§ 346-A — Advisory committee

§ 346-a. Advisory committee. 1. There shall be created a temporary\ncommittee to advise the legislature and make findings and\nrecommendations with respect to the effect of standardized tests used in\nthe process of post secondary admissions on test subjects of varying\nracial, ethnic, linguistic background and gender and consider other\npossible analytical methods to assure the fairness and equity of such\ntests.\n 2. The committee shall consist of ten members to be appointed as\nfollows: three each shall be appointed by the temporary president of the\nsenate and by the speaker of the assembly, and two each by the minority\nleader of the senate and the minority leader of the assembly. At least\none of the members appointed by each of the four legislative leaders\nshall be an individual with expertise in measurement and standardized\ntesting. Such committee shall be broadly representative of persons or\ngroups residing in the state of New York interested in and affected by\nstandardized admissions tests which may include, but is not limited to,\ntest subjects, test agencies, representatives of consumers of\nstandardized test, post-secondary administrators and faculty and\nrepresentatives of civil rights organizations.\n 3. The committee shall select a chairperson from its membership and\nmay select professional staff, other than the data analysis researchers\nor organizations described herein, who shall have expertise in\nmeasurement and standardized testing to design and conduct the study.\nThe committee shall prepare a design for the analysis of the data\nrequired for collection pursuant to this section. The study design\nshall be available upon request for comment for a period for thirty days\nafter which time the committee shall select or solicit one or more\nresearchers or organizations to do the data analysis. The analyses shall\nexamine the differences in test performance between the subgroups\nindicated in section three hundred forty-one-a of this article and\nconsider the impact upon those differences of using alternative methods\nof item selection. Such professional staff, researchers and\norganizations shall not have any direct financial ties, within five\nyears prior to the effective date of this section, to standardized\ntesting, nor to any source that has by personal testimony promoted or\nopposed regulation of standardized testing, or from any source which has\nbeen engaged in litigation, within five years prior to the effective\ndate of this section, against any entity engaged in the standardized\ntesting industry. The committee shall meet at least two times annually\nand shall expire on the first day of September, nineteen hundred\nninety-one. The committee members shall receive no compensation for\ntheir services, but shall be reimbursed for reasonable expenses actually\nand necessarily incurred by them in the performance of their duties\nunder this article.\n 4. The committee may accept any state grants or appropriations, or as\nagent of the state, any grant, including federal grants, or any gift for\nany of the purposes of this article; provided however, that the\ncommittee shall not accept any grant or gift, directly or indirectly,\n(a) from the standardized testing industry or from any source currently\nreceiving funds from the standardized testing industry, or (b) from any\nsource that has promoted or opposed regulation of standardized testing\nor from any source that has been engaged in litigation within five years\nprior to the effective date of this section against any entity engaged\nin the standardized testing industry or from any source currently\nreceiving funds from any such sources. Any monies so received may be\nexpended by the committee to effectuate any purpose of this article,\nsubject to standard limitations as to approval of expenditures and\naudit.\n 5. The committee shall report its finding to the state legislature no\nlater than the thirty-first of March, nineteen hundred ninety.\n 6. The committee shall pursue the aforementioned research if adequate\nfunds have been committed by the first day of July, nineteen hundred\neighty-nine to further the purposes of this article. Prior to February\nfirst, nineteen hundred eighty-nine, the committee shall notify the\nchairs of the assembly ways and means and senate finance committees\nregarding funds received for the purposes of this article and shall\nsubmit a request for such appropriations as may be necessary to\neffectuate the purposes of this section. If no such funds have been\ncommitted, the committee shall dissolve.\n