§ 346-a. Advisory committee. 1. There shall be created a temporary committee to advise the legislature and make findings and recommendations with respect to the effect of standardized tests used in the process of post secondary admissions on test subjects of varying racial, ethnic, linguistic background and gender and consider other possible analytical methods to assure the fairness and equity of such tests.
2. The committee shall consist of ten members to be appointed as follows: three each shall be appointed by the temporary president of the senate and by the speaker of the assembly, and two each by the minority leader of the senate and the minority leader of the assembly. At least one of the members appointed by each of the four legislative leaders shall be an individual with expertise in measurement and standardized testing. Such committee shall be broadly representative of persons or groups residing in the state of New York interested in and affected by standardized admissions tests which may include, but is not limited to, test subjects, test agencies, representatives of consumers of standardized test, post-secondary administrators and faculty and representatives of civil rights organizations.
3. The committee shall select a chairperson from its membership and may select professional staff, other than the data analysis researchers or organizations described herein, who shall have expertise in measurement and standardized testing to design and conduct the study. The committee shall prepare a design for the analysis of the data required for collection pursuant to this section. The study design shall be available upon request for comment for a period for thirty days after which time the committee shall select or solicit one or more researchers or organizations to do the data analysis. The analyses shall examine the differences in test performance between the subgroups indicated in section three hundred forty-one-a of this article and consider the impact upon those differences of using alternative methods of item selection. Such professional staff, researchers and organizations shall not have any direct financial ties, within five years prior to the effective date of this section, to standardized testing, nor to any source that has by personal testimony promoted or opposed regulation of standardized testing, or from any source which has been engaged in litigation, within five years prior to the effective date of this section, against any entity engaged in the standardized testing industry. The committee shall meet at least two times annually and shall expire on the first day of September, nineteen hundred ninety-one. The committee members shall receive no compensation for their services, but shall be reimbursed for reasonable expenses actually and necessarily incurred by them in the performance of their duties under this article.
4. The committee may accept any state grants or appropriations, or as agent of the state, any grant, including federal grants, or any gift for any of the purposes of this article; provided however, that the committee shall not accept any grant or gift, directly or indirectly, (a) from the standardized testing industry or from any source currently receiving funds from the standardized testing industry, or (b) from any source that has promoted or opposed regulation of standardized testing or from any source that has been engaged in litigation within five years prior to the effective date of this section against any entity engaged in the standardized testing industry or from any source currently receiving funds from any such sources. Any monies so received may be expended by the committee to effectuate any purpose of this article, subject to standard limitations as to approval of expenditures and audit.
5. The committee shall report its finding to the state legislature no later than the thirty-first of March, nineteen hundred ninety.
6. The committee shall pursue the aforementioned research if adequate funds have been committed by the first day of July, nineteen hundred eighty-nine to further the purposes of this article. Prior to February first, nineteen hundred eighty-nine, the committee shall notify the chairs of the assembly ways and means and senate finance committees regarding funds received for the purposes of this article and shall submit a request for such appropriations as may be necessary to effectuate the purposes of this section. If no such funds have been committed, the committee shall dissolve.
