The SPEAK has been routinely criticized for not accurately testing how a speaker will perform in the real world, in part because it is administered through the individual speaking into a recording device rather than to a person, and for using native-speaker norms to judge non-native speakers.
[1] In fact, independent audits of the SPEAK conducted in 2012 on some of the few institutions found to still administer this test revealed that the assessment standards provided by ETS were not even being used by the assessors.
In fact, in some cases, the assessors of the test were not trained in any way to conduct the assessments, and were found to be assigning arbitrary grades to the candidates.
The SPEAK is no longer supported by the ETS, and it is not offered at most academic institutions, but some still recognize it for enrollment in certain degree programs where the proficiency of an individual's spoken English is deemed to be the priority.
The ETS developed the four skills (listening, reading, speaking and writing) TOEFL iBT test.