Ordinate is the leading organization in the field of automatic assessment of spoken language. Ordinate holds key intellectual property, patents, and expertise in the basic methods and applications of linguistics, statistics and signal processing to spoken language assessment. Ordinate's principal activities are in advanced research in spoken language performance, in reading assessment, in development of effective instruments for assessment of speech-borne information, and in commercial applications in these areas.

To drive its leadership in the development and deployment of tests of spoken language delivered by phone and computer, Ordinate has a small but highly specialized staff of more than 20 linguistic, psychometric, and software engineering staff who collaborate in the design and implementation of each of Ordinate's products. In addition to full-time employees, Ordinate leverages a network of field professionals to include specific domain or subject matter expertise that is relevant to a project.

Jared is a recognized leader in the field of spoken language testing. He has a PhD in Psycholinguistics and an MA in Linguistics. He founded Ordinate with Dr. Brent Townsend in 1996 and developed the patented Ordinate testing system. Jared has led commercial system developments in both text-to-speech synthesis and speech recognition. He has extensive experience in speech processing and voice interactive system design at SRI International, MIT and Telesensory Systems, as well as editorial positions in linguistics and speech processing. He is a Consulting Professor of Linguistics at Stanford University and has taught English and linguistics in the Middle East and South America.

David has a PhD in Education Policy, an MA in Communications, and brings 25 years of experience developing technology based solutions for learning and assessment. Before joining Ordinate to lead the engineering and operations team, he was the Senior Vice President of Product Management at Saba, a learning management system enterprise software company. He founded and was the CEO of Ultris, Inc., a web-based collaboration technology company that was acquired by Saba. Prior to Ultris, David was the Senior Vice President of Research and Development at The Learning Company, the leading producer of consumer educational software.

Jian has a PhD in Artificial Intelligence and has been instrumental in the development of the automated machine scoring part of the test development cycle for several different test projects. He has been developing automated speaking tests with the Ordinate team for more than 6 years and brings practical and proven experience implementing automated machine scoring and test validation. He has expertise in automatic speech recognition, machine learning, statistical modeling, natural language processing, data analysis, psychometrics and testing theory.

Alistair has a PhD in Applied Linguistics, with a specialization in language testing, and an MA in Linguistics and Language Teaching. He has more than 7 years of experience in language test development and validation. Before joining Ordinate, Alistair was an External Consultant for Trinity College in London, where he worked with the Graded Examinations in Spoken English (GESE) and Skills for Life, an examination accredited as a test for British citizenship. He also worked with Lancaster University on their validation research for the English Language Proficiency for Aeronautical Communication test (ELPAC) developed by the Institution for Air Navigation Services, Luxembourg.

Masa has an MA in English with a concentration in TESOL. He has been developing automated spoken language tests for more than 4 years and has significant experience implementing custom requirements onto Ordinate's patented technology platform. Masa managed the development of the Versant Aviation English Test under a cooperative agreement with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). He was also involved in a validation research project for the Spoken Spanish Test under the Special Operations Forces Language Office (SOFLO) contract.

Ryan has a PhD in Language and Communicative Disorders and an MS in Basic Medical Science. He brings strong expertise and experience in psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics, and cognitive neuroscience to Ordinate's test development team. Prior to joining Ordinate, he was an instructor at San Diego State University's School of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences and for the University of California San Diego's Department of Psychology. He also managed the Electrophysiology Division of UCSD's Language and Cognitive Neuroscience Lab. Before his work at UCSD, he worked in the Department of Neurology at Johns Hopkins Hospital where he engaged in clinical research on disorders of memory, language, and cognition.

Rebecca has an MA in Teaching English to Speaker of Other Languages (TESOL). She joined Ordinate's test development team after working with voice recognition projects at Ordinate and the Panasonic Speech Technology Laboratory. Rebecca is also fluent in Hebrew, Italian, and Spanish.

Dr. Townshend founded Ordinate in 1996 with Dr. Jared Bernstein. He has extensive experience in signal processing, statistical modeling, computer and database systems design. Dr. Townshend has launched and managed two successful companies, and he is the inventor of the 56k modems that are now being sold by leading computing and communications companies. He was also a Consulting Professor of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University and former principal investigator at AT&T Bell Laboratories.

Professor Bachman is a past president of the American Association for Applied Linguistics and of the International Language Testing Association. He was also the first winner of the TESOL/Newbury House Award for Outstanding Research, and has won the Modern Language Association of America's Kenneth Mildenberger Award for outstanding research publication twice. He is currently co-editor, of the journal Language Testing and of the Cambridge University Press series, Language Assessment.

Professor Brown is currently Director of the American Language Institute. Previously, he taught at the University of Michigan and the University of Illinois. He was the President of TESOL from 1980 to 1981. And, from 1970 to 1979 he was the Editor of Language Learning. Professor Brown has published many articles and books on second language acquisition and pedagogy, including Principles of Language Learning and Teaching.

Professor Luecht is currently Director of the Center for Educational Research and Evaluation at UNCG. Prior to UNCG, he was Project Director for Computer-Adaptive Testing Research at the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME). Previously at ACT, Inc, he conducted research on automated test assembly, computer-adaptive testing simulations and IRT estimation issues. At ACT, he also worked with the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Achievement Levels Standard Setting Project. He is currently an Advisory Editor for the Journal of Education Measurement and the Computer Software Review Editor for Applied Psychological Measurement.

Recently Dean of the Stanford University School of Education, Dr. Shavelson has also served as president of the American Educational Research Association. Before joining Stanford, Professor Shavelson was dean of the Graduate School of Education and Professor of Statistics at the University of California, Santa Barbara from 1987 to 1993. His recent psychometric work includes Generalizability Theory: A Primer, and research on the dependability and context representativeness of performance assessments used in education and work. His policy research includes two recent monographs on monitoring the nation's mathematics and science education.

Professor Yang Huizhong currently is the Chairman of the National College English Testing Committee of China, in charge of a large scale standardized test with 4.5 million candidates each year. He is a Professor of applied linguistics at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, where he was Chairman of the Department of Foreign Languages between 1985 and 1990. For 12 years since 1987 he was President of All-China College English Teaching and Research Association. His areas of study are language testing, applied linguistics, and corpus linguistics. Professor Yang has published many articles and books in the area, including CET Validation Study, An Introduction to Corpus Linguistics.