|
 |
Education Dive
Civil rights groups threaten to sue U of California if it doesn't drop SAT, ACT
Jeremy Bauer-Wolf
Oct. 29, 2019
Dive Brief:
Civil rights groups and a California local school district are
threatening to sue the University of California System if it does not
stop using the SAT and ACT as an admissions requirement, saying the
tests discriminate against students based on income, race and
disability.
Lawyers representing three students, five nonprofits and the Compton
Unified School District, a historically impoverished jurisdiction,
wrote to the system's board of regents Tuesday, demanding it drop the
tests.
The threat of a lawsuit comes as more selective colleges drop
standardized tests from their admissions requirements in response to
pushback on the practice.
Dive Insight:
A potential move by the system to eliminate the SAT or ACT requirement
would likely be significant and far-reaching. The system is one of the
nation's largest and most influential public research systems,
enrolling more than 222,400 undergraduate students.
California is the largest state market for college admissions exams,
said Bob Schaeffer, public education director of the National Center
for Fair and Open Testing (FairTest), in a press release sent to
Education Dive.
"The University of California is one of the world's most highly
respected public higher education systems," Schaeffer said. "If U.C.
ends its ACT/SAT testing requirements — as this action and the facts
supporting it demand — many other institutions are likely to follow
suit."
Lawyers for the groups threatening to sue argue that the tests violate
numerous state civil liberties. The students are "well-qualified" to
enter college, the lawyers wrote to the regents, but "have been subject
to unlawful discrimination on the basis of race, disability, and
wealth" as a result of the standardized testing requirement.
The system had no comment on Tuesday, said U of California System spokesperson Claire Doan.
Many four-year universities have already scaled back on the SAT and ACT
as a condition for admission. More than 1,000 U.S. institutions are
test-optional, according to FairTest. That number started to grow after
the University of Chicago announced last year it would get rid of its
requirement.
U of California's Academic Senate was already studying whether the ACT
and SAT were appropriate metrics of academic performance. Its
recommendations were expected in the 2019-20 academic year, however,
the groups writing to the regents said the matter needed to be resolved
immediately.
The lawyers ordered the system to end the requirements for potential
applicants and for the board to discuss the issue at its meeting in
mid-November.
"We don't need to wait for yet another study to prove that the SAT and
ACT are meaningless and unjust," said Gregory Ellis, co-counsel on the
case and a lawyer at the firm Scheper Kim & Harris, in the
statement. "This is urgent. Right now, students are being asked to take
a test that has no real value, but will determine their futures. These
students have no time to lose."
|
|
|
|
