Panel Orders Delay on Education Tests

National reading and math tests sought by President Clinton should be delayed until after his second term, an independent board ruled, denying Clinton a key item on his education agenda. It is up to Congress to decide whether the tests should be given at all. But if they are, the National Assessment Governing Board determined that they should be given no sooner than 2001. Clinton had proposed in his State of the Union speech a year ago that the voluntary tests of fourth-grade reading and eighth-grade math be given in 1999. Compromise legislation in the fall pushed the earliest possible date back to 2000. But the 26-member bipartisan board said it would be technically impossible to have a test ready before 2001.