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In the early 1950?s, there was a wide spread demand on the part of
secondary members that AATSP sponsor the development of a Spanish exam to be offered to the
local AATSP chapters.? At the December 1955 AATSP annual meeting in Chicago, the Executive Council voted
that a committee be appointed ?to study other foreign language tests currently available and to prepare
examinations for Spanish on the second, third, and fourth year levels?.
The original committee was composed of 4 university professors and 3 secondary teachers.
?
Sol Saporta, IN University, internationally
known in the field of testing & language learning
?
Bernice Brand, CA
?
Harry Charly, WI University
?
Andrea McHenry, TX
?
James Powell, Temple University
?
Stanley Sapon, OH State University
?
Mildred Thelm, MA
As the committee worked on the initial test
forms in the spring of 1956, it became increasingly apparent that a national office for NSE
would be required to centralize administration of the exam.? Harry Charly was appointed to
chair a committee for establishment and administration.? This committee was called the Test
Development Committee.? The first National Spanish contest was held in March 1957.? The
founders of the NSE intended that the exam would not be part of the academic Spanish program
but rather an extracurricular contest among the participating schools.
Next a Committee on Awards was established to
obtain award donations. The committee was increasingly successful in securing prizes and awards
which included reference works, recordings, subscriptions to periodicals, tuition and scholarship
grants to Peninsular, Latin America and US secondary and collegiate programs.? Publishers in
Spain, Latin America and the US were especially generous in donating awards.
The names of Chapter and National Award winning
students with their teachers appeared in every September issue of Hispania.?? The initial exams were called Form A-- 1957, Form B?1958 up to 1967 and form
L.? In 1967 Levels 1 and 5 were available for the first time.? Teachers forwarded their highest
scoring papers to the NSE office for consideration for national awards.
Through a series of leaders, the National Spanish Examinations have continued to grow and develop, changing in format and content as language learning theory changed.? From 1993 until 2006, Martha Quiat served as the Director of the National Spanish Examination. During Martha's tenure, there were three Directors of Test Development: (1)
Christine Campbell [1993-1999] who was instrumental in developing a proficiency-based
exam, (2) Nancy Anderson [2000-2001], and Kevin Cessna-Buscemi [2002-2007] who was instrumental in changing the exam to an online format.
In 2002, NSE took its place in cyberspace by communicating with its members via a website and e-mail. 2006 saw the NSE as a pioneer in the field of language testing when the exam was fully administered online.
No one would argue that those responsible for the
development and administration of the exam have to be very capable and competent, but when all is said
and done, it is the great cadre of local chapter coordinators who have been and continue to be the backbone of the exam.? They
give of their energy, time and much hard work to make the exam the success it has become.
NSE celebrated its 50th anniversary
in 2007.? All AATSP members should be very proud of the strides the NSE has made over almost 5 decades.? The NSE is still the most widely used test of Spanish in the United States.?
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