Senate Narrowly Approves Reforms in CLAS Exams : Education: Proposed changes include a ban on certain questions and a larger role for parents.

The Senate on Thursday narrowly passed legislation aimed at shoring up public confidence in the state’s school performance tests through several reforms, including giving parents a bigger role in them.

The proposed reforms include a prohibition against asking students about their sexual, moral and religious beliefs or those of their families.

The bill, designed to overcome heavy criticism of the California Learning Assessment System tests, also would add parents and other members of the public to the teams of teachers who develop the tests and create a citizens committee appointed by the Legislature to review the final product.

The bill (SB 1273) by Sen. Gary K. Hart (D-Santa Barbara), which would reauthorize the California Learning Assessment System for five more years, was approved on a bipartisan 21-14 vote, the exact majority required. The measure goes to the Assembly, where its fate is uncertain.

Conservative Assembly Republicans are expected to propose amendments that would give the performance-based examinations a more traditional academic cast. Maureen DiMarco, Gov. Pete Wilson’s education adviser, said the Senate bill does not meet the governor’s demand for reforms “but it’s coming” closer.

The 2-year-old CLAS tests have been praised and criticized. They have been lauded as a national model for measuring students’ progress, but are criticized by some parents and conservative Christian organizations that object to the reading and writing segments of the exams.

They say the tests invade a student’s personal beliefs, do not accurately measure knowledge and are so shrouded by secrecy that they cannot be legally examined by parents.

State Sen. Bill Leonard (R-Big Bear Lake), who two years ago supported the CLAS legislation, led the opposition Thursday in the Senate. He accused the state Department of Education and acting Supt. of Public Instruction William D. Dawson of imposing a blackout on test material, which he said helped fuel rumor and myth.

Leonard said parents should be allowed to examine the tests. But Hart and others argued that allowing parents to see the tests in advance would compromise the tests’ integrity.

The Hart bill would order the compilation of previous sample exams that would be distributed to the public in as “broad a manner as possible” so citizens would know the types of questions that have been asked.