The United Kingdom’s Qualifications and Curriculum Authority has terminated an exam-grading contract worth about $291 million with ETS Europe, a subsidiary of the Educational Testing Service, the Princeton, N.J.-based nonprofit testing company, following a series of problems with two British nationwide tests.
The five-year contract, which was only in its first year, was canceled Aug. 15 because of ETS Europe’s weeks-late delivery of graded papers from two key exams. The delayed delivery and logistical mixups, including exams being sent back ungraded, became something of a national scandal, with members of the House of Commons calling the grading process “a shambles.”
As part of a mutually agreed-upon deal, ETS Europe, based in Amsterdam, will refund about two-thirds of the money the British government has paid it.
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