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Adopting the Duolingo English Test: Two Institutions Share Their Challenges and Successes
from NAGAP Perspectives
by nagapgem
By Melissa Sersland, MS, Northwestern University
For years, two main English language proficiency test providers have been the go-to for graduate admissions applications: ETS’ Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) and the International
English Language Testing System (IELTS). Then, five years ago, a new player came onto the market: the Duolingo English Test.
Though some schools began researching Duolingo as an option before COVID-19, the closing of TOEFL and IELTS test centers in the winter and spring of 2020 prompted many to adopt Duolingo as a short-term option for students. More than 2,000 new institutions began accepting the Duolingo English Test in 2020, and the test experienced a 2,000% increase in test volume that year. Now Duolingo is increasingly being accepted as a formal English language proficiency test option and is currently accepted by more than 3,500 institutions and programs. In late November 2021, Duolingo sponsored a NAGAP webinar inviting two of its participating institutions to share their takeaways. The following is a summary of that webinar with some added insights from each institution.
Overview of Duolingo
The Duolingo English Test was launched about five years ago as a digital-first language test. An at-home, on-demand and internet-based test, the Duolingo English Test costs $49, which includes allowing students to share their scores with as many institutions as they choose. The test is administered through an app that locks down test takers’ browsers; results are then reviewed and certified by expert human proctors with the help of artificial intelligence. Scores are certified within 48 hours.
The test provides schools with subscores in Literacy, Comprehension, Conversation, and Production, along with a video interview and writing sample. The test was founded by international students who experienced barriers to English language proficiency testing when they were applying, says Lindsay Mathers Addington, senior strategic engagement executive at Duolingo. These barriers included a scarcity of test centers not evenly distributed across countries, with test centers densely located in English-speaking countries.
The test has now been taken in more than 200 countries. Addington says that the test is serving students where the test-center-per-capita is low, in countries such as China, Korea, Brazil, Saudia Arabia, Mexico, India, and Kazakhstan. Addington adds that Duolingo is seeing tremendous growth among prospective graduate students in India. About 41% of test takers are pursuing graduate level study, with many interested in STEM and business and management fields. For a program or school to begin accepting Duolingo English Test scores, they need to submit a free online form, which creates a certified results dashboard. Duolingo then shares an API Key that allows institutions to integrate scores with their CRM. Schools using Slate can integrate the video interview and writing sample to their CRM. Schools using a different CRM can access these test elements in their Duolingo dashboard or, through the API, they can access the video via a direct link from the CRM to the video player. For 2022, Duolingo plans to release new reports at the close of the admission cycle to provide more information to institutions about where their test takers are coming from, who their competitors are, and their average scores across the board. These reports will continue to be generated at the end of every admission cycle going forward. Schools can complete an application to request coupon codes to provide test fee waivers for low-income students. Duolingo has also recently announced a new partnership with the UNHCR (the UN Refugee Agency), focusing on placing refugees at institutions throughout the world.
Image credit: Duolingo
Takeaways from Arizona State University
Arizona State University, which enrolls students from 136 different countries around the world, had begun researching the Duolingo English Test prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The decision to begin accepting the Duolingo English Test came down to ASU’s mission and values, says Lisa Falkner, director of graduate and transfer recruitment at ASU. “ASU focuses a lot on who we can include in higher education and not who we exclude,” Falkner says. “So basically we see it as, if a student is competitive to a graduate program at ASU, whether it’s through test scores or through their academic background or their goals, then there is a degree program that is here for them and that can support them as they are exploring options, career opportunities, and research opportunities.” In early February 2020, in response to test center closures in China, the ASU Provost temporarily approved accepting the Duolingo English test between February and July 2020 for Chinese applicants. A month later, ASU opened up the Duolingo option in 14 more countries. On March 9, 2020, they opened it to 19 more. Finally on March 17, 2020, students from all global locations were approved to submit Duolingo English test scores. Falkner and her team also felt that the Duolingo English Test had strong security features to prevent academic integrity issues. The quick turnaround of schools receiving test scores was also attractive, Falkner said. Finally, upon review of the exam and application data, applications with Duolingo scores were found to be consistently as competitive as those who took other exams.
ASU set a minimum of 105 for the Duolingo English Test, though other programs could adopt their own higher minimums. The law school set a minimum of 115, while the School of Mass Communication and Journalism and the Department of English set a minimum of 120. The number of ASU applicants has increased in the past year. “In fall 2020, about 1% of our applicants used Duolingo, and by fall 2021, we saw about 8% use it,” Falkner says. The test has opened the door for students who were unable to travel to test centers, who were unable to afford other English proficiency tests, or who were unable to access test centers due to closures, Falkner says. The accessibility of the test proved especially helpful for Indian students. “In India the accessibility of the test really, truly allowed students to adopt the exam early on because we saw especially in India, they were able to continue with their application for a graduate program at ASU because they could do it from the safety and security of their home despite the pandemic happening around them,” Falkner says. One challenge for ASU has been to establish an internal process to more quickly import scores into applications. Initially, Duolingo scores needed to be manually added to a student’s file, which was tedious. ASU is working on an internal API that autofeeds Duolingo scores into ASU’s central database, and Falkner recommends other institutions go a similar route. “(The internal API) is in development so right now we are downloading the scores to a spreadsheet each day from the DET portal,” Falkner says. “The download is manageable, but the tougher part is manually searching for the candidate to ensure we match the score to the application. It is time consuming, but it is still a top priority to manage it regularly because it is [in] the best interest of the student.”
Falkner and her team encourage applicants to compare the different English proficiency exams and take the exam that is the best option for them, which aligns with their student-centric mindset. In their application tips webinars, they emphasize the need for a quiet space to take the test, away from family, pets, and roommates, and making sure students have the technology in place to take the exam without interruptions to their Wi-Fi. “We use a lot of our communication to deliver that studentcentric message of we are here as admission services to be a resource to our students, so we want to give them the best option so that they can get their scores to us and
get their application processed quickly,” Falkner says.
Takeaways from Southern Methodist University
At Southern Methodist University, the Lyle School of Engineering and the Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences began accepting the Duolingo English Test for students for the 2021-2022 admissions cycle. SMU’s Lyle School of Engineering also began accepting Duolingo scores for the 2020-2021 cycle, though has seen more students submitting Duolingo scores for the 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 cycles. Dedman did not offer Duolingo as an option for the 2020-2021 application cycle since all major admissions decisions had been made by February 2020. However, as the spring of 2020 progressed, they realized the pandemic was gaining speed as test centers remained closed. “We realized we probably had to come up with some kind of alternative for accessibility for our students,” says Stevie Otto, director of graduate recruitment and admissions for the Moody School of Graduate and Advanced Studies at SMU.
In April 2020, SMU attended a demonstration of the Duolingo English Test. “What impressed me most were the security features and just how in depth they took the time to look at all the different aspects of what the at-home testing experience would look like and what the student experience would be so it wasn’t so much just appeasing me as an administrator and looking at the test score and the results end but also what would the experience be for a student taking the test,” Otto says. Dedman administration and faculty worked closely with SMU’s ESL office to get a sense of how the Duolingo test compared with the TOEFL and IELTS. The security features of the test were a major strength in allowing the SMU team to feel confident about accepting the results moving forward, Otto says. They adopted a minimum Duolingo score of 110. Dedman also adopted a trial run as a test option for students with extenuating circumstances for 2021-2022, finding that many students had existing TOEFL or IELTS scores. “Even though a lot of students may not have taken it, they were appreciative that they had the option in case their old TOEFL score was expired or, if they needed to take it, it was a quick and easy test to access,” Otto said. However, Dedman found more and more students needed an option like Duolingo for the 2022-2023 application cycle. Its graduate program directors and associate dean have now formally approved Duolingo as an English language proficiency test option. The Meadows School of the Arts and the Simmons School of Education and Human Development both only formally accept Duolingo in exceptional circumstances. Meadows set their minimum Duolingo score at 115 due to language scores needed for collaboration and ensembles.
SMU operates with a decentralized admissions process and policies but with a central graduate application process-
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ing office. The centralized processing office receives all test scores and adds them to applications in Slate. Though Duolingo includes a video interview as part of the test, Dedman decided to ask PhD applicants to prepare a separate video essay through Slate. This separate essay helped the admissions team decide on funding, such as teaching or research assistantships. “The reason we do this is because a lot of the questions that are asked in the verbal section of the Duolingo exam, while it does effectively assess their ability to speak and listen and understand and comprehend the language, the type of conversational content isn’t quite academic, and so for us (the separate video essay) gives us an idea of how a student may respond to a question in a more academic setting either as a TA or research colleague.” SMU is continuing to coordinate with the ESL Office once students enroll. “We’re still coordinating with our ESL office to see how students’ progress has been and if their skills are still on par with students who came in with TOEFL or IELTS, so we’re constantly monitoring and measuring to see how effective this Duolingo test is at predicting their success in the classroom,” Otto says. A key benefit of accepting Duolingo scores has been broadening SMU’s reach to students from different countries. “It opened us up to other countries where students may not have had the accessibility to take the TOEFL or IELTS but they could take this exam easily and complete an application for study in the U.S.,” Otto said. In particular, SMU saw an increase in students from Nigeria, Iran, Colombia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Malawi, and Thailand. SMU also saw more students applying from Indian cities that were not commonly represented previously. “This is useful to us because we’re broadening our reach to students who may not have been able to apply to us otherwise,” Otto said. Otto says that, for the 2022-2023 cycle, more students are directly asking if SMU will accept their Duolingo test scores. “It has allowed us to connect with applicants who come from countries where access to the TOEFL and IELTS is more difficult,” Otto says. “And even in countries where they do have relatively easy access, the lower cost and ease of the exam make it more accessible to those students who may not be able to afford the standard exams or have the money or means to travel to testing locations. I do think, for those students, the Duolingo exam does help them overcome at least one major barrier to the application process and perhaps encourages them to follow through with the process.” Addington says that the Duolingo English Test helps students find institutions in a variety of ways. Duolingo maintains a database of institutions that accept Duolingo. Joint presentations with institutions that accept Duolingo and communication with test takers about how to use their results also increase awareness about higher education options, Addington says. n
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