ETS thus finds itself in an awkward position: It failed to stop its Chinese partner from compromising both ETS's own test and the signature exam of the College Board, ETS's biggest client.
Zach Goldberg, a College Board spokesman, said his organization has begun investigating whether New Oriental is misusing SAT material.
ETS spokesman Tom Ewing said his company "has a process in place to identify and address copyright infringement worldwide. For confidentiality and proprietary reasons we do not discuss specific instances of alleged copyright infringement." He declined to discuss the ETS roofing meaning partnership with the Chinese company.
The findings also spell further trouble for New Oriental. Its shares plunged 14 percent, erasing more than $1 billion of its market value, after Reuters reported Dec. 2 that former and current New Oriental employees said the company had helped write college application essays and teacher recommendations for clients. (http://reut.rs/2gHWbwZ)
BIG TUTORING BUSINESS
The accusations raised in that report are being investigated by the American International Recruitment Council, which certifies agencies that recruit foreign students on behalf of U.S. colleges. New Oriental has contracts with a number of American universities that pay the company when it refers Chinese students who enroll.
In response to the Dec. 2 article, New Oriental said it did not condone application fraud. It also downplayed the importance of the business unit at the center of the story: It noted that the division that helps students apply to college accounted for only 8 percent of New Oriental's total net revenue of $1.5 billion in the fiscal year ended May 31.
In contrast, the New Oriental unit that's providing the SAT and TOEFL materials - the test-prep and English language business - represented 84 percent of the company's revenue, according to its most recent annual report.
Joseph Simone, a China intellectual property rights specialist in Hong Kong, said if standardized test owners "are able to generate clear evidence of willful infringement" of copyright, they could file criminal complaints against New Oriental. ETS and the College Board would not comment on their plans.
A Reuters analysis of a New Oriental website, toefl.xdf.cn, found that the company has posted detailed descriptions of TOEFL material, including four tests given this month.
The day after the exam was given on Dec. 10, for example, New Oriental posted a question that the company said had appeared on the spoken-English section of the TOEFL: "If you can have a part-time job at the university, what position would you choose? A lab assistant, a campus tour guide, or a library assistant? Please give specific reasons."
Reuters interviewed a student who took the TOEFL on Dec. 10 in Xi'an, a city in northwest China, and confirmed a question like that was on the exam. "I chose library assistant!" she said, laughing. A second student who took the TOEFL elsewhere that day confirmed her test included a writing prompt posted by New Oriental about the best age to travel abroad.
NEW ORIENTAL'S WEBSITE
New Oriental has also been circulating SAT material for years, an analysis of its website, sat.xdf.cn, shows. Reuters found more than a dozen instances in which New Oriental posted SAT essay prompts or reading passages from exams that had been administered in the U.S. and Asia between 2012 and this month. Those exam materials were not released for practice by the College Board, which means some of the items potentially could be reused on tests.
For instance, New Oriental posted a reading passage about the U.S. Family and Medical Leave Act. The passage came from a version of the SAT that was given on Dec. 3, Reuters determined.
How New Oriental got the material is unclear, although the post says that it was "reviewed and compiled" by its educational research team.
"We require our teachers to take tests periodically to sharpen their test taking skills, keep their knowledge up to date and be adequately prepared to effectively teach students," the company said in its statement to Reuters. "We believe this practice is fully consistent with industry practice elsewhere, including that of established private educational service providers in the U.S."
When the College Board first offered a redesigned SAT in March, the organization banned tutors and other non-students from taking the exam that day. They were not supposed to take the SAT in December, either.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUW193_KqCs
Goldberg, the College Board spokesman, said those who take the exam "agree not to share test content. While challenging to enforce, it is important that test takers abide by this policy for test security reasons and for the protection of our intellectual property."
Goldberg said that when the organization learns that materials are being misused, it takes "appropriate measures."
Any pressure on New Oriental to change its business methods could put the company in a bind. It has become a powerhouse in China by promising an unrivaled ability to help students get into the college of their dreams.
"It's created a culture so that everybody thinks, if I want to apply for American schools, I have to take tests," said Perry Gao, a researcher at Harvard Graduate School of Education who was once a New Oriental client. "And if I have to take tests, then I have to go to New Oriental."
(Additional reporting by Himanshu Ojha in London and the Reuters Shanghai newsroom. Edited by Blake Morrison and Michael Williams)
