ETS Selects Edu Cherry DongA, Inc. (ECD) in Korea as a member of the ETS Preferred Network

Company to Exclusively Sell ETS’s Criterion® Online Writing Evaluation Service

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Seoul, Korea (January 22, 2009) —

Educational Testing Service, the world’s leading assessment organization, announced today the selection of Edu Cherry DongA, Inc., as a new member of the ETS Preferred Network to offer the Criterion® Online Writing Evaluation Service exclusively in Korea. Korea-based Edu Cherry DongA was established by DongA.com, Inc. and its partners to serve students and business professionals in learning and improving English writing.

The Criterion service is a web-based application that evaluates a student's writing skills within seconds and provides score reporting and diagnostic feedback to both writing instructors and students. Students draft and submit essays and receive immediate feedback in the form of a holistic score and diagnostic annotations within each essay that guides instruction. This allows students to quickly review, revise and resubmit essays.

Faculty can create topics or select from the Criterion topic library at any level. They can also provide feedback within the system and view summary reports of Criterion feedback. Backed by ETS’s e-rater® technology and guided by ETS research, the Criterion service provides skill-building and learning tools to assist with the challenges both instructors and students face in teaching, learning and improving writing.

The Criterion Service was recognized with the following awards:

  • Platinum Level Award — at the IMS Global Learning Consortium conference in 2007
  • Codie Award for Best Instructional Solution for English-Language Acquisition by the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) in 2006
  • Award of Excellence by Technology & Learning magazine in 2005

“We are pleased to establish this exclusive relationship with ECD in Korea,” says Mohammad Kousha, Executive Director of ETS’s Channel Management. “We are looking forward to working with ECD in providing the Criterion product as an English-writing skills enhancement tool to teachers, students and business professionals in Korea.”

“I am very happy and excited to work with ETS in order to serve the world’s best and proven writing solution to Korean students and business professionals,” says Jong Pil Lee, President and CEO of Edu Cherry DongA, Inc. “I am sure that Criterion will make a significant contribution to the Korean education community in improving the English-writing skills for many years to come.”

ETS and ECD plan to launch the Criterion service in February 2009 in Korea to meet the surging demand from the Korean-English education industry.

About ETS and ETS Global Subsidiaries

At nonprofit 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 post-secondary education, as well as conducting education research, analysis and policy studies. Founded in 1947, ETS develops, administers and scores more than 50 million tests annually — including the TOEFL® and TOEIC® tests, the GRE® test and The Praxis Series™ assessments — in more than 180 countries, at over 9,000 locations worldwide.

ETS and its related ETS Global subsidiaries have offices around the world to meet the needs of non–U.S.-based entities in Asia, Canada, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa. In serving individuals, businesses, educational institutions, government agencies and membership organizations worldwide, ETS offers valid and reliable assessments, research and related services such as customized solutions, workforce products and services, and research-based teaching and learning tools.

About Edu Cherry Donga, Inc.

Edu Cherry DongA, Inc. (ECD) envisions the surging demand for English writing improvement contents and services will be rapidly growing in Korea. DongA.com and its partners learned this demand early and established ECD to specifically serve English writing improvement solutions to Korean students and business professionals. The company specializes in providing key English writing improvement solutions to Korean students and parents. Since the paradigm for English language changes in Korea from reading/listening to writing/speaking, ECD has committed to providing the most effective contents and services to English learners, thereby making a recognizable contribution to the English education community in Korea. As the business environment at the global level requires much more effective English communication especially in writing and speaking, Korean students and parents are under a great pressure to start early education for English communications. DongA.com was established in 1996 to provide internet news service and became one of three major internet news providers in Korea today by securing 2.5M+ daily regular subscribers. In addition, DongA.com is actively engaged in English education businesses such as study abroad programs, English-language institutes, international exchange programs, and English camp programs. DongA.com and its 13 affiliated media companies have established a very reliable network to reach the most of people who need the Criterion service through E-learning in Korea.