
and makes them visible.
* Case management – Facilitates the investigation, capture and
display of all information pertinent to a case.
* Real-time authorizations – Looks at all card transactions,
including purchases, payments and nonmonetary transactions.
How SAS® Enterprise Financial Crimes Framework Is Different
Only the SAS Enterprise Financial Crimes Framework lets you:
* Build and use holistic customer behavioral patterns in the fraud
detection process.
* Gain a true enterprise view of fraud by aggregating alerts from
multiple systems into a single environment.
* Fully leverage external data sources, such as fraud consortium
databases.
* Improve investigator efficiency with unique network
visualization, data drilldown and other investigation tools.
* Customize the solution as needed (e.g., develop fraud models
unique to your institution).
* Increase ROI per investigator tenfold through fewer false
positives, the prioritization of higher-value networks and more
accurate investigations.
* Seamlessly integrate in real time with authorization systems
around the globe.
Debbie Smythe
View profile
More options Sep 30 2010, 1:54 pm
Debbie Smythe View profile
More options Jul 14 2009, 8:20 pm
Newsgroups: sci.lang, alt.english.usage, alt.callahans,
alt.usage.english, alt.native
From: Debbie Smythe <debra_smy...@yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, 14 Jul 2009 09:20:55 -0700 (PDT)
The 13th edition of the BARRONS TOEFL book ibt, is a duplicate of the
12th edition, that ran for 4 years, almost 5, reprinted each year as
new, the only difference is that the Test 1 is no longer at the
beginning of the book separated from the other 6 sample tests, it is
along with all the other practice tests.
nothing has changed and my students are deeply disappointed, not only
in Barron's but with ETS and the whole U.S. billion/trillion dollar
education industry for foreigners, which seems like a closed mafia
these days, as corrupted as military contracting rampant in all
levels
of U.S. industry, since the never ending Afghan and Iraq wars.
Try to find a review of Barron's 13th edition on Amazon.com or any
other Google link. You won't. Some big brother hand in USA is
snipping every truthsayer that posts online the fact that the 13th
edition is a rip off as big as the Goldman Sachs induced global
banking scandal. check it out. Sallie Mae student loans and fraud
on
the part of the bankers. These kinds of global frauds are what led
to
Russia's collapse in 1991.
Deb
Local: Tues, Jul 14 2009 8:20 pm
Subject: when is the publishing release date of BARRON'S 13TH
EDITION?
Forward | Print | Individual message | Show original | Report this
message | Find messages by this author
Does anyone know when the book BARRON'S TOEFL 13th edition will
finally FINALLY come out?
The 12th edition has been out since 2006 and i hope that ETS does not
slap on 2010 on the cover of the new Barrons book for 2010 and yet it
is STILL the tiresome 12 edition that will now be 4 years old.
The tips and workouts DO NOT WORK WELL for higher scores on the new
TOEFL global exam and it seems the Chinese teaching schools are being
tipped by someone inside the United States Department of Education,
letting the rich and populous Indians and Chinese and Koreans get
higher scores while the rest of us are stuck with the aging and
ineffective Barron's book?
Again, when is the publishing date of BARRON'S 13TH EDITION?
2. Rimbaud lives on
View profile
More options Sep 30 2010, 6:28 pm
I agree that there is something VERY VERY FISHY with administration
of
TOEFL these days for admission of foreingers to American
universities.
I tried as you suggested to find any reviews of the now nearly 10
months on the bookshelves new BARRON'S TOEFL IBT 13th edition, and
they have all been whitewashed out of existence on Amazon.com and
Google and everywhere else.
Don't buy the 13th edition!!!! The CDs and sample tests are now
going
on 6 years old and very old.
They are exactly the same as the old 12th edition.
The new Barron's 13th edition does not even warn that for the
integrated writing, one must use the CASTING DOUBT ON technique,
saying that the 2nd professor casts doubts on the 1st professor's
opinion. The 2009 ETS Toefl book does a good job of illustrating the
technique needed to succeed on the test, but they give only two
sample
essays and recordings. One needs at least ten to get good at the
technique.
It really does seem that Big Brother is playing with reality over who
gets into Ivy League universities and good state universities,
dependent on their TOEFL scores, if they are a foreigner, which is
big
bucks in USA, maybe over 25 percent of their higher education student
body.
Somebody is tipping off Chinese and Korean students how to get higher
scores on TOEFL through unofficial channels, like NED and Dept. of
Education and US embassies abroad, the America Councils, and IREX, it
sorely seems true, and none of the TOEFL books are clued in to the
annual changes in TOEFL exams that make the Listening and Reading
more
like obscure IQ tests than testing only english skills needed to
follow a university lecture in english.
Somebody should investigate this scandal, like DER SPIEGEL magazine
in
Germany, or the Amnesty International, like they look into human
rights crimes every where else. It is time for all the monitoring
agencies in the world, to monitor USA now.
On Sep 30, 2010 1:54 pm, Debbie Smythe <debra_smy...@yahoo.com>
wrote:
- Show quoted text -
3. TIM BLOWFALT
View profile
More options Oct 3 2010, 9:21 pm
re: American Councils employs a full-time professional staff of over
370, located in 24 countries across Southeastern Europe, Eurasia, the
Middle East, Asia and the United States.
Funding comes from public and private sources, including the U.S.
Agency for International Development, USAID; the U.S. Department of
State; the U.S. Department of Education; the Library of Congress, the
National Endowment for the Humanities, the governments of the Russian
Federation and Kazakhstan; the World Bank; the Carnegie Corporation;
the Open Society Institute/Soros Foundations, and other public and
private donors.
We need to monitor AMERICAN COUNCILS and NED and USAID and PROMETRIC
and Chemonics!!!! Call your Congressperson today!!
.
=======================================
I agree that there is something VERY VERY FISHY with administration
of
TOEFL these days for admission of foreigners to American
universities.
- Show quoted text -
-------------------------------------------
+++++++++++++++++++++
REPOSTING
I am going to sue ETS!!!!!!!
Hi guys,
I’m going to sue ETS on their blood sucking iBT. I have gathered a
great deal of information about them and their ways in treating their
customers ”test takers” that would help explain dozens of ETS
mistakes . I have contacted a big attorney firm. The lawyers over
there are collecting information. I am waiting for their final
decision.
The reason why I am contacting you is because my lawyers have advised
me that the more candidates claiming unfair test conditions or
questions, the better our chance would be.
Personally, I am a pharmacist and my career has almost gone. My life
is in the middle of no where. I have lost my opportunity to live
nearby my family in my state. I have nothing to lose. I have been
taking the TSE and TOEFL iBT 15 times since January 2006. I have been
doing nothing but studying and taking ETS tests for 14 months. Is it
fair? Meanwhile, I have lost job opportunities. I have spent fortune
on TOEFL registration and materials. I have lost my self-esteem.
Consequently, I have decided on filing my claim. They think that most
of the foreigners in the U.S. have no rights. ETS reserves the rights
to have our test responses without even treating us as humans
Instead,
they look down to most of us as if we were their slaves. Have you
ever
called the ETS customer services? Try it.
Let me tell you a real story. I believe that every body remembers the
chaos of TOEFL iBT in November 2006. Last November 2006, I called to
inquire about my TOEFL iBT test results that had not been published
and been late for about 20 days. Asking me tens of questions about my
identity, the customer service representative said that she could not
give me MY test results. I asked for her supervisor. The honorable
man
said the same claiming that I did not have my test registration
number
given that I had correctly answered every single question concerning
my name, birth date, address, test center, date and time, and so
forth. I, inoffensively, thought to ask this supervisor about who
would be the auditor for ETS. Surprise!!! “NO ONE IS AUDITING US”,
said the supervisor. After 2-3 minutes of what I should call
monologue,I was the only one talking, he, sarcastically, advised me
to
go ahead and ask my institution ((NABP)) to assign me another test.
Based on what is mentioned above, please answer the following
question.
Who in the world would repel customers by asking them to find someone
else to do what s/he supposed to make living of?
The answer is one word: MONOPOLY
ETS has succeeded to convince universities as well as professional
institutions like the NABP to recognize ETS as the only English test
maker in the US. In doing so, they held some practice tests in
countries like England. Of course, the English students could have
made it in the speaking test. Taking preliminary phase results into
their considerations, they provided the NABP with misleading figures
and numbers about the potential scores of the upcoming ETS
innovation,
TOEFL iBT.
I happened to get 29 on reading, 29 on listening, 29 on writing, and
my best was 24 in speaking. When I requested rescoring my 24 in
speaking, they remarked my test and I got 22 instead. On another
test,
I got R: 28, L: 28, S: 19, W: 28!!!!!
According to my understanding, any language consists of two aspects.
The first aspect is the ability to receive the language. You
comprehend the language using your reading and listening
capabilities.
The second aspect is the ability to inform others your message using
this language via the writing and/or speaking. Having achieved 29 on
the writing section, I would consider my abilities in conveying
information using the English Language adequate. Therefore, the
problem would be in the speaking score. Is it the right reflection of
my real speaking level? According to my professors, instructors,
colleagues, associates, co-workers, friends, neighbors, family, and
letter of recognitions that I have gotten from my college, I SPEAK
ENGLISH FLUENTLY. Moreover, the way by which the speaking part of the
TOEFL iBT test is brought in make it harder for me to prove my
competence in the language. I find it hard to come up with a perfect
summary concerning 2-3 minutes lecture I have just heard to. Besides,
The TOEFL iBT test mainstay would be on university situations,
conversations, lectures, problems, and so on. What does this have to
do with my situation? I am taking this test to be licensed as a
pharmacist. Should a pharmacist be a problem solver to academic
situation? I believe there are many different ways to evaluate
professionals better than speaking for 5.5 minutes in the TOEFL iBT.
It is better for either the NABP or the ETS to assign another test
and
call it TOEFLP (Test of English as a Foreign Language for
PROFESSIONALS). It is an idea that no body would even think about. As
mentioned above, it is monopoly. It is all about business and
business
relationships. I was just wandering, what the mean of the speaking
section test results would be in case that the NABP agreed upon IELTS
as another approved test. Do I smell something bad? It might be.
However, I trust NABP.
If you are interested, just send me at
Thanks for your consideration
On Sep 30, 6:28 pm, Rimbaud lives on <rimbaud_coct...@yahoo.com>
wrote:
- Hide quoted text -
> I agree that there is something VERY VERY FISHY with administration ofTOEFLthese days for admission of foreingers to American universities.
> I tried as you suggested to find any reviews of the now nearly 10
> months on the bookshelves new BARRON'STOEFLIBT13th edition, and
> they have all been whitewashed out of existence on Amazon.com and
> Google and everywhere else.
> Don't buy the13thedition!!!! The CDs and sample tests are now going
> on 6 years old and very old.
> They are exactly the same as the old 12thedition.
> The new Barron's13th edition does not even warn that for the
> integrated writing, one must use the CASTING DOUBT ON technique,
> saying that the 2nd professor casts doubts on the 1st professor's
> opinion. The 2009 ETS Toeflbook does a good job of illustrating the
> technique needed to succeed on the test, but they give only two sample
> essays and recordings. One needs at least ten to get good at the
> technique.
> It really does seem that Big Brother is playing with reality over who
> gets into Ivy League universities and good state universities,
> dependent on their TOEFL scores, if they are a foreigner, which is big
> bucks in USA, maybe over 25 percent of their higher education student
> body.
> Somebody is tipping off Chinese and Korean students how to get higher
> scores on TOEFL through unofficial channels, like NED and Dept. of
> Education and US embassies abroad, the America .
Harlan Messinger
> Do you know what i learned about TOEFL after much research??
>
> I discovered that in very late 2006, when TOEFL iBT went
> international, that ETS, who makes TOEFL and SAT and GRE, was sold to
> Prometric, by the College Board of USA in Washington DC.
Prometric is owned by ETS, not vice versa.
> https://www.prometric.com/Services/Company/MichaelBrannick.htm
Which clearly says that Brannick "spearheaded the successful sale of
Prometric from Thomson to ETS".
> Prometric is a giant software global company that makes IQ measurement
> tests [some for the US military contractors] and also MBA exams for
> universities in globally outsourcing India, and maybe will make all
> exams for the whole world in another ten years, one big Orwellian
> Brother! PROMETRICS have had complaints in India and Australia and
> other countries in the "profit one world web" for "conflict of
> interest" and poor quality at times. Prometric also has contracts
> with IBM and MicroSoft. Shocking!!
There are (gasp) companies that have contracts with IBM and Microsoft?
Prometric or ETS (gasp) has contracts with businesses? Not shocking.
> College Board is part of the U.S. government, for the people.
The College Board is not part of the U.S. government.
I have no idea what you are carrying on about, but you made it clear
right off the bat that it is grounded in gross ignorance. Also, this has
nothing to do with sci.lang.
Debbie Smythe
you responded to this thread without assessing the facts. Which
translation of your response is most accurate?
TOEFL test designing was sold to Prometric for their parent ETS. It
seems mostly ALL ETS test designs have been sold to PROMETRIC.
The reliability of TOEFL is a critical exponent for the billions upon
billions profitable education franchise in USA, a system of
universities not truly educating Americas broadly enough any longer,
especially African Americans, and native engineers and computer
scientists. The tests of TOEFL need to by "interpreted" or
"translated" into MEANINGFUL examinations of levels of english
language skills attainment. And there needs to be a governmental
transparency program to monitor all these testing operations, for all
to see and rest assured there are no irregularities or flaws or bad
ethics practices.
TOEFL in late 2006 was sold like a high tech bomber or a fleet of hi
tech tanks to PROMETRICS.
You prove my point by pointing out that College Board and ETS are not
officially part of the US government. But they should be and why is
this not of primary importance in Congressional debates now?
PLEASE tell me which department of the DOE [Dept. of Education] is
involved in testing for acceptance into higher academic institutions.
This should not be a corporate agency such as IBM or MicroSoft. It
should be governmental. We don't want Siemens grinding out exams for
the German post grad universities, now do we? for a profit.
This "revolving door" is much like the Federal Reserve, it is not
"federal" [Dennis Kucinich once said "The Federal Reserve is no more
federal than Federal Express".], but it is all we are stuck with for
printing money [Fed Reserve] and for printing or manufacturing
electronic tests for accreditation or acceptance for higher degrees
[ formerly ETS and College Board, now farmed out to this expansive
octopus-for-profit company, PROMETRIC.]
There have been for over 4 years now lots of irregularities in scoring
in TOEFL and most non-Americans have no legal recourse or funds or
lawyers or time or money to protest in court.
The U.S. universities have become giant cash machines for the same
people in U.S. government who have outsourced our military and
Pentagon and USAID to subcontractors of dubious merit. Much like
Blackwater and Halliburton, Chemonics, et al. We need immediate
transparency overall, in military and education contracts.
Lots of translators must pass TOEFL to study languages in USA and to
become accredited translators one day, regarding the applicability of
this post to sci.lang.
Please think before you 'ejaculate' your half examined biases.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/ejaculate
******************************
ETS is a U.S.-registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization created in
1947 by three other nonprofit educational institutions: the American
Council on Education (ACE), The Carnegie Foundation for the
Advancement of Teaching, and The College Entrance Examination Board.
[1] ETS was formed in 1947 to take over the testing activities of its
founders (whose organizations were not well suited to running
operational assessment programs), and to pursue research intended to
advance educational measurement and education.[2][3] Among other
things, ACE gave to the new organization the Cooperative Test Service
and the National Teachers Examination; Carnegie gave the GRE; and the
College Board turned over to ETS the operation (but not ownership) of
the SAT.
ACE's Higher Education for Development (HED) program supports the
worldwide development goals of the United States Agency for
International Development (USAID), primarily by coordinating the
involvement of the U.S. higher education community in addressing
international development challenges.[3]
Since 1945, ACE Military Programs have provided a collaborative link
between the U. S. Department of Defense (DoD) and higher education
through the review of military training and experiences for the award
of equivalent college credits for members of the armed forces.
Registrars, admissions officers, academic advisors, career counselors
and DoD Voluntary Education professionals have a basis for recognizing
military educational experiences in terms of civilian academic credit
through the Military Guide Online.[5]
In 1918, 14 higher education associations formed an emergency council
to ensure the U.S. had a ready supply of technically trained military
personnel in World War I. In July, it adopted the name “American
Council on Education” and invited institutions of higher education to
join the Council.[7]
Some other highlights of the Council’s history include:
1942: ACE spearheaded the development of the GED program and the
Military Evaluations Program for veterans who left school to serve in
World War II. Two years later, ACE advocated the passage of the
Servicemen’s Readjustment Act (also known as the G.I. Bill) to provide
education benefits to veterans.[8]
1948: Along with the Carnegie Foundation and the College Board, ACE
founded the Educational Testing Service.[9]
On Mar 21, 3:32 pm, Harlan Messinger
TIM BLOWFALT
PROMETRICS, THOMSON & SLYVAN, the three companies historically iron-
clad bound to ETS testing [like a Pentagon subcontracted tank],
currently named only PROMETRIC, which designs and runs TOEFL, SAT,
GMAT, CPA exams, and MS exams, also, in addition to their current 2011
monopoly on all ETS and College Board products in higher
education.....
http://www.areforum.org/forums/showthread.php?t=98592
Oct. 2006, plentiful and woeful complaints against Thomson/Prometric
test centers
Home...... Rules...... FTP ......
areforum > General Topics > ENTER General Topics Forum
Prometric complaints
User Name Remember Me?
Password
Register FAQ Community Calendar Today's Posts Search
Thread Tools Display Modes
#1
10-23-2006, 02:01 PM
ericm
Member
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: ARCHIT??*, , USA
Posts: 9
imported post
Anybody ever show up to the Thomson Prometric test center and they
don't have your appointment?
This happened to me last Friday. I ended up having to leave to get my
confirmation number and then had to call the main headquarters. They
couldn't give me an explanation as to why THEY had canceled my test.
So, they rescheduled my CD's test for Oct 31st, which was the next
available date.
The bad thing with all of this is that I have to take MM the week of
Nov. 13th which only gives me 2 weeks after CD's to prepare for MM.
Unless of course I start studying for MM and hope that I don't forget
any of the CD stuff.
Are there any ways that I can submit a complaint to NCARB regarding
this? I mean shouldn't Prometric be held accountable for administering
an exam on the day it is scheduled and we as test takers have prepared
for. Getting mentally prepared for these tests is hard enough without
these kinds of incidents.
#2
10-23-2006, 04:30 PM
jaygirl
Member
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Kansas City, Missouri, USA
Posts: 182
imported post
Eric,
A similar thinghappened to me with my previous test (CD).
ButPrometric's automatedphone systemcalled me at home and at work and
left warning messages. In all, they left me 6 messages to call them
back and re-schedule.
This was very nerve-wracking, though because my test was scheduled for
a Friday, and they only called me on Tuesday night the week of the
test. The first messages starting showing up at 5pm my time, and by
the timeI heard them, it was too late to do anything until the next
day. Also, since they left multiple messages, and I had 2 appointments
(CDs on 10/6 and BT on 11/7) I didn't know if the problem was just
with one of the appointments or with both.
On Wednesday, I called and rescheduled. Prometric said the problem was
with the 10/6 appointment only. I was able to reschedule to another
test center that was the same distance from my house as the original
choice, and I was able to keep the same date, just a slightly
different time.
I asked Prometric to confirm that the 11/7 wasstillvalid, and they
said it was. I also stopped by the original test center that I
wantedfor the 10/6 test, and asked if the 11/7 appointment was still
ok, and they confirmed. Iasked them what happened on the 6th of
October thatcaused the Prometric reschedule, and theydidn'tknow what
happened. The guy that works there said that his appointment schedule
that morning kept changing.One minute,he'd look at his screen, and
they were overbooked, the next minute, he'd look at it and they were
at 50% capacity. It changed several times that morning, but he never
got all histest stations completely booked. So he was as mystified as
me.
Maybe Prometric's main server was having abad day?
As far as what to do to complain, go ahead and file one, but I doubt
it will do you any good.However, giving them feedback like this might
help them to identify future problems.
Good luck on your MM and CD tests.
(By the way, 2 weeks for MM should be enough to prepare, if you don't
get yourself distracted with other stuff.)
#3
10-23-2006, 06:42 PM
ericm
Member
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: ARCHIT??*, , USA
Posts: 9
imported post
In response to jaygirl:
The thing is that there wasn't anything wrong with the test center.
There were other tests being given that day. and they never tried to
contact me.
who would I file a complaint with?
#4
10-23-2006, 07:04 PM
jaygirl
Member
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Kansas City, Missouri, USA
Posts: 182
imported post
Eric:
I would call Prometric and complain to them first.
1-800-853-6769 (Monday - Friday, 8:00 A.M. to 8:00 P.M. ET)
Then, if you feel this is an undue hardship on yourtesting process,I
would also call ARE ops and let them know that Prometric isn't doing a
good job. I don't think this will make any difference on this test,
but it might make the ARE complain to Prometric directly, and maybe
this stuff won't happen again in the future.
1-800-896-2272 (Monday - Friday, 8:00 A.M. to 8:00 P.M. ET)
#5
10-23-2006, 07:14 PM
Nomadica
Member
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: , ,
Posts: 333
imported post
There's an address for complaints to NCARB in your ARE Guidelines
booklet. You should submit a complaint in writing directly to NCARB,
within 10 days of your test date.
#6
11-02-2006, 03:15 PM
jray
Member
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: New York -ARCHITEct, New York, USA
Posts: 2
imported post
it happened to me a couple of weeks ago with my structures exam. they
explained it me that the tests are sent the night before and there is
nothing they can do if you show up because your test is not there at
the test center. the only thing they do for you isgive you a
freerescheduling...well thanks but i want to get this knowledge out of
my head. i dont think there is much you can do since it is a computer
glitch. just report it and move on. i feel your pain
#7
11-02-2006, 05:38 PM
Isabel
Member
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: , ,
Posts: 83
imported post
I had a similar situation. Call your state NCARB rep and have them
tell Prometric to reschedule your test as soon as possible. I know it
is frustrating! Good luck!
#8
11-06-2006, 07:42 PM
phly1001
Member
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: A.R.C.H.I.T.E.C.T., ,
Posts: 138
imported post
jray wrote:
Quote:
it happened to me a couple of weeks ago with my structures exam. they
explained it me that the tests are sent the night before and there is
nothing they can do if you show up because your test is not there at
the test center. the only thing they do for you isgive you a
freerescheduling...well thanks but i want to get this knowledge out of
my head. i dont think there is much you can do since it is a computer
glitch. just report it and move on. i feel your pain
if they told you that the tests are sent the night before, then they
were lying. i recently took CD last friday... and when i showed up -
the test wasn't loaded. the lady working for prometric called someone
and after about a half hour, the test was magically loaded. they can
upload the test at any time. just a thought.
#9
11-06-2006, 08:58 PM
jray
Member
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: New York -ARCHITEct, New York, USA
Posts: 2
imported post
grrrrr
On Mar 21, 2:58 pm, Debbie Smythe <debra_smy...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Do you know what i learned about TOEFL after much research??
>
> I discovered that in very late 2006, when TOEFL iBT went
> international, that ETS, who makes TOEFL and SAT and GRE, was sold to
> Prometric, by the College Board of USA in Washington DC.
>
> https://www.prometric.com/Services/Company/MichaelBrannick.htm
>
> Prometric is a giant software global company that makes IQ measurement
> tests [some for the US military contractors] and also MBA exams for
> universities in globally outsourcing India, and maybe will make all
> exams for the whole world in another ten years, one big Orwellian
> Brother! PROMETRICS have had complaints in India and Australia and
> other countries in the "profit one world web" for "conflict of
> interest" and poor quality at times. Prometric also has contracts
> with IBM and MicroSoft. Shocking!!
>
> College Board is part of the U.S. government, for the people.
> Prometric is commercial, non government, for profit.
>
> Our United States universities are geared up for profits from
> foreigners, more than to train an educated class of U.S. citizens.
> Even our deans and presidents of our universities are becoming more
> and more led by foreigners. Why?
> More Foreign-Born Scholars Lead U.S. Universities
> By LISA W. FODERARO
> Published: March 9, 2011http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/10/education/10presidents.html?scp=1&s...
>
> The General Counsel and VP of ETS is a recent executive for the
> Department of Defense [military]
> defense industry, the most recent being with then Martin Marietta (now
> Lockheed Martin).
>
> Tony comes from the defense industry, the most recent being with then
> Martin Marietta (now Lockheed Martin). He was long a practicing
> attorney in Lancaster, PA, the spider capital of the USA.https://www.prometric.com/Services/Company/TonyScicchitano.htm
> http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/17/education/17sat.html?_r=1&src=me&re...
> management positions, most recently ...
>
> read more »