NY State Senator Wants Oversight of SAT Testing

The chairman of the New York State Senate's committee on higher education wants to create a state board that would oversee SAT and other standardized testing, the New York Times reports. The board would be funded by a $1 state tax on standardized tests administered in New York.

The proposed legislation creating the committee would also require testing companies to respond more promptly to requests from students for copies of test questions and answers, and to provide the material for free.

State Senator Kenneth P. LaValle says the need for official oversight of the standardized testing industry was demonstrated by the approximately 5,000 erroneous SAT scores that the College Board released earlier this year. He expects the full Senate to approve the bill before the current legislative session ends in June.

Because New York is such a large market for standardized testing, a new state law on standardized testing could have repercussions for test-takers nation-wide. A 1979 New York state law that required testing companies to provide copies of certain test questions and answers and copies of students' own test responses, for a fee, was adopted by the industry nationwide because it was easier to change standards everywhere than to establish a special set of procedures for New York.

Source: "Senator Proposes Creating Board to Oversee College Admissions Tests," by Karen W. Arenson - the New York Times, May 20, 2006