2023 New York Laws › EDN - Education › Title 1 - General Provisions › Article 7-A - Standardized Testing › 346-A - Advisory Committee.

§ 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.