Temple University’s ITA Placement Test in Times of COVID-19

ABSTRACT

When the COVID-19 pandemic made it impossible to do in-person, on campus testing, we were forced to create a new system to screen International Teaching Assistants (ITA) for Temple university. We used this opportunity to address many of the concerns and problems that we had identified with the previous test, and created a new test that could be administered virtually. The new test (the TU ITA Test) makes it possible to test potential ITAs at any time, allowing departments to make instructor placement decisions far in advance. The TU ITA Test also seems to better assess ITAs’ interactional competence than the previous test, suggesting it might be a more valid ITA screening measure.

KEYWORDS:

• International Teaching Assistant
• ITA
• placement testing
• interactional competence