What's happening
This bill prohibits New York colleges from requiring collegiate learning assessment exams and imposes penalties for violations.
Why it matters
Limits on standardized assessment. By prohibiting the use of collegiate learning assessment (CLA) exams, the bill restricts New York colleges from using certain standardized tests designed to measure critical thinking and related skills across their student bodies. This could shift the focus of evaluation away from standardized, "value-added" models.
Financial consequences for non-compliance. Colleges that require students to take such exams risk losing all state aid provided under a major higher education funding article. If a college violates the ban after receiving aid, it must repay the entire amount by the end of the fiscal year—creating strong financial deterrents.
Transparency for non-funded institutions. Colleges that do not receive (or forfeit) state aid but still use CLA exams are required to publicly disclose their assessment scores. This means private or non-aided colleges must make their results available, increasing public transparency around the use and outcomes of these exams.
Potential shifts in educational assessment. By targeting tests that assess institution-level learning gains rather than individual student performance, the bill may influence how colleges demonstrate educational quality, potentially leading to greater emphasis on alternative assessment and accountability methods.
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Who cares
Board of Regents
The bill would bar the board from instituting or administering collegiate learning assessment exams at any New York college.
Colleges receiving aid under Education Law article 129
Requiring students to participate in these exams would trigger forfeiture of that aid and repayment of any aid already distributed by the end of the fiscal year in which the exam occurred.
Colleges that do not receive or forgo article 129 aid
Those administering the exams would have to file their scores with the education commissioner for public posting on the Education Department’s website.
College students
The bill would put colleges’ article 129 aid at risk if they require students to take these assessments of institutional contributions to learning.
Headline styles
Ban College Assessment Exams
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
1 Co-sponsor
History
- Referred to education
- Referred to education
Full text
2 pagesUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
5521
2017-2018 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
April 4, 2017
Introduced by Sen. HAMILTON -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Education
AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to prohibiting college learning assessment exams in colleges in the state
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. The education law is amended by adding a new section 208-b to read as follows:
§ 208-b. Collegiate learning assessment exams prohibited. 1. The board of regents is prohibited from instituting or administering a collegiate learning assessment exam at any college in the state.
2. Any college receiving aid under article one hundred twenty-nine of this chapter shall forfeit such aid where the institution requires student participation in a collegiate learning assessment exam.
3. Where a college requires student participation in a collegiate learning assessment exam and state aid has been distributed pursuant to article one hundred twenty-nine of this chapter, such college shall return the full amount of state aid by the end of the fiscal year in which the collegiate learning assessment exam took place.
4. For colleges that administer a collegiate learning assessment exam and do not receive aid pursuant to article one hundred twenty-nine of this chapter and/or forgo such aid, their collegiate learning assessment scores shall be filed with the commissioner and such information shall be compiled and made available to the public via the department's web site.
5. For purposes of this section, the following terms shall have the following meanings:
(a) "collegiate learning assessment" means a standardized testing initiative in higher education evaluation and assessment which uses a "value-added" outcome model to examine a college or university's contribution to student learning which relies on the institution, rather
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD07993-01-7
S. 5521 2
than the individual student, as the primary unit of analysis. The collegiate learning assessment measures are designed to test for critical thinking, analytic reasoning, problem solving, and written communication skills. The assessment consists of open-ended questions.
(b) "college" shall have the same meaning as such term is defined in subdivision two of section two of this chapter.
§ 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to amend the education law, in relation to prohibiting college learning assessment exams in colleges in the state
Purpose
The purpose of this bill is to stop the administration of the collegiate learning assessment exams before they are standardized college exit exams, Such exams can be used as a discriminatory mechanism and can be misleading in assessing student academic attainment will lead to job discrimination based on test score.
Summary of provision
Section 1(a): Adds a new section 208(b) to prohibit collegiate learning exams. Under this law, the board of regents is prohibited from instituting or allowing the College Learning Assessment (CLA) exam from being given at SUN? and CUNY campuses or at independent colleges and universities that receive Bundy Aid.
Read the full memo (1,200 words)
Section 1(b): Discontinues college aid: Independent colleges and universities shall forfeit state aid if the institution requires student participation in a collegiate learning assessment (CLA) exam.
Section 1(c): Where a college requires student participation in a collegiate learning assessment (CLA) exam and state aid has been distributed pursuant to article one hundred twenty-nine of this chapter, such college shall return the full amount of state aid by the end of the state's fiscal year in which the collegiate learning assessment exam took place.
Section 1(d): For colleges that administer a collegiate learning assessment (CLA) exam and do not receive aid pursuant to article one hundred twenty-nine of this chapter and or forgo such aid, their collegiate learning assessment scores shall be filled with the commissioner and such information shall be compiled and made available to the public via the department's web site.
Section i(e): Defines the term 'collegiate learning assessment' as a standardized testing initiative in higher education evaluation and assessment which uses a 'value-added" outcome model to examine a college or university's contribution to student learning.
Section 2: This act shall take effect immediately.
Justification
At a time when college graduates are having extreme difficulties in finding employment and are faced with paying large student loans and at a time when the cost of obtaining a college education is negatively impacting families across our State, a proposed new exit exam for college students is being deployed on private college campuses and will soon find its way to public colleges and universities.
The exit exam, developed by an offshoot of the controversial Rand Corporation, is called the Collegiate Learning Assessment (CIA).
It is a measurement of what a student has learned while in college and the score can be required by a prospective employer. In a society were high-stakes testing determines losers and winners, the CLA will create a new mechanism to discriminate against students who are not good test takers, students who cannot afford the expensive prep classes for the CLA, and low income students who enter college already at a disadvantage based on the k-12 education they received.
No longer will a college degree be enough to enter the labor market. Now employers will be able to ask for the former student's CLA score and determine hiring prospects for that student based on that score.
One major and undisputable fact on the CLA is that SAT performance is tied to CLA score.
So we now know that those with higher SAT scores will score higher in the CLA exam. Resource-rich families and students who paid for SAT preparation classes to increase their score will do the same for the CLA exam. Those same students have had the benefits of private k-12 education or are from well-funded k-12 school districts.
As it now stands, New York State students have the worst average SAT scores in the Northeastern United States. In addition, low income and minority students score poorly on these exams, If the CLA is allowed to become a standardized exit exam, it will make these students into second-class recruits for employers. The CIA score will become a huge obstacle to obtaining employment after college graduation.
The CIA cannot be allowed to create a new barrier for college graduates who have worked hard for their college degrees but will be faced with employer discrimination based on this high stakes exam.
This legislation seeks to ban the use of the CLA at all State University of New York and City University of New York colleges and universities. It also bans the use of the CIA by private colleges that receive public funding from the State of New York; such as Bundy Aid.
The private colleges can issue the exam for their students if they fore-go state funding or reimburse the state for the funding they received the year the CLA was administered as an exit exam.
To highlight the detrimental impact of the CIA on a college graduate, you only need to know that the CLA score for a college administering the exam will not be made public.
Yet the score for the individual student will now be a new standard that employers can request at a job interview.
Jim Crow laws have evolved into such practices as a CLA exam and a score that will decide who are the financial winners in our society. With millions of Americans unemployed and underemployed and with the current status of our labor market, the CLA will be systematizing a number of economic, educational and social disadvantages that cannot be allowed to take hold in New York State.
With both the largest state supported public higher education system in the nation and the largest municipal higher education system in the nation via CUNY, New York can lead the way in preventing the negative impact of the CLA on our college graduates and youth. Employers who complain that college graduates are not prepared for the labor market after college graduation do not need to base their hiring choice on a standardized exam like the CLA. It is already well known that the SAT is not a good predictor of college performance.
Employers need to better train their human resources staff to achieve the best possible goals for their recruitment of new employees, not disguise their biased hiring practice through requiring college graduates to disclose a score that will fail to show their full potential.
At a time when minority students are becoming the largest group graduating from high schools and entering college, it appears that in combination with the projected reduction in the Caucasian labor force, a new mechanism to systematically exclude prospective minority students from the job market is being devised and implemented and slowly rolled out, starting with private colleges.
While CIA style exit exams are used in some Western democracies, their populations are homogeneous and those nations have not had the American experience with institutionalized racial bigotry, biased public policies, and outright codifying of laws that discriminate based on race and ethnicity.
The CIA represents that greatest threat to the civil rights of low-in-come and minority youth and their communities in the past 5o years! It must be banned in New York State.
Legislative history
A9088 of 2013 died in Assembly Higher Education, A6828 of 2015/16 died in Assembly Higher Education.
Fiscal implications
None to the State
Effective date
This act shall take effect immediately.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.