Special to the JTA Strategy Developed to Protect Rights of Observant Students

The threat of a drastic cut in the number of alternative dates on which Saturday Sabbath observers can take state-wide college entrance examinations led the National Jewish Commission on Law and Public Affairs (COLPA) to develop a two-pronged strategy to protect the rights of such observant students, Howard Zuckerman, COLPA president, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

One effort has been to negotiate with two major testing agencies, the College Entrance Examination Board (CEEB), which administers the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), and with the Law Schools Admissions Council (LSAC) which administers the Law Schools Admission Test (LSAT).

Both agencies have warned that, in response to requirements in the new New York State Truth in Testing, they will have to make severe cuts in the number of Sunday and Monday alternate test days. Zuckerman said the negotiations has resulted in one additional test date, as an interim action, to the deeply reduced numbers of alternate test dates the two agencies said they would have to institute.

The other effort is a bill, drafted with COLPA assistance and introduced in both the New York State Assembly and the Senate, which would mandate an alternate date for Sabbath observers for all higher education standardized tests, including the SAT and the LSAT, which are given only on Saturdays. The Admission Testing Law, which became effective last August and which is popularly known as the Truth in Testing Law, requires that within 30 days following the grading of such standardized tests, questions used in the test must be made public.

The testing agencies said the law would force them to reduce drastically the number of alternate dates for Sabbath observers because the agencies are barred by the new law from re-use of previously used test questions.

PRIOR TESTING DATES

Prior to adoption of the Truth in Testing Law, the CEEB gave each year seven Saturday tests and seven alternate dates. The LSAC gave five tests throughout the year with five alternate Sunday or Monday dates. In 1979, for example, the CEEB held SAT tests in January, March, May, June, September, November and December, each followed by an alternate date for Sabbath observers. The LSAC held LSAT exams in February, April, June, October and December with five alternate dates.

The CEEB responded to the new law by announcing it would omit the regular January test and reduce the number of alternate dates to two in May and June. The LSAC declared it would continue its five Saturday tests each year but would reduce alternate dates from five to one in December.

Zuckerman said COLPA acted in behalf of Yeshiva University; Yeshiva High School Principals Council of Greater New York; Agudath Israel of America; Young Israel; the Rabbinical Council of America; Torah Umesorah; the National Council of Yeshiva Principals; the National Association of Hebrew Day School PTAs; and the Educators Council of New York.

Three representatives of the Principals Council — Rabbi David Weinboch, Dr. Joseph Preil, and Ruth Ritterband — and Zuckerman and Dennis Rapps, COLPA executive director, met on Jan. 21 in the CEEB office with Al Simms, CEEB vice-president. With the January SAT examination dropped, negotiations centered on the first 1980 test, on March 22. Zuckerman said Simms agreed to an alternate SAT test date on March 23, on Sunday.

EFFORTS WITH STATE LEGISLATORS

Zuckerman also reported that the LSAC agreed to provide an alternate date on the night of Saturday, Feb. 2, which he said COLPA had accepted as an interim offer.

The other COLPA effort was to arrange with Assemblyman Sheldon Silver, Manhattan Democrat, and with State Senators Kenneth La Volle, Suffolk Republican, and Donald Halperin, Brooklyn Democrat, to introduce in the Legislature the COLPA-drafted bill which would require that whenever a higher education standardized test is given in the state on a Saturday, the testing agency would provide an alternate date for Sabbath observers.

Rapps said the bill covers all standardized tests, including not only the SAT and LSAT but also the Graduate Record Examination and the medical school admissions tests. Both the CEED and the LSAC have been meeting with legislators in an effort to amend the Truth in Testing Law to reduce the number of tests to be made public and a lesser number of questions in the remaining tests to be made public.

Zuckerman said COLPA had assurances that the COLPA bill would be approved and signed into law but that the outlook was for adoption of the COLPA bill as a separate measure or its inclusion as part of a package of amendments to the Truth in Testing Law. The amendments, he said, would incorporate agreements expected to be reached on a reduction of the number of test and questions to be published.

ASSURED OF EARLY ADOPTION

Zuckerman explained that while COLPA had assurance of early adoption of its bill, COLPA had sought the additional alternate tests dates in February and, March because of possible delays arising from negotiations with state legislators on reduction of the number of tests and questions in examinations which must be made public.

Another reason, he said, was that there are cut off dates for registration for the SAT and LSAT, and COLPA wanted to assure enough time for registration. He said that legislative action was expected on the COLPA measure, either as a separate measure or as part of an amendments package.

Rapps also commented on a recent federal ruling in Albany, barring application of the Truth in Testing Law to medical school entrance examinations until a ruling was made on the constitutionality of the law. Rapps said the ruling had been widely but erroneously reported as declaring that law to be unconstitutional.