Deal Allows School Test Plan to Survive

House and Senate negotiators worked out a bipartisan compromise that would delay, but not kill, President Clinton’s plan to test fourth-graders in reading and eighth-graders in math. The proposal would let the Department of Education continue development of the voluntary national tests--due to begin in 1999--under tight restrictions. The tests could not be implemented nationally, however, until Congress passes a separate bill to allow it. Clinton has threatened repeatedly to veto a must-pass 1998 labor, education and health spending bill unless his plan was allowed.