An “Eval Systems Test Fee” charge on your credit or debit card statement is a payment to Evaluation Systems, a division of Pearson (formally NCS Pearson, Inc.), for a teacher certification or educator licensure exam.1edTPA. edTPA Terms of Use The descriptor is generic because the same company processes registrations for dozens of state exam programs, so the line item rarely names the specific test you or someone in your household signed up for.
What the Charge Pays For
Evaluation Systems develops and administers educator credentialing assessments and delivers more than 60 percent of educator licensure exams in the United States, covering programs in over 20 states.2Pearson Professional Assessments. Evaluation Systems Continues to Develop Educator Workforce Through Partnership With Passage Preparation When someone registers and pays for one of these exams, NCS Pearson, Inc. processes the transaction, but the statement line reads “Eval Systems Test Fee” instead of the exam name or “Pearson.”1edTPA. edTPA Terms of Use
The same descriptor shows up for registrations in programs including:
- California’s CBEST, CSET, CPACE, and CTEL
- Georgia’s GACE
- Illinois’s ILTS
- Massachusetts’s MTEL
- New York’s NYSTCE
- Ohio’s OAE
- Texas Educator Certification Examination Program
- The Foundations of Reading exam used by multiple states
- The National Evaluation Series (NES)
- edTPA portfolio scoring, which carries a $300 fee3edTPA. edTPA Operational Fees
Evaluation Systems accepts only Visa and MasterCard credit and debit cards, so the charge will always originate from one of those networks.4CTC Exams. Payment and Credit Information Fees from the Right Start self-paced test preparation courses, which Evaluation Systems offers for several state programs, also post under this descriptor, and some of those enrollments carry auto-renewal terms that have surprised test-takers.5Passage Preparation. Right Start by Pearson
How to Confirm the Charge Is Yours
Start with the people who have access to your card. The charge may post weeks or months after the registration, so a spouse, partner, or adult child who signed up for a certification exam is the most common explanation. In one case reported to the Better Business Bureau, a consumer flagged a $139 “Eval Systems Test Fee” as potentially fraudulent and discovered it matched a Massachusetts MTEL exam they had registered for years earlier.6Better Business Bureau. Evaluation Systems Group of Pearson Complaints
Each state exam program has its own website, reachable through the Pearson Evaluation Systems portal, where candidates can log in and review registration and payment history. If no one in the household recognizes the charge, call Evaluation Systems and ask a representative to look up any transaction tied to the card:
- Phone: (866) 565-4872, toll-free, Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. ET
- Email: es-postmaster@pearson.com for general inquiries, or the contact form on an individual program site
- Live chat: available on the edTPA website
- Mail: Evaluation Systems, Pearson, 300 Venture Way, Hadley, MA 010357edTPA. edTPA Contact Us
If You Can’t Identify the Charge or Want to Dispute It
If no one you share a card with registered for an exam and Evaluation Systems can’t match the charge to any account, you can dispute it with your card issuer. Under the Fair Credit Billing Act, personal liability for unauthorized credit card charges is capped at $50, the written dispute must be sent within 60 days of the statement date, and the issuer must resolve it within 90 days.8Federal Trade Commission. Using Credit Cards and Disputing Charges For debit card transactions, notify your bank within 60 days of the statement date to preserve full protections; the bank generally has 10 business days to investigate and must issue a temporary credit if the investigation runs longer.9Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. How Do I Get My Money Back After I Discover an Unauthorized Transaction
Before filing a chargeback, know what Evaluation Systems does in response if the charge turns out to belong to a real registration. Across its programs, including GACE, the National Evaluation Series, and edTPA, disputing a credit card charge triggers a $20 account clearance fee.10GACE. GACE Fees and Payment Policies11National Evaluation Series. NES Payment Policy The test-taker can be blocked from paying by credit card in the future and required to use cashier’s check or money order, and the outstanding balance is applied before any new services are funded. If a balance remains unresolved after a test date, scores from that sitting can be permanently voided, meaning they will not be reported to the candidate, the state licensing agency, or any institutions.12edTPA. edTPA Candidate Policies13National Evaluation Series. NES Account Clearance Policy If the charge is in fact yours, calling Evaluation Systems first and resolving it as a billing question is safer than going straight to the bank.