Pearson TELL vs NWEA Secure Testing
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Pearson TELL
This app offers a self-administered online language proficiency assessment for K-12 students. It includes various tests to monitor progress and provide schools with insights into students' language skills, informing instructional decisions. Results are available quickly thanks to innovative speech and writing evaluation technology.
- K-12 language proficiency assessment
- Screener, diagnostic, and progress monitoring tests
- Measures listening, reading, writing, and speaking skills
- Innovative speech and writing evaluation technology
- Fast, reliable scored results
- Detailed reporting for schools and districts
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Pearson’s TELL is a self-delivered online language proficiency assessment for students in grades K-12. TELL consists of a single screener, two diagnostic, and eight progress monitoring assessments that are administered throughout the course of an academic school year. The results from TELL provide schools and districts with a complete understanding of their students’ current language proficiency and allows them to measure their progression. This robust reporting that also helps inform instructional decisions. With minimal set-up time, students can begin testing. During test administration, students watch video clips and interact with pictures and words on a tablet, then answer questions out loud. They listen, write, read, and speak—all with no mark-ups or grading by teachers. Short, effective testing allows users to monitor student progress on the development of core English language skills necessary for learning academic content. TELL’s unique items types allow for measuring multiple skills in a single item. TELL’s innovative speech recognition and writing evaluation technology yields highly reliable scored but also means that results are available in minutes! TELL scores are provided at the Overall level, for the four foundational skills (listening, reading, writing and speaking), and for the following sub-skills : pronunciation, fluency, grammar, vocabulary, reading comprehension, reading rate, expressiveness, and pre-literacy.
NWEA Secure Testing
This application allows K-12 students to take standardized assessments on an iPad. It supports various NWEA tests, including MAP Growth and state summative assessments, ensuring a secure testing environment.
- K-12 assessment delivery
- iPad compatibility
- MAP Growth support
- MAP Growth K-2 support
- State summative assessments
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The NWEA™ Secure Testing app provides students the ability to complete our K–12 assessments on an iPad®. The app supports MAP® Growth™, MAP Growth K-2 and NWEA state summative assessments.
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Pearson TELL at 100% against NWEA Secure Testing's 18%. Pearson TELL also leads on rating (4.7 vs 1.5) and update cadence (every 3 months vs every 8 months). NWEA Secure Testing's advantage is ratings volume (1.2K vs 3) and iOS requirement (9.3 vs 11.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Pearson TELL holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 1.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: NWEA Secure Testing has 1.2K ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 100% of Pearson TELL's written reviews are positive against 18% of NWEA Secure Testing's.
Pearson TELL ships an update every 3 months, NWEA Secure Testing every 8 months. The most recent releases landed on June 1, 2026 and September 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Pearson TELL | NWEA Secure Testing |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (3 ratings) — better | 1.5 (1.2K ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better | 18.1% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 3 | 1.2K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months — better | Every 8 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPad | iPad |
| Requires iOS | 11.0 | 9.3 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 12 MB | 13 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Pearson Education, Inc. (Curriculum Group) | NWEA |
Customer experience
Pearson TELL
NWEA Secure Testing
Bugs and requests
Pearson TELL
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
NWEA Secure Testing
Reported bugs
3 issues- Frequent app crashes and freezes
- Compatibility issues with certain devices
- Inconsistent test results
Requested features
3 requests- Allow going back to previous questions
- Provide more detailed feedback on performance
- Adjust question difficulty to grade level
In-app purchases
Pearson TELL
No in-app purchases
NWEA Secure Testing
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Pearson TELL free?
Is NWEA Secure Testing free?
Which has better reviews, Pearson TELL or NWEA Secure Testing?
Do Pearson TELL or NWEA Secure Testing have ads?
Which is updated more often, Pearson TELL or NWEA Secure Testing?
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