The Examinations Institute is an activity of the Division of Chemical Education, Inc., DivCHED, which is a technical division of the American Chemical Society (ACS). As noted on our 75th Anniversary page, the Examinations Institute is hosted by universities and has been housed at South Florida, Oklahoma State, Clemson, Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Iowa State.
The ACS also operates an office in its Washington, DC headquarters that is dedicated to matters related to education. This office is called the ACS Education Division – acknowledging the importance of education by its position as a Division on the headquarters organization chart. Despite the similarities in name, these two operations are formally separate. Significant cooperation occurs between the two groups, but ACS Exams receives no funding from the national headquarters. The Examinations Institute is not supported by member dues, and all funding to run the office, develop new exams and then print and distribute them is derived from sales.
The Examinations Institute does consider the availability of quality assessment materials to members of the Society as a key part of its mission (though materials are available to any chemistry educator). For example, discussions about how materials from ACS Exams can help departments who are meeting expectations for program approval through the ACS Committee on Professional Training (CPT) have been taking place for several years, and many of the new developments being pursued are geared toward this end.