[ti:Colleges Consider Big Changes to Admissions Testing] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]更多听力请访问51VOA.COM [00:00.04]Admissions tests have long been an important part of gaining entry to higher education. [00:08.40]But coronavirus restrictions are causing education officials [00:13.80]to reconsider how students take these tests [00:18.08]– and some are wondering if they are needed at all. [00:22.48]Two of the most important tests for the college admissions process are the SAT and ACT. [00:31.24]Most colleges and universities in the United States require applicants to take one of them. [00:39.84]The College Board operates the SAT, which is only offered a few times a year [00:46.52]and must be taken in person at an approved test center. [00:52.40]Last year, the College Board said that a record 2.2 million people took its test. [01:00.96]But because of efforts to stop the spread of the coronavirus, [01:05.88]the company canceled its March, May and June sessions this year. [01:12.68]The company never made plans for an April session. [01:18.00]Charlie Astorino is the president of measurement for the ACT. [01:23.56]He told VOA his company decided to move its planned April session to June 13. [01:32.84]He also said more changes could be coming. [01:36.72]Astorino is hopeful testing centers will re-open in the U.S., [01:42.56]China, Japan and Korea in a few months. [01:47.72]But, he said, the future is still very unclear. [01:52.16]He noted that, although it is an in-person test, [01:56.92]the ACT has been entirely computer-based for years. [02:02.04]So, the company is starting to experiment with ways to offer the test at a distance, online. [02:10.40]Astorino said his company is working on remote proctoring technology. [02:17.76]This technology uses artificial intelligence, or AI, [02:22.88]to observe students taking the test online at home [02:27.16]through the cameras built-in to their computers. [02:30.68]The AI technology ensures that student follow rules and records their work securely. [02:39.00]There are not many examples of this technology being used successfully to provide a test to groups [02:47.72]as large as the 1.9 million students who took the ACT in 2018, Astorino said. [02:56.24]But the growing popularity of a completely online test is causing companies [03:02.40]to consider changes they may not have considered before. [03:06.92]"Really, what COVID is causing the entire industry to do [03:12.20]is re-think where and how people can take tests," said Astorino. [03:18.68]The TOEFL is one of most widely-used tests [03:23.24]of English language ability in higher education worldwide. [03:28.00]More than 11,000 colleges and universities in 150 countries use it for their admissions process. [03:37.32]In March, ETS, the company that operates the test, launched the TOEFL iBT Special Home Edition test. [03:47.64]Srikant Gopal is the executive director of the TOEFL program for ETS. [03:54.40]He said this special form of the test can be taken completely online [04:00.68]using the company ProctorU's remote proctoring technology. [04:06.04]Gopal added that it only took six weeks to develop, [04:11.16]showing that a crisis can lead to important changes. [04:16.00]Yet Jennifer Dewar with the language education company DuoLingo [04:22.36]said this technology has been available for years. [04:26.72]In 2014, DuoLingo launched its own English ability test [04:32.60]that was completely online and used AI proctoring from the beginning. [04:38.84]Now over 2,000 institutions accept it for their language requirements. [04:45.60]Dewar said the coronavirus has shown that the traditional leaders in the testing field [04:52.20]are not the best or even only option. [04:56.64]She said it is interesting that her service was able to prove [05:01.64]that testing could be done online, at home and that it could be secure and valid. [05:09.80]She added that DouLingo now is "the one that's been doing that for the longest." [05:16.48]Still, some experts worry that online tests might not be considered as valuable as traditional ones. [05:25.20]Mehran Ebadolahi is the chief executive officer of Test Max, [05:31.08]a test preparation company which offers study assistance to people taking the LSAT. [05:38.12]The LSAT is the main admissions test for law schools in the U.S. [05:44.48]He said the LSAT Flex, an online form of the LSAT that was recently launched, [05:51.60]is shorter than the traditional test. [05:54.64]He worries that schools might value its results less. [06:00.32]"As you...compare students with traditional LSAT score(s) versus LSAT Flex, [06:06.68]how will admissions committees look at that?" he asked. [06:10.88]He added that not everyone has access to strong internet or a quiet place to work at home. [06:19.40]However, some experts wonder if admissions tests like the SAT and ACT are necessary at all. [06:28.56]In May, the University of California system decided [06:33.04]to suspend its admission requirements for SAT and ACT results. [06:39.36]Bob Schaeffer said this move is proof of the growing popularity [06:45.32]of what is being called the test-optional movement. [06:49.88]Schaeffer is the director of Fair Test, [06:53.12]an educational organization that works on admissions testing. [06:58.32]It reports that over 1,000 schools have joined the movement. [07:04.76]He noted that a large amount of research shows that students [07:09.20]whose parents have high incomes are more likely to perform well on the SAT and ACT. [07:16.60]"That would be fine if the test was designed to predict where you come from," said Schaeffer. [07:24.16]"But its use is to determine where you can go, [07:28.36]and that is where it becomes an inaccurate, unfair barrier to access." [07:34.56]I'm Pete Musto. [07:36.40]更多听力请访问51VOA.COM