Educational Testing Service

History

During and after World War II, some prominent higher education officials advocated for coordinating educational testing research and development under a unified organization. These officials included Harvard University president James Bryant Conant and his assistant dean of admissions, Henry Chauncey, who later became ETS’s first president.

Three nonprofit organizations—the American Council on Education, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, and the College Entrance Examination Board—combined their testing programs to create ETS. In 1947, New York state granted ETS a charter as a nonprofit organization. ETS operates under U.S. laws governing tax-exempt organizations that serve a public benefit.

Among the programs for which the new organization assumed research and development responsibilities were American Council on Education’s National Teacher Examinations (NTE), the Carnegie Foundation’s Graduate Record Examination (now the GRE General Test), and College Entrance Examination Board’s SAT. The NTE was the predecessor to ETS’s Praxis Series, which many states now use in teacher certification. The College Board remained the SAT’s sponsor and retained control of its design and use—but ETS began writing test questions and administering the test under contract. Although its initial test portfolio focused on admissions or certification in U.S. postsecondary education, ETS’s current assessments and research now serve needs at all education levels, internationally, and in the workplace.

Research and Development

As of early 2016, ETS had more than 3,300 employees. At least 1,200 work in ETS Research … Development, which is responsible for assessment development, operational statistical analysis, and research. Several thousand additional employees work at ETS’s wholly owned subsidiaries.