Lawmakers Balk at Deadline for Test Development

By Robert Rothman

WASHINGTON--The four Congressional members of a panel on educational standards and testing moved last week to put the brakes on a plan to establish a national assessment system by the 1993-94 school year.

The plan had been tentatively approved in August by the National Council on Educational Standards and Testing, a group of 32 educators and policymakers charged with advising the Congress and the National Education Goals Panel on the desirability and feasibility of national standards and assessments.

In a letter released at a meeting of the council here last week, however, Senators Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah, and Jeff Bingaman, Democrat of New Mexico, and Representatives Dale E. Kildee, Democrat of Michigan, and Bill Goodling, Republican of Pennsylvania, argued that the panel...