
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, March 12, 1994                   TAG: 9403120059
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

COLLEGE ENTRANCE EXAM MAY BE DISCRIMINATORY

The Justice Department is investigating whether a major college entrance test discriminates against the disabled by giving them fewer chances to take a new version of the exam, a spokesman said Friday.

The department's Civil Rights Division has received 30 complaints since early February about the Educational Testing Service's plans for introducing revised Scholastic Assessment Tests of math and verbal skills this year, according to Myron Marlin, spokesman for the division.

"We're investigating to see whether the Americans with Disabilities Act is being violated" by the Princeton, N.J.-based testing service, Marlin said.

Each year, 1.8 million students take the tests, which are used by many colleges and universities as a major factor in deciding which students to admit.

Marlin said students with disabilities requiring large-type, braille or cassette copies of the test or more time to complete it can take the new test once, either on March 19 or 23. Those without disabilities can take the new test March 19, May 7 or June 4 or any combination of those dates, he said.

But Gray Williams, an associate program director for the testing service, said disabled students would be given a chance to take the new test again sometime in the fall.

The new tests allow students to use calculators for the first time, put more emphasis on reading comprehension, eliminate a section on antonyms and reduce use of multiple-choice questions in math by requiring students to calculate their own answers.

Asked why the special edition of the new test is not being offered later this spring, Williams said, "As we're making this transition, there are a limited number of test versions available." To prevent cheating, the testing service does not give identical tests on different dates.

Williams also said special editions are developed for students with disabilities. For example, a math problem with a complicated diagram would be revised to test the same concept with the same difficulty but in a manner more accessible for the disabled.

It takes more time to put tests in alternate formats, Williams said.

Last year, 21,000 disabled students took the exam in some special format.

The Justice Department also is looking into complaints that the testing service has given colleges only a raw tally of correct and wrong answers from tests taken by the disabled rather than a scaled score used for other students, Marlin said. The scaled scoring converts test results to a number from 200 to 800, which "provides a meaningful result for colleges to use in comparing students," Marlin said.

by CNB