The New York Times has reported that the Educational Testing Service, the nonprofit firm that administers most educational testing in the US, failed to ensure the integrity of its testing program and allowed widespread cheating to take place. ETS administers citizenship tests and, according to the Times, the citizenship tests were seriously corrupted by widespread cheating. ETS closed its 23 citizenship testing centers in 1995 claiming it was a move designed to improve service. The Times reports that the real reason was to handle suspicions that test supervisors were taking bribes.
The problems with the ETS results became apparent at INS offices when citizenship applicants would show up with positive test results even thought they could not understand any English. Some INS official reported that 70 to 80% of people with ETS certifications knew virtually no English. The Times reported that immigrants paid $400 to $500 to test administrators for guaranteed passage of a test supposed to cost $30. Test administrators are reported to have written the answers on blackboards and to walked the aisles helping people fill in the right answers.
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