UC weighs whether to bring back the SAT, with a faculty report due in February

Six years after the University of California stopped looking at SAT and ACT scores, the system is formally reconsidering whether to bring them back, CalMatters reported this week. UC leaders have asked a faculty committee for a detailed report on standardized testing by Feb. 12.

The UC Academic Senate is then due to send recommendations to the Board of Regents by June, and the regents have the final say. It is not yet clear whether the board will take a vote.

The push comes from about 3,000 UC faculty members, some now retired, who signed two open letters this summer urging a return of the tests. In their view, a growing number of freshmen show up unprepared in math and writing. One of the letters argues the test offers an outside check on inflated grades and on application essays written with AI.

That group is a small share of the system's roughly 26,000 faculty members.

What the numbers show

The data cut both ways. Systemwide figures presented to the regents in September show average freshman GPAs have risen since 2021, the first class admitted without scores, and that retention and graduation rates have held steady or improved. A 2020 UC task force had warned that both could fall if the test were dropped.

The trouble spot is introductory calculus. In beginning calculus, pre-calculus and remedial-level math courses, which enroll about 5% of freshmen, the share of D's, F's and withdrawals rose from 13% to 18% since the 2021-22 school year, and average grades fell from 2.95 to 2.71, according to that analysis.

The UC did not track those figures before it went test-blind, so there is no earlier baseline. A CalMatters review of UC Berkeley grade data found D and F rates in fall entry-level calculus averaged about 8% before the change and about 11% after.

The other side

Critics argue that scores track family income, since wealthier students tend to post higher scores, and that requiring them would needlessly keep out students who could succeed. The UC Student Association, which represents 237,000 undergraduates, told the regents in July it does not believe the SAT or ACT will produce better-prepared students, and noted that campus diversity has grown since 2020.

Public Counsel, the legal group whose lawsuit led UC to drop the test, said it may sue again if the SAT returns; a settlement that kept scores out of admissions expired last year.

UC Berkeley economist Jesse Rothstein, a critic of the test, argued in a September report that math declines among students predate the UC decision and show up nationally and abroad. UCLA testing scholar Li Cai, who signed the faculty letter, responded that professors teaching introductory courses are often the first to notice changes in preparation.

Former UC President Janet Napolitano, who backed dropping the test in 2020, told the Chronicle of Higher Education she would be open to revisiting it, while cautioning that it is "not a silver bullet."

Most highly selective universities nationally have resumed using test scores in some form since the pandemic, CalMatters noted. UC is one of the few systems that does not consider them at all.

Sources

calmatters.org

regents.universityofcalifornia.edu

ucstudentsuccess.org