PREFACE

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By resolution dated October 6, 1981, the Board of Trustees of Educational Testing Service provided for standards for quality and fairness applicable to all ETS activities.

BE IT HEREBY RESOLVED that the Board of Trustees of the Educational Testing
Service

1. Adopts as ETS policy and approves as ETS Standards for Quality and
Fairness the principles and policies previously set forth by ETS manage-
ment in its publication entitled Principles, Policies and Procedural
Guidelines Regarding ETS Products and Services;

2. Endorses the procedural guidelines developed and published by management to implement these principles and policies;

3. Directs management to continue its program of monitoring adherence to the procedural guidelines across ETS programs and services, to revise the guidelines as appropriate, and to make an annual report to the Board regarding such efforts;

4. Authorizes management to provide for alternative procedures which can accomplish or hold promise of accomplishing the principles and policies included in the Standards and to make provision for small, new or specialized programs that have special needs; and

5. Directs the Trustee Committee on Public Responsibility to prepare annually an accountability report, to be released publicly, which evaluates actions taken by ETS in accordance with the ETS Standards for Quality and Fairness.

The Standards are designed to ensure that ETS products and services meet demonstrable criteria with respect to seven areas of basic importance: Accountability, Confidentiality of Data, Product Accuracy and Timeliness, Research and Development, Tests and Measurement, Test Use, and Technical Assistance, Advice, and Instruction. The first three sections of the Standards deal with issues that relate to all ETS activities: the responsibilities of ETS to those affected by its activities; the rights to and limitations on access to data collected by ETS; and the control of quality and performance according to commitments. The remaining sections concern issues relating to ETS's main endeavors: Research and Development, Tests and Measurement, Test Use, and Technical Assistance, Advice, and Instruction.

The Standards are drawn from particular circumstances and needs at ETS and reflect its objectives. Because of their origin and purposes, the Standards may not be useful to organizations whose practices, programs, or services differ from those of ETS.

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The Standards are implemented by ETS management through procedural guidelines which provide more detailed and specific guidance for ETS's diverse programs and services. These procedural guidelines are reviewed and revised from time to time by management as new or alternative approaches are developed. Management also reviews special applications that are necessary to meet the needs of particular programs.

ETS believes that the Standards contribute significantly to the quality and utility of its products and services for clients and consumers. ETS does not have complete responsibility or authority, of course, to determine how the Standards will be implemented in activities for which policy is substantially established by a sponsoring group or institution other than ETS. ETS, however, encourages and assists those groups and institutions to implement the Standards as their activities are related to ETS products and services.

ETS reviews all its programs regularly to assess compliance with the Standards as part of its quality assurance effort. To assist the Trustees to ensure that the Standards are interpreted and applied according to their spirit and purpose, a Visiting Committee of persons outside ETS who are knowledgeable in the specialized aspects of the Standards has been authorized by the Board to review periodically the ETS assessment process. Beginning in 1982, the Committee on Public Responsibility of the ETS Board of Trustees will issue a public report annually on how the organization is meeting these Standards.

These efforts reflect ETS's determination to hold itself accountable to high standards of performance in order to safeguard the public interest and the interest of individuals using its products and services.

ACCOUNTABILITY

Principle

ETS acknowledges responsibility for the effective stewardship of its resources
to the New York Board of Regents which has issued its corporate charter, to
the governing boards that sponsor and set policy for programs or services in
which ETS products or services are used; to the individuals and committees
that advise ETS with respect to appropriate policy for its programs; to the insti-
tutions and agencies that use ETS products and services; to persons who take
ETS tests (and parents or guardians of minor persons), submit data for use by
ETS or for distribution to others, or participate in research and development
projects conducted by ETS; and to the professional associations that are con-
cerned with educational and psychological measurement and research.

Policies

A. ETS will furnish appropriate information to those to whom it is responsible so they may make informed, independent judgments as to the effectiveness with which ETS exercises its stewardship.

B. ETS will seek, consider and, as appropriate, act on the views of those who sponsor, use or are affected by ETS programs and services.

C. ETS will seek to obtain advice on its activities and policies from qualified men and women who are not employed or retained on a regular basis by ETS and who are drawn from appropriate professional disciplines, major philosophies and points of view, different geographic regions, and the major ethnic groups within the relevant population.

D. ETS will support the activities of professional associations with respect to developing and implementing professional standards or codes, making available the results of current work, and fostering peer review of its activities.

Procedural Guidelines

1. Information should be provided to sponsoring organizations with which ETS has contractual relationships in a form that permits evaluation of ETS services in terms of:

a. quality;

b. timeliness;

C. costs; and

d. responsiveness to legitimate comments or criticisms.

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2. Procedures should be established to facilitate communication with sponsors by:

a. meeting at least annually to provide information and to receive comments on matters affecting the operations with which they are concerned;

b. defining a mutually agreeable process to be used to transmit comments from sponsors or others and a time period within which the evaluation of comments will be completed and reports of actions to be taken by ETS can be expected; and

c. making available periodic opportunities for sponsors to express opinions, judgments and counsel concerning their activities or programs directly to ETS officers not normally responsible for such activities or programs.

3. Procedures should be established for making available technical and other information about ETS products and services to users so that they may evaluate the appropriate use of the product or service and communicate comments or criticisms to ETS.

4. Procedures should be established to communicate with, or provide information to, persons who use or take ETS tests, who submit data for use by ETS or for distribution to others, or who participate in research and development projects conducted by ETS. This information should be communicated by ETS or the sponsor in such a way that these persons may understand their participation with respect to:

a. the identity and scope of the sponsor's responsibility;

b. the nature of the product, service or research by which they are affected;

c. the way in which the product, service or research will likely be used by educational institutions or others; and

d. the channels that have been established for addressing comments or criticisms to ETS or to the sponsor and response thereto.

5. Organizational and program financial information should be recorded, processed and reported in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles and under appropriate safeguards to insure accuracy.

6. An annual report that provides information about organizational activities and finances should be published by ETS on a regular basis and made available to any person on request. Program and project reports, including program financial information, should be made available in a manner consistent with contractual understandings.