CAI Quality Control

The CAI is administered in a controlled, monitored environment. All interview sites are completely run by CIEE staff and no interviews are conducted or handled at any point by any third parties.

ID Verification

Upon arrival, interviewees must register and show their Resident Identity card (jumin shenfenzheng) issued by the Chinese government. Registration also includes confirming interviewee information previously entered into the system. These measures allow CIEE to be certain of the interviewee’s identity.

Interview and chain of security

• The writing sample portion of the interview is completed in a room proctored by a CIEE staff member at all times. Cell phones and other electronic devices are not allowed. Students have 20 minutes to answer a simple essay question prompt.
• The oral interview portion of the interview takes place in a private room with only the CIEE interviewer and the interviewee present. The entire interview is video-taped.
• After the entire interview process is complete the interview and essay are evaluated and a CAI report is completed by the CIEE interviewer.
• The video is collected by the on-site CIEE Interview coordinator (also an in-house CIEE staff member) and uploaded to our online secure database.
• The interviewer’s report is submitted to the CIEE, China headquarters in Shanghai.
• The final report including a link to a streaming video of the interview is compiled by full-time CIEE staff in the USA before being sent to the requested schools.

The entire chain of security is operated only by CIEE employees. The separation of specific roles in the handling process creates an internal system of checks and balances, improving the security of the CAI.

CAI managers also conduct regular, random reviews of interviews and evaluations to provide some cross-rater reliability to the evaluations as well as confirm evaluation standardization.