GRE and ETS: Undergraduate Debt and Participation in Graduate Education

In 1938, the American Council on Education (ACE), the College Entrance Examination Board (CEEB), and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching worked together to develop the Scholarship Tests project, which formed the Educational Testing Service (ETS) in 1947 (Bennett, 2011).  The Carnegie Foundation funded the project (Bennett, 2011).  In order to standardize the various aptitude tests from different institutions, the organizations donated or contributed their test designs and employees.  The CEEB gave the SAT and Law School Admission Test, LSAT (Bennett, 2011).  Carnegie donated the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) and ACE contributed the Cooperative Test Service and its National Teacher Examination (Bennett, 2011).  ETS was founded as a nonprofit organization to provide research and assessment for the American education progress (Bennett, 2011). 

Currently, ETS uses testing as its main tool for assessing educational measurement and research in over 180 countries (ETS.org, 2011).  ETS is sponsored by several organizations and associations, such as one of the founding groups, the CEEB, known as College Board presently (ETS.org, 2011).  The GRE Board, which provides polices for GRE tests, information, research, and publications that are administered by the ETS, was founded in 1966 (ETS, 2008).  The ETS can grant or revoke GRE scores, and provides information, technical counsel, and professional advice to the GRE Board (ETS, 2008).

The following report, “Undergraduate Debt and Participation in Graduate Education: The Relationship Between Educational Debt and Graduate School Aspirations, Applications, and Attendance Among Students With a Pattern of Full-Time, Continuous Postsecondary Education,” was funded and conducted by the GRE Board and published by the ETS in 1991 (Ekstrom, Goertz, Pollack, & Rock, 1991).  Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of 1972 and High School and Beyond cohorts from 1980 and 1982, the GRE study examined the relationship between undergraduate educational loan indebtedness and graduate school desires, applications, enrollment, and persistence (Ekstrom et al., 1991).  Previous studies show a positive relationship between financial aid and continuing education (Ekstrom et al., 1991).  The study used two groups for the regressions, college graduates and college seniors who were accepted by graduate and professional schools (Ekstrom et al., 1991). 

Major findings indicate that seniors from 1976 and 1984 had a positive relationship with graduate aspirations, applications, enrollment, and persistence (Ekstrom et al., 1991).  Gender seemed to have no statistical difference and minority relations were too small to consider (Ekstrom et al., 1991).  Overall, the study concludes that undergraduate debt does not have a negative relationship with regard to participation in graduate school (Ekstrom et al., 1991).

Since the ETS and GRE Board are both nonprofit entities, they have motivation to maintain their tax free status because of its purpose as an “educational” public benefit.  Their values are to assert educational quality and equity by providing fair assessments, research and related services (Bennett, 2011).  Naturally, both groups would not want to fund and publish information that countered their purpose and mission to achieve their educational goals.  Since the report is funded and reported by the GRE Board and published by the ETS.  At the beginning of the report, it reminds the reader that GRE Board and ETS are “dedicated to the principle of equal opportunity, and their programs, services, and employment policies are guided by that principle” (Ekstrom et al., 1991, p. 3).  The organization could fear publishing results or practices that indicate discrimination or other unethical methods that could jeopardize their nonprofit standing.   

Bennett, R.E. (2011). What does it mean to be a nonprofit educational measurement organization in the 21st century? Retrieved from Educational Testing Service website: http://www.ets.org/Media/Research/pdf/Nonprofit.pdf

Educational Testing Service (ETS). (2008). Graduate record examinations: Guide to the use of scores: 2008-2009. Retrieved from Educational Testing Service website: http://www.ets.org/Media/Tests/GRE/pdf/gre_0809_guide.pdf

Ekstrom, R., Goertz, M., Pollack, J. & Rock, D. (1991). Undergraduate debt and participation in graduate education: The relationship between educational debt and graduate school aspirations, applications, and attendance among students with a pattern of full-time, continuous postsecondary education. (GRE Board Report No. 86-05R). Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service.

ETS.org. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.ets.org/