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University of California Considers Phasing Out Standardized Tests University of California Will End Use of SAT and ACT in Admissions
(about 4 hours later)
SACRAMENTO — In a debate with major implications for the future of standardized testing, leaders at the University of California are expected to decide Thursday whether to effectively eliminate the SAT and ACT as requirements for admission at the system’s 10 schools, which are some of the most popular in the country. SACRAMENTO — The University of California on Thursday voted to phase out the SAT and ACT as requirements to apply to its system of 10 schools, which include some of the nation’s most popular campuses, in a decision with major implications for the use of standardized tests in college admissions.
The system’s Board of Regents is considering a proposal from its president, Janet Napolitano, to suspend the tests as an admissions requirement until 2024 and eliminate them after that as the university develops its own test for applicants. Given the size and influence of the California system, whose marquee schools include the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of California, Berkeley, the move is expected to accelerate the momentum of American colleges away from the tests, amid charges that they are unfair to poor, black and Hispanic students.
The system has already temporarily suspended the testing requirement for current applicants because of disruptions created by the coronavirus pandemic, a move made by many other colleges nationwide. The school system’s action, which follows many small liberal arts colleges, comes as the ACT and the College Board, a nonprofit organization that administers the SAT, are suffering financially from the cancellation of test dates during the coronavirus pandemic. One critic of the industry estimated that the College Board had lost $45 million in revenue this spring.
Ms. Napolitano’s recommendation came after several years of pressure on the University of California system, including a lawsuit filed last year by a largely black school district in Compton, Calif., and a coalition of students and advocacy groups, who argue that the time-honored tests discriminate based on race and income. Although many students will likely continue to take the exams as long as they are required by highly competitive schools like Stanford and those in the Ivy League, California’s decision will clearly damage the image of the tests, experts said, which could aid in lawsuits and other efforts to eliminate them.
It remains uncertain what path the regents will follow, however. A range of members, including the board chair, John A. Pérez, a former State Assembly speaker, have questioned the value of test scores. But the president’s proposal runs counter to a recommendation from the system’s faculty senate, which voted in April to keep the SAT and ACT. “The University of California is one of the best institutions in the world, so whatever decision they make will be extraordinarily influential,” said Terry W. Hartle, senior vice president at the American Council on Education, a trade group. “Whatever U.C. does will have ripple effects across American higher education, particularly at leading public universities.”
And the board planned to vote only after hearing hours of testimony from political, civil liberties and testing organizations. Like many colleges nationwide, University of California schools had already made the SAT and ACT optional for this year’s applicants, after testing dates were disrupted by the pandemic. Both companies have announced that they will introduce an online testing option for the first time in the fall.
Ms. Napolitano’s proposal would make the tests optional for two years, then remove them entirely as a requirement for entry for in-state students, while giving the university time to develop its own customized test for admission, perhaps in collaboration with other California schools. If that test isn’t available by 2025, the university would drop standardized test scores from its admissions formula entirely. On Thursday, the California system’s governing board voted unanimously to extend that optional period for another year, and then become “test blind” for two years when determining whether to accept in-state applicants, using standardized tests only to award scholarships, determine course placement and assess out-of-state students.
The cry to do away with standardized testing has been growing for several years and only deepened after last year’s college admissions scandal. Opponents argue that the tests are biased against students who are poor, black and Hispanic, and too easily gamed by those who can pay for test preparation courses. In 2025, consideration of the SAT or ACT for any student’s admission, in or out of state, would be eliminated.
As of this week, more than 1,230 colleges and universities across the country have made the SAT and ACT optional for admission, according to FairTest, an advocacy group that wants to do away with them. Another 70 or so have suspended the use of the test just for the fall application cycle, because of disruptions caused by the coronavirus. “These tests are extremely flawed and unfair,” said Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, a member of the board who supported the decision. “We are saying this is wrong and enough is enough.”
But the University of California’s decision is expected to have an outsized impact on the future of standardized testing because of the system’s size — some 300,000 students attend annually — and popularity among applicants. Six of its schools top the list of most-applied-for in the nation, with the University of California, Los Angeles, consistently the most sought after. And four-fifths of applicants to U.C. schools take the SAT, making the system the largest source of customers for the College Board. In the meantime, the university will do a study on the feasibility of creating its own admissions test, perhaps in collaboration with other California schools.
The regents’ decision could influence other universities in California, as well. Ms. Napolitano wrote that the state’s other four-year system, the nearly 500,000-student California State University, “has indicated a willingness to work with U.C. on developing a new test.” Some 300,000 students attend University of California schools, and six of its campuses top the list of American schools with the most applicants, with U.C.L.A. consistently the most sought after. Four-fifths of applicants to the system’s schools take the SAT, providing the largest source of customers for the College Board, which brings in more than $1 billion a year in revenue.
Standardized test scores are just one component of a complex formula for admission to U.C. schools, which includes high school grade point averages and other metrics. The state guarantees a berth to the top 12.5 percent of California high school students. In addition to the SAT, the organization also administers Advanced Placement tests for high school students and other testing programs. Experts said that despite actions like the California system’s, the testing industry is likely to survive in some form.
Supporters of standardized testing have argued that the ACT and SAT provide an important yardstick to assess students across disparate school districts and states. And the College Board and ACT Inc., which own the tests, say any inequities in scores reflect existing gaps in the American educational system, and are not a fault of the tests themselves. “Standardized testing has been declining as an element in the college admissions process for some time,” Mr. Hartle said. “But the College Board is a large and financially stable organization, and they’ve been around for a long time.”
But as California has struggled to maintain campus diversity since voters passed a 1996 ban on affirmative action, pressure has grown on the U.C. system to take action as its top campuses, such as U.C.L.A. and the University of California, Berkeley, have become almost as difficult to get into as some Ivy League schools and demographically dominated by white and Asian students. The move to do away with testing only deepened after last year’s college admissions scandal. More than 1,230 colleges and universities have made the SAT and ACT optional for admission, according to FairTest, a group that has pushed to end testing requirements — most of them small liberal arts colleges such as Smith, Pitzer and Sarah Lawrence.
For the last 20 years, black enrollment at the U.C. schools has scarcely broken 4 percent, though African-Americans represent 6.5 percent of the state’s population. Nearly 40 percent of the state is Hispanic, the largest ethnic group in “majority-minority” California, but only 22 percent of students in the U.C. system are. Another 70 or so colleges and universities suspended the testing requirement for the fall application cycle because of the coronavirus.
Advocacy groups and lawsuits have been pushing colleges and universities across the country to make test scores optional in admissions, a movement that started largely at small liberal arts schools but has been spreading. In California, the board acted Thursday on a proposal from the university system’s president, Janet Napolitano, which came after several years of pressure. A lawsuit filed last year by a largely black school district in Compton, Calif., and a coalition of students and advocacy groups argues that the time-honored tests discriminate based on race and income.
The highly ranked University of Chicago, which went test-optional in 2018, reported last year that the entering freshman class had nearly a quarter more first-generation and low-income students and 56 percent more rural students than the prior year, with about 10 percent opting against submitting test scores. The decision, however, ran counter to a recommendation from the system’s faculty senate, which voted in April to keep the SAT and ACT. A faculty task force commissioned to study the impact of standardized tests found that they predict college success within the University of California system more effectively than high school grades or other measures.
In response to criticism, the College Board proposed a new SAT scoring system last year that came to be known as the “adversity score,” which would put each student’s results into the context of that student’s school or neighborhood. But the company withdrew that proposal after being criticized for trying to distill complex factors into a single score. In fact, the task force found that in many cases the tests gave a leg up to black, Latino and low-income students by offering an additional metric for admissions officers who might have rejected them because their grades did not meet the university’s threshold.
Carol Christ, now the chancellor at U.C. Berkeley, was one of the first university administrators to eliminate the SAT requirement nearly two decades ago when she became president of Smith College in Northampton, Mass. On Thursday, she told the regents that she viewed the SAT and ACT as “a biased instrument” that would only become more skewed in the wake of the pandemic disruptions. Robert May, a philosophy professor at the University of California, Davis, who appointed the faculty panel, said the regents’ decision would add confusion and significant costs to the admissions process at the mammoth system, and make admissions determinations even more subjective in the short-term.
But a U.C. faculty task force commissioned to study the impact of standardized tests found earlier this year that the SAT and ACT predicted college success within the system more effectively than high school grades or other measures. Marten Roorda, the chief executive of the ACT, told the regents in a letter before the vote that dropping the testing requirements would “further the uncertainty and anxiety of students and their families at a time when they need all the reassurances and resources we can provide.”
In fact, the task force found, in many cases the tests gave a leg up to black, Latino and low-income students by offering an additional metric for admissions officers who might have rejected them because their grades didn’t meet the university’s threshold. Supporters of standardized tests have argued that they provide an important yardstick to assess students across disparate school districts and states. And the College Board and ACT say any inequities in their results reflect existing gaps in the American educational system, and are not a fault of the tests themselves.
That task force recommended in February that the university keep the ACT and SAT, pending the development of its own standardized test for admission, a process that it estimated would take nearly a decade. In response to criticism, the College Board proposed a new SAT grading system last year that came to be known as the “adversity score,” which would put each test taker’s results into the context of that student’s school or neighborhood. But the company withdrew that proposal after being criticized for trying to distill complex factors into a single score.
Amid pushback, Ms. Napolitano proposed that the regents split the difference, fast-tracking the new test while turning test scores into a temporary metric for out-of-state applicants, scholarships and assessing eligibility for the 12.5 percent in-state cutoff. Testing opponents marked a major victory two years ago when the highly ranked University of Chicago went test optional. The school reported last year that the entering freshman class had nearly a quarter more first-generation and low-income students and 56 percent more rural students than the prior year, with about 10 percent opting against submitting test scores.
Faculty response to Ms. Napolitano’s recommendation was publicly neutral, but some involved in the report have privately predicted that her proposal would make admissions more subjective and confusing, and it drew fire from conservative editorial boards and testing organizations. In the University of California system, standardized test scores are just one component of a complex admissions formula, which includes more than a dozen metrics, including high school grade point averages. The state guarantees acceptance to the top 12.5 percent of California high school students.
“These new recommendations will further the uncertainty and anxiety of students and their families at a time when they need all the reassurances and resources we can provide,” Marten Roorda, the chief executive of the ACT, wrote to the regents, adding that dropping the tests “will make admissions much more subjective.” But as California has struggled to maintain campus diversity since voters passed a 1996 ban on affirmative action, pressure has grown for the school system to take action. Its top campuses have become almost as difficult to get into as some Ivy League schools and are demographically dominated by white and Asian students.
For the last 20 years, black enrollment at University of California schools has scarcely broken 4 percent, though African-Americans represent 6.5 percent of the state’s population. Nearly 40 percent of the state is Hispanic, California’s largest ethnic group, but only 22 percent of students in the school system are.
Carol Christ, now the Berkeley chancellor, was one of the first university administrators to eliminate the SAT requirement nearly two decades ago when she became president of Smith College. On Thursday, she told the regents that she viewed standardized testing as “a biased instrument” that would only become more skewed in the wake of the pandemic.
Anemona Hartocollis contributed reporting from New York.Anemona Hartocollis contributed reporting from New York.