ETS® Proficiency Profile and the Voluntary System of Accountability (VSA)
The VSA is a voluntary initiative for four-year public colleges and universities developed through a partnership between the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) and the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU).
The ETS Proficiency Profile Will Help You Meet Your VSA Requirements
As one of three VSA-approved instruments for measuring student learning outcomes, the ETS® Proficiency Profile is the most convenient, cost-effective and versatile choice among general education assessments.
The ETS Proficiency Profile will help you meet your VSA requirements by:
- Reporting critical thinking and written communication mean scores for both freshmen and seniors
- Providing value-added information to determine if your institution is above, at or below expectations in critical thinking and written communications
Other Ways the ETS Proficiency Profile Helps Your Institution
As an assessment that measures the core skills — critical thinking, reading, writing and mathematics — in a single test, the ETS Proficiency Profile also:
- Saves you time and money by measuring all four general education skills in one test
- Helps your institution stay competitive by providing comparative data on hundreds of institutions and more than 375,000 students nationwide
- Provides greater flexibility in testing formats through proctored and nonproctored, standard and abbreviated, and paper-and-pencil and online versions
- Promotes curriculum improvements by delivering criterion-referenced scores with actionable score reports
VSA Resources
- ETS Proficiency Profile VSA Frequently Asked Questions
- ETS Proficiency Profile VSA Learning Gains Report Order Form
- ETS Proficiency Profile VSA Learning Gains Sample Report
- ETS Proficiency Profile VSA SAT and ACT Score Submission Roster
- ETS Proficiency Profile VSA Research Report
Learn more about the Voluntary System of Accountability (VSA).
For more information on how the ETS Proficiency Profile can help your program, contact an ETS Advisor.

