We are TOEFL Speaking raters and scoring leaders—past and present—who have been shut out of the work we helped build.

Over the past several months, ETS has stopped assigning shifts to U.S.-based raters and scoring leaders without any clear or honest explanation. Those who’ve written to HR or Scheduling receive either silence or vague boilerplate responses citing “global strategy” or “volume.”

In reality, there has been a quiet transition to a completely offshore rater pool, with scoring for the TOEFL Speaking section now handled almost entirely out of India. U.S. raters—many of whom have supported this work for over a decade—have been ghosted.

Yet raters are still asked each month to submit their availability, even though they are no longer given any shifts. Scoring Leaders are often placed on the schedule, only to be disinvited without explanation. This has become a pattern, not an exception.

Leaders are effectively operating in an on-call capacity without compensation. Shifts are frequently opened and filled with less than 24 hours' notice. Leaders are expected to remain available without pay, transparency, or consideration for their time.

We are calling on ETS leadership—including SR&O, HR, and those making executive decisions—to provide:

• A clear, honest explanation of how shifts are being assigned
• A detailed accounting of how many U.S.-based raters have been scheduled to score since April 2025 and ratios of US raters and the new "global" pool since December 2024.
• Acknowledgment that the Rater and Scoring Leader roles are now being filled exclusively from India
• An ethical review of these decisions and their impact on the long-standing U.S. rater pool
• A commitment to transparency, accountability, and professional respect for this workforce

We’ve given years—some of us decades—to this work. We helped build and uphold the standards that ETS still promotes publicly. We deserve better than ghosting, lip service, and erasure.

We will not accept this silence. We will not go quietly.

📣 If you're a current or former TOEFL Speaking rater or leader and want to join the growing Community Network where we're sharing updates, comparing experiences, and supporting one another—DM me on Reddit at u/Distinct_Chapter_865 and I’ll send you the link.