Ignoring the EvidenceThe University of California has decided to drop college admissions tests—that is a bad idea.
Robert J. Morris
3 Dec 2022
On May 21st, 2020, the University of California (UC) Office of the President issued a press release announcing that UC, one of the largest public universities in the US, would no longer require applicants to submit SAT or ACT scores to be considered for admission. UC announced that it would be “test optional” for fall enrollment in 2021 and 2022. Beginning in fall 2023 and 2024, UC would be “test blind,” meaning that neither the SAT nor the ACT would be considered in the admissions process, although the scores from those tests could still be submitted for consideration for purposes such as course placement and determination of scholarships after the student had been admitted. UC also announced its intention to “undertake a process to identify or create a new test that aligns with the content UC expects students to have mastered to demonstrate college readiness for California freshmen.”
By taking the step of becoming first “test optional” and then “test blind,” UC has joined a growing list of US colleges and universities that are not requiring SAT or ACT scores for consideration in the admissions process. The website, fairtest.org, now lists more than 1,700 “test optional” US colleges and universities and over 80 that are “test free.” The number of schools in each category has been rising yearly.
Those who had been following UC’s deliberations about retaining or abandoning standardized-admissions tests may be surprised by the UC announcement. After all, in July 2018, UC President Janet Napolitano had “asked the Academic Senate to undertake a study to ‘examine the current use of standardized testing for UC undergraduate admission; review the testing principles developed in 2002 and revised in 2010; and determine whether any changes in admission testing policies or practices are necessary to ensure that the University continues to use standardized tests in the appropriate way.’” The 225-page report that resulted was released on February 3rd, 2020, and it completely undermined UC’s decision to phase out and eliminate consideration of college admission test scores.
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The evaluation of the UC admissions process by the UC Academic Council Standardized Testing Task Force (STTF) “found that standardized college admission test scores aid in predicting important aspects of student success including undergraduate grade point average (UGPA), retention, and completion.” STTF found that test scores were better predictors of first-year college grade point average (GPA) than were HSGPA.
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STTF’s report also showed that the UC admissions system engages in a process referred to as “race norming.” For example, in the UC admissions process, an SAT score of 1000 gives a Latino student a 50 percent chance of admission and a white student a 30 percent chance. A white student must obtain an SAT score of 1200 to have the same 50 percent chance of admission that a Latino student has with a score of 1000. The report further stated that, “Students with poor test scores are at especially high risk of leaving UC within one year” and, “Students with poor test scores are at especially high risk of leaving UC with no Degree.”
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Source:
https://quillette.com/2022/12/03/the-reckless-test-score-revolution/
