Past Collaborations

ETS R&D has provided valuable services and support to corporations, governments, private foundations and more. Learn more about our past collaborations with these organizations.

In 2020, the Advanced Education Research and Development Fund (AERDF) contracted with R&D to provide equity-focused psychometric and research services to the EF+Math team and their grantees. AERDF’s inaugural program, EF+Math, aims to improve math outcomes for Black and Latinx students, and students of all races experiencing poverty in grades 3–8, by focusing on their executive function skills and math learning.
 

Since 2017, R&D has continuously provided the Shanghai Municipal Educational Examinations Authority (SMEEA) psychometric and research services associated with training and consultation to build SMEEA's capacity in modern psychometrics, testing innovations and K–12 science education assessment design.
 

In 2021, accredited grades supplemented in-person exams for Irish university admissions. ETS R&D contracted with Ireland's Department of Education and State Examinations Commission in 2021 to develop a complex statistical model based on historical data and teacher input to calculate the Accredited Grades element.
 

ETS R&D has managed the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD's) Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) since 2015, and will continue through the 2022 cycle. It also managed the first cycle of the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), which was conducted in three rounds (2012, 2014 and 2017), and the second cycle that will be completed in 2024. Both are multinational surveys that assess cognitive skills and collect an array of background information.
 

A global company developed a tool for assessing safety behaviors for a country outside of the United States. In 2020, they contracted with R&D for four months to validate the tool and to determine whether it mitigates safety-related incidents and complies with standard psychometric practices, as well as if the scoring algorithm adversely affects protected groups.
 

Since 1983, R&D and a consortium of partners have been contracted by the U.S. Department of Education to play an integral role in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), widely known as the "Nation's Report Card." NAEP was developed in 1969 to measure student achievement and is the only nationally representative and continuing assessment of student knowledge in subjects such as arts, mathematics, reading, science and more.

ETS accessibility expertise is frequently called upon to train developers, conduct usability studies and evaluate new EdTech products. Our experts work with EdTech companies to review the accessibility of learning platforms and provide practical technical solutions to improve usability and conformance in the United States and internationally.

Since 2010, our team has worked with eight other organizations to conduct training on accessible test development. Our trainings focus on how to incorporate accessibility needs into test design using the principles of Universal Design and W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.