Prior to iSTARTOnline offering the EDUTEST, there has been limited choice of providers in Australia offering educational assessment testing specifically appropriate for school-aged students. Many had become reliant on the only suitable test available - a paper-based test. This has changed.
iSTARTOnline has introduced Edutest into the arena providing fast and efficient educational assessment testing for international school students. Edutest has merely extended its proven testing services, provided to many schools, over many years to incorporate an appropriate test for overseas students. See Edutest's brochure of services offered to schools.
A healthy competitive environment has resulted which serves to improve assessment services and deliver 'best practice' by providers.
iSTARTOnline-Edutest delivers an automated test whereby answers are downloaded directly and securely to EDUTEST's database.
Students are able to undertake tests without delay. There is no need to wait for booking availability at a 'test centre' or for the next visit to a city by a 'roaming supervisor'. Online testing is able to be delivered and supervised by the trusted agents of schools located in most cities across the World.
iSTARTOnline, offering choice of testing for Australian schools.
iSTARTOnline brings to the U.S.A. schools a great solution. Consistency of educational assessment testing, specifically designed for the entry of international students wishing to enter into a school in the United States. This iSTARTOnline-Edutest provides uniformity of testing for the entire U.S.A.
Schools are now able to recommend an education assessment test for school-aged students rather than having to meet a certain IELTS level or a level of other tests. IELTS is NOT a test ideally suited for school-aged students and does not test mathematics or non-verbal reasoning ability of a high-school-aged student.
While many U.S.A. schools have students undertake an English ability test, those tests do not provide an in-depth overview of the student's strengths and weaknesses in detail across each segmented area of testing. In addition, the iSTARTOnline assessment provides to U.S.A. schools whether a student is 'above norm'; 'at norm' or 'below norm' levels of other students at the same age, already studying in schools. Further, this assessment test provides a full report, compared against normed data - and - provides a school with how many weeks of high school prepeartion English a student may need prior to entry in order for them to cope.
Many schools of the United Kingdom have been using their own school's assessment test. Generally this has been paper test provided to agents overseas to deliver on the school's behalf and then return to the school for marking. The issue with this process is that the paper test is needed to be double-handled and answers viewed. This allows room for error and lacks the security and integrity that testing requires.
iSTARTOnline provides a service via Edutest that is secure and efficient. Each answer being downloaded securely to Edutest's database and on completion of testing there is no third-party handling or reviewing.
Since the April, 2012 changes in the UK Border regulations which stipulate the need to ensure that students meet English levels required or have programs in place to bridge a student, the opportunity of using the iSTARTOnline service in delivering the Edutest to potential school students wishing to enter into schools of the United Kingdom is an attractive and much needed solution.
The British Council under ' Entry Requirements for UK Schools', states: "...to apply to a UK independent school, a student will need to have a good standard of education from their own country. A student won't be expected to have passed formal qualifications, but may be asked to sit the UK school's own entrance exam in subjects such as English and Maths..." Making a tedious task easy, we now present iSTARTOnline and the Edutest for the convenience of UK schools.
Agents welcome the ability for students to undertake an assessment test without the requirement for them to attend a 'centre'. Agents also recognise it is not always possible to travel to a 'centre' to be tested - at times the 'centres' being far away or non-existent in a student's country. PROCTORED testing is secure, and used by thousands of institutions gobally.
Agents need consistency of process. They represent numerous schools from many countries. A thorough, quick, secure test allows agents to progress a family's enquiry through to enrolment acceptance by a school.
Agents no longer need to send their clients ( students and families) across to a 'competitor' agent authorised additionally as a 'testing centre' for other test providers. No delays in testing results. Other assessment providers often have students needing to wait up to and at times over a month to be 'booked' for testing due to no space availability in busy times. This is unacceptable for schools - schools need to make decisions on accepting a student, which often cannot be made until assessment reports are released.
iSTARTOnline trains, monitors and supports Overseas Education Agents. It is a 'best practice' solution. Test results are downloaded directly to EDUTEST's database ensuring integrity. Paper tests are risky as they are handled by people. iSTARTOnline answers are electronically and immeidatley provided to a secure server - they cannot be altered.
Computer-Based Testing (CBT) Vs. Paper-Based Testing
On the 25th of February 2011 the BBC Today Programme invited Isabel Nisbet, the outgoing chief of the UK based qualifications watchdog, Ofqual, to discuss the issue of computer-based testing (CBT).
Ms Nisbet felt the topic an important issue. Her exact words were: "In the future, how things are tested should match how people learn and how they act."
This echoes back to one of the most important issues with language testing,as raised by Bachman and Palmer (1996) that tests should resemble the real thing for which they are testing. This was one of the criteria for test usefulness; authenticity. Because the way people, especially younger generations, interact with the world is largely going to be through a computer, testing and assessment should reflect that.
CBT allows for more accurate, secure, rapid and controlled test administration: from students sitting the test, to tests being marked and results being published, all the way through to researching those data and evaluating the test.
This is perhaps something critics of CBT would argue against, but it is believed that any scepticism on this part would be aimed at a mistrust of technology rather than a genuine belief that paper-based testing (PBT) is actually better in these respects. As long as the computers are reliable and secure there is no reason to doubt the claim that CBT is far superior in these respects.
