UC delays decision on bringing back SAT, ACT for admissions as faculty push for change

By Kenny Choi

The University of California Regents won’t decide whether to bring back standardized tests for admissions until at least next year. Thousands of faculty members argue that the system’s test-free policy is contributing to a growing gap in college readiness.

Opponents of reinstating the SAT and ACT say standardized testing would create additional barriers for low-income and underrepresented students.

The debate over whether the UC system should reverse its 2020 decision to eliminate standardized tests from admissions has attracted national attention.

Zvezdelina Stankova, a mathematics professor at UC Berkeley, said the divide between prepared and underprepared students has become deeply concerning.

“It is a dire situation. It is a crisis,” Stankova said.

Thousands of UC faculty members have signed two open letters urging the Board of Regents to bring back standardized testing. Stankova and other faculty members appeared at a UC Regents meeting in San Francisco to voice their concerns.

“The top students who are ready to fly have been held down,” Stankova said.

Stankova said many of her classes are interrupted because students lack basic math skills. She recalled having to explain to students why adding one-half and one-third equals five-sixths.

“Then the whole class has to stop,” she said.

Faculty members say the concerns extend beyond science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Some professors report that students struggle to write coherent sentences and paragraphs without the help of artificial intelligence.

Rodney Moradi, a recent UC Berkeley graduate, said he has tutored numerous freshmen who were not prepared for university-level classes.

“If we’re really looking for equity in classrooms, we need to be able to understand who’s falling behind in high school and help them fix that before they apply to university,” Moradi said.

Groups, including the Campaign for College Opportunity, oppose reinstating standardized tests, arguing they put underrepresented and lower-income students at a disadvantage.

“If we want to address college preparation, we should be looking not at becoming more selective but being more supportive to students across the state, working with our K-12 partners to improve preparation, not slamming the door on thousands of students,” said Jessie Ryan of the Campaign for College Opportunity.

Stankova counters that free test-preparation resources, including Khan Academy, are helping students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. She believes eliminating standardized tests has ultimately hurt qualified low-income applicants by preventing them from submitting scores that could strengthen their applications.

“They do have top scores in the SATs, but they’re not considered anywhere,” Stankova said.

Ryan pointed to UC’s own research to defend the test-free policy.

“What we know, based on the UC Office of the President’s own research, is that since going test-free, our retention rates have remained stable and graduation rates have also increased,” Ryan said.

Several prominent universities, including Stanford, Harvard and Yale, have reinstated standardized testing requirements. The University of Texas at Austin has also restored its testing requirement.

Stankova argues that the consequences of UC’s policy can be seen inside classrooms.

“The prepared students are not getting the education the UC is designed for and has promised them,” she said.

Supporters of standardized testing had hoped the Regents would consider the issue this fall. The university instead put off a decision until at least next year and did not announce when testing could be reinstated, even if the board ultimately supports the change.

Former UC President Janet Napolitano, who recommended the test-blind policy in 2020, has publicly said the policy “needs to be revisited.”