During COVID-19, universities are reducing the requirements for standardized tests. The University of California plans to stop using SAT / ACT scores by 2025. Many schools argue that standardized tests harm underserved candidates.
Last week, the University of California (UC) system announced plans to remove SAT and ACT, the two most widely used standardized entrance exams in the United States, from their application requirements.
Like many universities across the country, the UC system, which includes UCLA and UC Berkeley, has decided to remove the review requirement by fall 2020 to accommodate applicants whose exams have been canceled due to COVID -19. In response to longstanding criticism of standardized testing, the UC system now makes change permanent. The 300,000 students attending UC universities … represent the largest group of college entrance exams.
Last year, a school district of Compton, California, sued UC regents for trusting SAT and ACT, calling the practice “manifestly discriminatory against the least privileged students of the State”.
While the creators of SAT and ACT claim that the tests are objective, critics argue that all of the standardized tests discriminate against low-income test participants. Rich children have resources between school fees, exam preparation, and corruption to get high scores.
Although the SAT and ACT tests are expected to resume this summer, there will likely be far fewer students in both tests. The 300,000 students attending UC universities that make up the largest university system in the United States represent the largest group of students taking the college entrance exam. The UC’s decision to weigh SAT and ACT less intensively at the moment and less from 2025 could inspire other schools to follow suit.
University of California SAT / ACT Release Calendar
On May 22, the Board of Regents at the University of California unanimously approved a plan to suspend the university system’s SAT / ACT filing requirement by 2024. In 2025, the system will introduce a new review entrance fee for applicants. As is or will eliminate the testing requirement for all California students.
Standardized tests harm disadvantaged students
The UC decision could accelerate the decline of standardized tests, which critics say further disadvantages poor black, Latin American, and Latin American students.
According to the College Board, the organization that manages SAT-SAT values is the highest for white and Asian students and applicants whose families earn more than $ 200,000 a year. Scores are lower for black, Native American, and Latin American students as well as for applicants whose families earn less than $20,000.
To solve this problem, the College Board announced last year that it would add an adversity rating to candidates’ SAT rating reports. This score, which should use a scale of 1 to 100 and for which a larger number would indicate greater adversity, should take the form of another piece of data which registrars should take into account.
In the end, the college’s board of directors rejected the idea after receiving harsh criticism.
Some believe that the adversity value of college did not answer the real problem. Preparing for expensive exams is an important factor in getting high scores, but you also feel comfortable in the exam settings. Existing college entrance exams hurt applicants with paint, applicants from low-income families, and applicants with disabilities.
Research also suggests that standardized tests are not reliable indicators of future success. In many ways, it’s an ability in itself to know how to take an exam. Therefore, standardized tests simply reflect the ability of test participants to do well in a test and not to think critically or independently.
The college’s decision to leave standardized test requirements behind in the fall of 2020 was not necessary. Since March, thousands of test participants have been affected by the canceled SAT and ACT test sessions.