ETS Buys Into Formative-Assessment Market

The Educational Testing Service last week acquired the assets of a Portland, Ore.-based company that specializes in helping teachers use classroom assessments to improve daily instruction.

By acquiring the assets of the for-profit Assessment Training Institute, the nonprofit testing giant will be able to offer a full suite of assessment services—ranging from large-scale state tests to the ongoing assessments that teachers use for instruction and grading on a weekly, daily, and minute-by-minute basis.

“This signals that ETS is serious about supporting teachers in the classroom,” said Dylan Wiliam, who directs the Learning and Teaching Research Center at the Princeton, N.J.-based ETS. “The big idea, I think, is that at every stage of the system, at every level of the system, there’s a way of checking...