The University of California is not abandoning plans to reconsider the SAT’s role in undergraduate admissions, university officials say, despite news reports last week suggesting otherwise.
The clarification comes amid mounting pressure from faculty members and commentators who want the UC to bring back standardized testing requirements that the Board of Regents eliminated in 2020. That decision, approved unanimously by the regents, went against a recommendation from the UC Academic Senate, which had favored keeping the SAT and ACT as part of the admissions process at the time.
Confusion over the university’s plans surfaced last month after the Academic Senate announced it would review both standardized testing and the high school coursework requirements used to determine UC eligibility. Then, on Monday, several media outlets reported that a senate committee overseeing admissions policy had abandoned that review altogether.
UC officials pushed back on that characterization. Ahmet Palazoglu, chair of the Academic Senate, issued a statement Monday night through the UC Office of the President insisting the review remains active.
“The Academic Senate is not rescinding its commitment to a comprehensive review of standardized testing in admissions,” Palazoglu wrote, adding that the faculty body is simply adjusting its original schedule for completing the broader admissions study.
At a Board of Regents meeting Tuesday, newly appointed board chair Maria Anguiano said the Academic Senate now intends to wrap up its testing review by the end of the current academic year — around June 2027. That’s earlier than the fall 2027 target laid out in a senate document circulated last month.
Palazoglu later clarified in an email that the accelerated June deadline applies specifically to the standardized testing question. A separate discussion about how to review high school course requirements for UC eligibility is scheduled for a senate meeting July 22.
Even with a completed review, the Academic Senate cannot single-handedly restore the SAT to UC admissions. That authority rests solely with the Board of Regents, which must first consider an informational presentation before voting on any policy change at a later meeting.
Students renew opposition
The University of California Student Association, which represents roughly 237,000 undergraduates across the system, sent regents a letter this week reiterating its opposition to reviving standardized testing requirements. The organization argued there’s no evidence the SAT or ACT would produce better-prepared students, noting that racial and ethnic diversity on UC campuses grew after the 2020 policy change without any corresponding drop in graduation rates.
“The role of public education is to ensure all students can access their right to a robust, quality learning experience, and the UC must not limit the number of students able to enter its halls,” the students wrote.
This isn’t the first time students have weighed in. It was student advocacy in 2020 that helped convince regents to drop the testing requirement, and the board reaffirmed that stance in 2021.
Anguiano appeared to signal some frustration with how the debate has unfolded publicly. “Recent public conversations have focused on admissions and standardized testing, too narrowly, in my opinion,” she told fellow regents Tuesday.
Faculty push for reinstatement
More than 2,000 UC faculty members in STEM fields have signed a petition calling for the SAT or ACT to become mandatory again for students applying to science, technology, engineering and math programs, with a proposed start date of fall 2027. Separately, nearly 1,000 professors from other academic disciplines signed a letter urging a full return to standardized testing for all applicants.
The STEM faculty petition contends that high school transcripts alone don’t reliably indicate whether a student is ready for college-level coursework, citing grade inflation and the rise of artificial intelligence tools that some students use to complete assignments. Supporters argue this leaves some incoming students unprepared for the academic demands of a UC education.
Mina Aganagic, a physics and mathematics professor at UC Berkeley, told regents Tuesday that dropping the SAT has created real classroom challenges. “Without the SAT, our introductory courses are forced to reteach elementary and middle school material. This wastes opportunities, misallocating resources rather than increasing access,” she said.
But not everyone agrees the SAT is the answer. Jessie Ryan, president of the Campaign for College Opportunity, a nonprofit focused on expanding access to higher education, said reviving the test would address the wrong problem.
“This is absolutely the wrong solution to an undefined problem,” Ryan said. “What we know, based on the UC Office of the President’s own research, is that since going to test-free admissions, our retention rates have remained stable and graduation rates have also increased.”
Ryan argued that if the university wants to improve student preparation, it should focus on strengthening support systems and partnerships with K-12 schools rather than raising barriers to entry. “We should be looking not at becoming more selective, but being more supportive to students across the state,” she said. “Working with our K-12 partners to improve preparation, not slamming the door on thousands of students.”
Opponents of reinstating the SAT have long argued the exam disadvantages low-income students, who often lack access to costly test-preparation resources that can boost scores.
Even when standardized tests were part of UC admissions, they were only one factor among many. Campuses also weighed the rigor of a student’s coursework relative to peers at the same high school, extracurricular achievements and special talents, and the socioeconomic and geographic context of an applicant’s background.
Original source: CalMatters
