If schools don't emphasize those skills -- and if there's no way to measure them -- students might not use technology in a way that could make their academic experience and their workforce experience more successful, she said.

'Schools that effectively measure those skills can better evaluate the impact of existing ICT-based curricula and identify areas in which ICT literacy resource allocations need to be placed,' she said in the statement.

The ICT Literacy Assessment includes 14 four-minute tasks and one 15-minute task and can be administered in about 75 minutes, according to ETS. For example, students may be asked to search databases for information; browse through linked Web sites for information; download and install a (simulated) video player; sort e-mails into appropriate folders; compare information from Web pages in a spreadsheet; and format a word processing document, ETS said.

Students receive scores on a scale that ranges from 400 points to 700 points. They also receive feedback on their performance for each of seven areas: defining, accessing, managing, integrating, evaluating, creating and communicating information, ETS said.