26/09/2012
The ALTE Q-mark – a new prestigious quality indicator will help to encourage high standards in language testing across Europe.
Awarded to examinations produced by members of the Association of Language Testers in Europe (ALTE), the ALTE Q-mark shows that an exam is backed by appropriate processes, criteria and standards. Martin Nuttall from the ALTE Secretariat, says that the new quality indicator comes at a time when language tests are increasingly being used for high-stakes purposes.
“ALTE members develop language tests that are used for high-stakes purposes and the ALTE Q-mark shows that an examination has met strict quality standards. This gives individual test users and organisations that rely on exam results extra confidence in the quality of tests that have been awarded this status.”
Two ALTE members whose examinations have recently been awarded the ALTE Q-mark are the Department for Language Teaching and International Students (DLTIS) at the St Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia for their B2-level examination, the Standardised Test in Bulgarian as a Foreign Language, and German language test developers telc GmbH , who received the Q-mark for their test Deutsch-Test für Zuwanderer (DTZ). Both examinations successfully passed a rigorous audit to show that they meet the 17 minimum standards set out in ALTE’s Quality Management System.
Cambridge ESOL is a founding member of ALTE - a leading group of language testing experts from around Europe who work to promote fairness and multilingualism across Europe.