The University of California agreed to no more consider SAT or ACT scores when making admissions and scholarship decisions under a settlement finalized Friday at a 2019 lawsuit filed on behalf of low income students of color and students with disabilities.
The 10-campus program, which includes more than 280,000 students statewide, chose not to continue fighting with a judge’s injunction issued last autumn that barred it from contemplating that the scores for admission even when filed systematically, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. Students may nevertheless opt to submit SAT or ACT scores to satisfy the entry level writing requirement or for placement in courses.
The lawsuit argued that low income students of color were disadvantage because standardized evaluation questions often contain inherent bias that more privileged children are better equipped to reply and wealthier students often take expensive prep course to boost scores which others cannot afford. Additionally, it argues the students with disabilities could not easier travel to examinations and class sites.
The settlement, reached earlier this month,”ensures that the university will not revert to its intended use of the SAT and ACT — which its regents have admitted are racist metrics,” Amanda Savage, an attorney representing the students, said in a statement obtained by the Chronicle.
Incoming students this fall didn’t submit SAT or ACT scores. But, regents had said applicants for autumn 2021 and 2022 could submit the scores voluntarily.
College Board, that produced the SAT, resisted the idea that their standardized evaluations were naturally displaced — although it did recognize inequities in the education system.
“Real inequities exist in American education, and they are reflected in each measure of academic achievement, such as the SAT,” College Board’s executive director for communications, Zach Goldberg, said in a statement obtained from the New York Times. “The SAT itself isn’t a racist instrument. Every question is rigorously examined for signs of bias and some other query which could favor one group over another is lost.”
Under the agreement, SAT and ACT scores will not be considered for admission for students applying for entrance between autumn 2021 and spring 2025. On the other hand, the scores which are filed voluntarily could be used for class placement after a student is admitted.
FairTest, a Massachusetts-based nonprofit group that is generally opposed to standardized testing, declared last month that over 1,400 accredited universities and colleges that grant bachelor’s degrees won’t require students applying for fall 2022 admission to submit test scores. That is more than 60 percent of the undergraduate institutions in the United States, the team said.
The University of California announced on Jan. 28 the system obtained the highest number of undergraduate applications in its history for its fall 2021 admission, which comprised surges among African American and Chicano/Latino pupils. California Community College transfer applications also grew by an astonishing margin, the college program stated.
Campuses saw significant rise of freshman applications from African American students, with a rise of 1,505 applications or 21.8 percent, in addition to Chicano/Latino pupils, with a jump of 5,250 or 12.2 percent, the college program said.
“The composition of the year’s applicants already demonstrate that pupils are no longer deterred from applying based on their inability to get standardized testing,” Marci Lerner Miller, another lawyer representing the students, said in a statement concerning the settlement. “We’re confident that this settlement will cause pupils demonstrating their abilities, rather than their disabilities, from the application procedure.”
