California sociology professor cited 'irony' in removing ACT/SAT not fixing racial disparities as intended
UC Faculty Push to Reinstated Standardized Testing, Citing Equity and Academic Preparedness
A statewide faculty coalition has intensified pressure on the University of California to reconsider its test-blind admissions policy, arguing that the move originally intended to promote racial equity has instead stalled progress and weakened academic assessment across the system’s 10 campuses.
The push gained formal momentum this summer when the UC Academic Council directed the Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools to oversee a faculty-led, evidence-based review of standardized testing in undergraduate admissions. The directive, issued July 22, follows more than 3,000 faculty members signing open letters urging the reinstatement of the SAT and ACT.
Gabriel Rossman, a sociology professor at UCLA, said the policy’s origins were explicit. “That was obviously the motive. The UC Regents were very clear,” Rossman told a national outlet. “They did get rid of the SAT because they thought it had a disparate impact by race.” Former UC President Janet Napolitano championed the shift in 2020, citing equity concerns as the driving force.
Since then, the faculty coalition has split along departmental lines. STEM faculty led an early open letter focused on the math components of the college entrance exams. A subsequent letter signed by scholars in the social sciences, humanities, arts, business, law and education endorsed those concerns while arguing the verbal reasoning portion of the tests should also be considered. “We are University of California faculty from the social sciences, humanities, arts, business, law, education, and other non-STEM fields,” the group wrote. “We are writing to endorse our STEM colleagues’ earlier open letter regarding the math component of SAT/ACT and argue for also using the verbal reasoning component of SAT/ACT in undergraduate admissions.” The non-STEM signatories noted they supported the earlier effort but initially held back because it was framed specifically around math preparation.
The debate has centered on whether removing test scores has helped or hindered the university’s diversity goals. Rossman pointed to enrollment data showing a stark shift. “One of the ironies of this is they got rid of the SAT in order to promote equity in enrollment,” he said. “The UC freshman class had been diversifying for the previous 20 years, and then it leveled off in 2020. In particular, the big change was the ratio of Latino students versus Anglo students. The numbers of Black and Asian students didn’t change by nearly as much.”
A regional policy analysis concurred, arguing that the loss of test scores deprived admissions officers of a key metric for identifying high-achieving applicants from under-resourced schools. “Removing test scores from the admissions process weakened UC’s ability to evaluate academic readiness while ignoring the real causes of racial disparity,” the report stated.
Concerns about student preparedness have been underscored by diagnostic data cited by UC Berkeley mathematics professor Zvezdelina Stankova. Her analysis found that from 2018 to 2020, roughly 71% of about 2,200 Calculus I students were deemed ready or nearly ready for college-level work, with only 0.14% testing below basic algebra. Between 2021 and 2023, under the current test-blind framework, that figure dropped to about 51%. By 2023, just 44% of roughly 2,800 tested students were considered ready, and 17% failed to answer a single question correctly across eight basic topics.
Neetu Arnold, a policy analyst at the Manhattan Institute, offered a different perspective on accessibility. “I actually think standardized tests are a lot more accessible for working-class students,” she said. “It’s much easier to go to the library to pick up some prep books and to really put in the work than investing in really expensive extracurricular activities.”
Stankova praised the faculty letters for bringing the issue to light. “On behalf of the authors of the open letters, I would like to thank the thousands of UC faculty and people from around the world who have written to us in support of this initiative,” she said, emphasizing that student preparation in math and English is critical to the future of the university.
She and her colleagues are now urging every UC faculty member to work with their campus admissions committees and Senate bodies to support the upcoming recommendation from the Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools, which they hope will result in reinstating the SAT and ACT. “Without that, any admissions criteria can be ignored or even counted against the applicant,” Stankova warned. “Let us all make sure that UC admissions works to select based on a holistic approach that incorporates academic merit as a significant part of that process.”
The Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools has not yet responded to requests for comment. As faculty advocacy continues, the university system stands at a crossroads between its original equity goals and the academic readiness of its incoming class.