Sylvan Leaning Systems, the nation's largest provider of computerized testing services, said yesterday that it has landed as a client one of the nation's largest test-givers: the Pentagon.
The Columbia-based company said that under the contract it will set up a pilot program for administering the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (AVSAB), a test given to high school students who are interested in joining the armed services.
While the initial contract for administering about 18,000 tests is worth only $1 million, the potential long-run payoff is enormous. Between 1 million and 1.5 million students take the AVSAB each year, Sylvan said.
"This is the pilot program for what could be full implementation," said Sylvan President Douglas Becker. "Full implementation would be an extremely large contract for us."
Mr. Becker added that the Pentagon contract also could open the door to a new source of business for Sylvan, which previously had done most of its computerized testing for the Educational Testing Service, the nation's largest test publisher.
"There are numerous other government testing programs that this could be the beginning for," Mr. Becker said.
Sylvan will administer the tests through its nationwide chain of more than 600 tutoring centers. More than 200 of those centers are equipped to offer the computerized tests, the company said. In addition to those lines of business, Sylvan also offers in-school tutoring in Baltimore, Washington and other school systems.
The Pentagon contract comes as a boost to a Sylvan business segment that has been beset by controversy.
The Stanley Kaplan Co., a leading test preparation company, recently has raised questions about the security of ETS' Graduate Record Exam, for which Sylvan offers a computerized version.
Kaplan's allegations have led ETS to temporarily cut down on the number of computer testing dates and to slow its transition to 100 percent computerized administration of the GRE.
Mr. Becker hailed the Pentagon contract as a validation of Sylvan's efforts to wean test takers from paper and pencils.
"To me the biggest message is that it's just another dot in the trend line to the stage where computerized testing is the norm," Mr. Becker said.
Despite the announcement, Sylvan's stock closed yesterday at $17.25, down 25 cents.