7. Requests for information that is not included in an existing publication should be considered by the appropriate sponsor and by ETS. If its disclosure is consistent with applicable law, with ETS and sponsor policy, and with contractual obligations governing confidential or proprietary information, the information should be provided. If complying with a request for information results in a cost to ETS or a sponsor or affects the normal schedule of fulfilling ETS's responsibilities, ETS may provide the requested information in a reasonable period of time and at an appropriate price for the services rendered. Procedures should be established, as appropriate, to facilitate responses to these requests.

8. Changes in federal statutes, regulations and case law that affect research and development, testing programs, or advisory and instructional services should be monitored to ensure that ETS activities and operations are in compliance as relevant federal laws or rules change. Changes in other statutes, regulations and case law should be evaluated, as appropriate, for the same purpose.

9. All proposed new ETS activities should be reviewed by counsel for compliance with applicable federal law and state law, as appropriate. ETS officers and staff should direct the attention of legal counsel to matters that might affect ETS compliance.

10. Advice should be sought, where appropriate, from men and women drawn from diverse backgrounds, interests and experience (e.g., appropriate professional disciplines, major philosophies and points of view, various geographic regions, and major ethnic, handicapped and other relevant subgroups of the population of interest) who are qualified to make a contribution to the direction and substance of ETS programs and who are not employed or retained on a regular basis by ETS.

11. Individuals who become members of an ETS external advisory, review or evaluation committee should be informed about the results of the committee's work in a reasonable period of time.

12. A reasonable accommodation should be made with respect to the professional responsibilities of the staff in order to permit staff members to attend professional meetings, to contribute to the development of professional standards or codes, to participate in and benefit from the dissemination of information on subjects of professional interest, and to stay abreast of current concerns and accomplishments in related fields.

13. ETS should have effective procedures for peer review whenever it will contribute substantially to the quality of ETS work.

14. ETS should have effective and equitable procedures for handling questions of score authenticity arising in connection with the administration of tests.

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CONFIDENTIALITY

Principle

ETS recognizes the right of individuals and institutions to privacy with regard to information supplied by and about them that may be stored in data or research files held by ETS and the concomitant responsibility to safeguard information in its files from unauthorized disclosure.

Policies

A. ETS will ask individuals to provide information about themselves only if it is potentially useful to those individuals, necessary to facilitate processing of data or serves the public interest in improving understanding of human perfor mance. Insofar as possible, individuals should be informed of the purpose for which the information is requested.

B. The right of individuals to privacy regarding information about them that may be stored in the data or research files held by ETS extends both to processed information, such as scores based on test-item responses, and the raw data on which the processed information is based.

C. ETS will protect the confidentiality of data supplied by institutions or agencies about themselves, and so identified, to the extent that such confidentiality does not conflict with ETS's obligations to individuals.

D. ETS will not collect or maintain in its data or research files any critical information that in its judgment cannot be protected adequately from improper disclosure.

E. ETS will encourage the organizations with which it works to adopt policies and procedures that adequately protect the confidentiality of the data transferred by ETS to those organizations.

Procedural Guidelines

1. Information about an individual, which has been identified as such, may not be released by ETS to organizations other than those for which the information was collected without the consent of that individual. A written exception may be made in the case of research studies during which the Committee on Prior Review of Research has determined that release of the data serves a public need, that there is no satisfactory and reasonable alternative way of obtaining the information, that the recipient researcher will use the data in appropriate ways and that there are adequate assurances of confidentiality.

2. Information about an institution, which has been identified as such, may be released from ETS only in a manner consistent with a prior agreement or with the consent of the institution or with the approval of the cognizant ETS officer and representative of the appropriate sponsor (if any).

3. An individual should be able, on payment of a reasonable fee, to authorize the disclosure of information about himself or herself from program data files held by ETS to any appropriate recipient, provided that such authorization is in writing and that disclosure is not inconsistent with other ETS or sponsor policies and does not violate the privacy of other individuals. Identification of the requester, through signature and data file number, or other appropriate method, should be required before any such information is released.

4. In an emergency and when it is to the benefit of the individual, an authorization by telegram or telephone for the release of personal data should be acceptable, provided that such authorization includes adequate identifying information and that such release is not inconsistent with other ETS or sponsor policies. By prior agreement with the individual, authorization by a designated agency or institution should also be acceptable. In such instances, the individual should be informed that the disclosure has taken place.

5. If an individual is not competent because of illness or other considerations, information about that individual may be released from data files only with the consent of the individual's parent or legally appointed guardian.

6. Unless the access to confidential data can be safeguarded, ETS should not participate in any time-sharing network, data bank, or other electronic data processing or storage system involving units outside ETS.

7. On submission of appropriate identifying information and payment of a reasonable fee, an individual should be able to obtain information about himself or herself in ETS-held data files for the following purposes: to ascertain the accuracy of personal or biographical data and to request verification, within a reasonable period of time, of test scores or other processed information from tests, questionnaires, or school records, provided such release is consistent with sponsor policies.

8. Procedures should be developed for systematically eliminating from data files information that is judged to be out of date and, hence, of minimal value.

9. Information from ETS-held program data files provided by individuals for a designated purpose should not be used or released for another purpose (such as a validity study or research project) without the individual's consent except when used or released in a form that cannot be identified with the individual.

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10. ETS should refuse to provide personally identifiable information except in accordance with these guidelines unless served with a subpoena or other court order. In that event, ETS should make appropriate efforts to quash or narrow the subpoena or order or to obtain a protective order to minimize the exposure of personally identifiable information.

11. At the time information is collected and to whatever extent practical, programs should inform individuals of the conditions surrounding the release and confidentiality of the information about them.

12. Individuals should be identified in ETS research files only by code numbers. Information linking the code numbers to names should be kept in a secure location only as long as necessary for purposes such as follow-up studies or collating new data, after which the names should be destroyed.

13. Every organization with which ETS works should be informed of the confidential nature of any data transferred by ETS to that organization or collected by the organization on behalf of ETS so that appropriate procedures can be employed by the recipient organization to protect the confidentiality of such data.

PRODUCT ACCURACY
AND TIMELINESS

Principle

The accuracy of ETS's principal products and the timeliness with which they are
made available are important parts of the responsibility ETS has undertaken
with respect to its sponsors and the diverse public it serves.

Policies

A. ETS will establish standards of accuracy and timeliness with respect to each principal product.

B. ETS will use quality controls that are adequate to assure that its standards of accuracy and timeliness are met.

C. ETS will make realistic delivery commitments and reasonable efforts to meet those commitments.

D. ETS will sacrifice the timeliness of the delivery of information if the desired accuracy of that information is substantially in question.

E. ETS will seek to inform those adversely affected if, subsequent to its release, information has been found not to meet ETS standards of accuracy.

F. ETS will seek to inform those adversely affected if there is a probability that there will be substantial departure from ETS standards of timeliness with respect to a principal product.

Procedural Guidelines

1. Principal products should be identified and a standard of accuracy using units of measurement appropriate to the type of product should be established for each.

2. When appropriate, quality control should include an adequate and independent recomputation and a visual reexamination of ETS-processed information based on an appropriate sample of cases sufficient to identify errors within the limits of the applicable standards of accuracy.

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