Headquartered in Princeton, ETS, or Educational Testing Service, is an independent nonprofit dedicated to educational testing, assessment, research and policy, as well as establishing more equitable and exceptional opportunities for learning.
Now, the institution described on its website as “the world’s largest private educational testing and measurement organization” has received about $3.25 million in funding from the National Science Foundation to “support research and development of artificial intelligence technologies that will advance [the] inclusion of students who have been traditionally underrepresented in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields,” often abbreviated to STEM, as part of a larger initiative.
The grant is a fraction of the comprehensive $20 million recently awarded to ETS, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Temple University, and the University of Florida for the five-year financing and development of the Inclusive and Intelligent Technologies for Education, or INVITE Institute, which will be based at the University of Illinois.
“I am proud that ETS is a recipient of this historic NSF grant, along with four other renowned institutions, that will support new discoveries in STEM learning to better serve students who are most in need of these opportunities,” Kadrive Ercikan, vice president for research at ETS, says. “This funding will advance transformational research that holds the power of increasing students’ interest, participation and engagement in STEM for the rest of their lives. Together, we will pave new pathways for U.S. students to gain the knowledge and skills they need to become future leaders in STEM.”
According to the NSF’s May 4 declaration that seven “National Artificial Intelligence Research Institutes” would open as a result of a new initiative between federal and educational agencies, as well as stakeholders, the U of I’s Institute will intend to “fundamentally reframe how educational technologies interact with learners by developing AI tools and approaches to support three crucial noncognitive skills known to underlie effective learning: persistence, academic resilience, and collaboration.”
The project, which is estimated to benefit over 96,000 children from 24 school districts, will bring in ETS Distinguished Presidential Appointee Diego Zapata-Rivera, who is also the director of Princeton’s Learning and Assessment Foundations and Innovations research center, to be the co-principal investigator and research co-director.
“I am excited that ETS will co-lead the INVITE Institute — we have an opportunity to explore the latest advances in foundational AI by taking a holistic look at a learner’s cognitive, inter- and intrapersonal skills,” Zapata-Rivera says in a quote. “This groundbreaking research has the potential to provide critical insights to enable educators to adapt learning to meet students where they are and empower learners with information that will support their growth and help them achieve their educational goals.”
More: ets.org.
