FERMIN LEAL/EDSOURCE TODAY

Students tin practice with a costless Sabbatum online prep program. But UC volition no longer require the examination or the Human activity alternative.

FERMIN LEAL/EDSOURCE TODAY

Students can do with a costless Sat online prep plan. But UC will no longer crave the examination or the Human activity alternative.

This article was updated May 21, 8:30 p.thousand. with more reaction to the determination.

In a historic vote with national repercussions, the Academy of California on Thursday abandoned the SAT and Deed exams every bit a freshman admission requirement and decided to develop its own substitute standardized exam by 2025.

A unanimous vote by the UC Board of Regents ways that students for the adjacent two years will have the option, simply will not be required, to submit standardized examination scores every bit part of their applications at UC'south 9 undergraduate campuses. Then for the post-obit 2 years, those scores will not be used at all in admission but could be looked at only for course placement and scholarships.

Meanwhile, the university will try to create its ain replacement exam or conform an existing exam to meliorate marshal with what students are supposed to acquire in loftier schoolhouse, such as the Smarter Balanced Assessment exam now given to all K-12 students. And if that does not piece of work out by 2025, UC will drib standardized tests altogether.

With UC's immense size and prestige, the motion represents a accident to the standardized test industry and could encourage other colleges and universities to pull away from the exams, peculiarly at other public universities. The move represents a victory for critics who contend the standardized tests are biased against low-income and some minority students and that affluent families purchase advantages through expensive test prep tutoring. And, as the recent Varsity Blues scandal showed, some parents engaged in bribery and examination cheating to get their children into prestigious schools, they notation.

The new UC policy "is an incredible step in the right direction towards aligning our admissions with wide-based values the academy has identified," said regents chairman John A. Pérez, the old country Assembly speaker who is a potent proponent of increasing indigenous diversity at UC. He said the move likewise would aid low-income students of all racial groups to proceeds admission along with those from rural areas around the country with low university attendance rates.

After five hours of debate and presentations in their online meeting, the regents approved UC president Janet Napolitano'southward program to move away from the SAT and ACT and to develop an alternative. The conclusion came despite a contrary report from UC faculty leaders who wanted the Sabbatum/ACT maintained for at to the lowest degree several more years. That faculty study released in Feb said the tests are proficient predictors of college success for depression income, blackness and Latino students and that most inequities in admission arise from not taking the right loftier school courses.

But in countering the faculty, Napolitano insisted it was time for more dramatic activeness at the 285,000-student UC system and that she expected a substitute test to emerge in cooperation with the California State University. "The right test is better than no test but a flawed test should not be connected to be required," said Napolitano, who is leaving the presidency this summer. Students in the past had the pick of submitting scores from either the Sabbatum or the rival Human action.

Regents on Thursday made emotional and alien statements about the impacts and value of testing and whether it was wise to make the change during all the other chaos resulting from the pandemic. Ultimately, however, even the regents who had expressed incertitude about Napolitano's plan voted for it as a show of unity on an important upshot. The movement culminated six months of discussions and competing research and, in effect, rejected the faculty report that sought to bring back the standardized tests as a requirement at least until a new test is created.

Some doubtfulness remains about how the regents' action will affect students from other states and nations, who comprise as much as 20% of undergraduates at some UC campuses. Official said they volition accept to make up one's mind later on on whether those applicants would demand to submit any test scores after 2023.

Because of the problems in instruction and testing posed past the pandemic, UC previously had decided to make the test scores optional for current high school juniors who would utilise to be admitted in fall 2021. Some regents said they feared that making the tests optional beyond adjacent year would backfire, giving affluent students more than advantages in beingness able to take prep classes and submitting scores while depression income students would be less likely to even take the tests. And some said they are worried that without test scores the more weight given to loftier school grades would pb to grade inflation, particularly in loftier schools in affluent areas.

Opponents of standardized tests were jubilant, even if some other test may be on the way.

"The University of California'southward determination sends a clear bulletin that biased, pay-to-play admissions tests will no longer be tolerated," said Michele Siqueiros, president of the Entrada for Higher Opportunity, an organization that promotes college access.

"Today'southward vote past the University of California Regents to phase out ACT/SAT admissions testing requirements at all U.C. campuses is a huge victory for both equity and academic quality," Bob Schaeffer, interim executive director of FairTest, the National Center for Fair & Open up Testing a grouping that opposes standardized testing. said in a statement. He said the impact "will be both profound and far-reaching" and probably will influence other colleges and universities.

The College Board, which sponsors the Saturday and stands to suffer a big loss of test fee revenues equally a result of the UC activeness, issued a statement Thursday. "Regardless of what happens with such policies, our mission remains the same: to requite all students, and especially low-income and kickoff generation students, opportunities to show their strength."

The testing giant said the state needs to examine disparities in its K-12 system and how those "drive inequity in California."

The organization noted that students would nonetheless need to take standardized tests in applying to other colleges and that, as a issue of varying admissions rules, some students may decide to "limit their college options much earlier in the higher search process."

The ACT organization'due south chief executive officer Marten Roorda issued a argument before the vote, criticizing Napolitano'south proposal and saying it would "further the uncertainty and anxiety of students and their families at a fourth dimension when they need all the reassurances and resources we can provide." The plan, he added, would create "more questions and concerns well-nigh fairness, equity, comparability and reliability" in college admissions.

In December, civil rights organizations and the Compton School Commune filed lawsuits demanding that the UC stop requiring the SAT or ACT exams for freshman access. The lawsuits, filed in Superior Court in Alameda County, contend that the test mandate "systematically and unlawfully denies talented and qualified students with less accumulated advantage a fair opportunity to pursue college education at the UC."

Mainly unspoken Thursday but clearly influencing some opinions was Proffer 209, the 1996 state initiative passed by voters that bans the utilise of affirmative activity or racial preferences in public college admissions in California. In the years right after that vote, Latino and black enrollment at UC dropped sharply. Latino numbers have recovered, although they are withal well below their share of overall high schoolhouse graduates in the state. Last fall, Asians and Pacific Islanders were the largest indigenous grouping amid UC undergraduates, at 33% followed past Latinos, 25%; whites, 21%; blacks, 4%; and international students, 13%.

The divisions amongst UC'due south leadership was much deeper than the concluding vote would suggest.

UC kinesthesia Senate chair Kum-Kum Bhavnani dedicated the faculty report seeking to restore Sat/ACT and suggested a go-slower alternative to Napolitano's plan. She said UC should exist test-optional for 2022 admissions and and then drop the requirement for 2022 while studying the bear on on diverseness before making whatsoever long-term decisions on subsequent years.

Bhavnani said the current tests are racially biased on their own just insisted that the bias is mainly erased by the way UC admissions officers identify scores in the context of many other factors, such as a student's family income and how a score compares to others at the same high school. Without any standardized test, parents are sure to kickoff pressuring high schools to make certain grades are pushed higher, she added.

Regent Jonathan "Jay" Sures proposed a like idea: not to take dramatic action before conducting a study on how side by side yr's testing break affects variety. But his motion was voted down. Sures also said he was "very nervous" well-nigh spending what he described as potentially enormous amounts of money on creating a new test while the pandemic has badly hurt UC finances.

Another issue was raised by regent Sherry Lansing, who said that creating a replacement exam would non erase privileges. She predicted that wealthy parents volition hire tutors so their children can score well on whatsoever new test emerges at UC.

Those arguments did not sway other regents, some of whom recalled their own struggles with the Sat exam or the anxiety their children experienced in taking tests.

Regent Richard Leib noted how his 3 daughters dramatically increased their SAT scores by taking costly prep courses. That showed, he said, the advantages available for students from families who can afford those tutors. He said he would happy if UC ultimately decides not to use whatever tests and instead focuses on the A-G courses students must take in high school if they want to employ to UC.

Campus chancellors also disagreed.

UC Riverside Chancellor Kim Wilcox said the tests provide some actress value in predicting how well applicants will do academically. He said that tests assist to place good candidates and contribute, along with other factors such equally recruiting, to his campus having 1 of the almost diverse educatee bodies in the system. He urged the regents to "move carefully."

In contrast, UC Berkeley Chancellor Ballad Christ, a vocal opponent of the tests, said that the exams may predict success in the beginning year of college but that high school grades are better predictors "of long-term higher success" and graduation. She said moving away from the tests would lessen anxiety about the application process and eliminate some possible corruption every bit shown in the Varsity Blues scandal's examples of parents hiring ringers to accept tests and bribing proctors to increase scores.

In looking for replacement tests, Napolitano said the Smarter Balanced Cess exams could be revised and become adopted by UC admissions offices. But the kinesthesia report released in February raised concerns about cheating on that test and the difficulty of administering it beyond many school districts.

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