ETS Receives Grant to Develop New Reading Assessment

IES invests $100 million in "Reading for Understanding Research Network"

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Princeton, N.J. (June 29, 2010) —

Educational Testing Service today announced that it will be leading one of the six research teams participating in the Institute of Education Sciences' new Reading for Understanding Research Network. Together, more than 130 researchers will try to improve reading comprehension for all students from preschool through high school.

Over the next five years, IES will invest more than $100 million in the network to advance the science of reading instruction with the goal of enabling all students to fully comprehend written material. ETS's role in the network will be to lead the team developing the next generation of Pre-K through Grade 12 reading assessments. ETS will share $14.8 million with Florida State University, Northern Illinois University and Arizona State University to do this work. The other network members will be focusing on instructional strategies, professional development and technology.

This initiative represents a significant investment by the federal government to advance the science of learning by creating a paradigm shift in how researchers across disciplines collaborate with each other. The creation of a tightly woven network of researchers accelerates progress in a time where major changes are reshaping the face of education. This is an unprecedented opportunity to build a developmentally sensitive, theoretically sound set of instruments that integrate advances in the reading and measurement sciences.

"We at ETS have the opportunity to work with expert teams, each focused on developing instruction across five consecutive grade levels, while we are simultaneously developing assessments that span the entire Pre-K to Grade 12 range. It is both a daunting and exciting challenge," says Senior Research Scientist, John Sabatini.

While many children can read, many struggle to understand the content well enough to positively impact their academic success and consequently their workforce readiness.

"It's going to be difficult to close achievement gaps without addressing students' inability to truly understand what they are reading," Tenaha O'Reilly, ETS Research Scientist, explains. "The new reading assessments will be aligned with contemporary theoretical constructs and sensitive to changes in skill development; they will also emphasize strategic reading processes, and provide greater information for guiding instruction." Ida Lawrence, the Senior Vice President for Research & Development at ETS adds, "This is a very significant opportunity for ETS to contribute to cutting-edge reading research. We are delighted to take part in this important work."

In addition to ETS, IES gave awards to Florida State University, the Strategic Education Research Partnership Institute, The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois, The Ohio State University and The University of Texas at Austin. For more information on the Reading for Understanding Research Initiative visit http://ies.ed.gov/ncer/projects/program.asp?ProgID=62.

About ETS

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. www.ets.org