A new review of the UC SAT is due by June 2027

The University of California will still evaluate the SAT’s role in student admissions, despite media reports that the venerable public university system has halted those discussions.

The confusion comes as a growing chorus of professors and media commentators are calling for UC to reinstate the SAT for undergraduate admissions, which the UC Board of Regents removed from the 2020 admissions process. That board decision was overturned the UC Academic Senate’s recommendation that UC maintain its then-current policy of relying on the SAT and ACT. The vote of the regents was unanimous.

The latest whiplash began last month when the academic senate said it would begin a review of the standardized admissions tests and high school classes students must take to meet UC’s minimum admissions requirements. monday afternoon several news stories announced that an academic senate committee that oversees admissions has decided to cancel that review.

However, two key UC officials said a new assessment of the role of standardized tests in admissions is still pending. One of those officials was Academic Senate President Ahmet Palazoglu.

“The Academic Senate is not reversing its commitment to a comprehensive review of standardized admissions tests,” he wrote in a statement Monday night at the UC president’s office website. He said the senate is simply revising its original schedule for a full review of the admissions process.

At a Tuesday meeting of the UC Board of Regents, the board’s new chairwoman, Maria Angiano, said the academic senate will complete its review by “no later than the end of this academic year,” meaning around June 2027.

This speeds up the original timeline. Academic Senate document issued last month, its final report and recommendation to the regents is said to come sometime in the fall of 2027.

Palazoglu clarified in an email Tuesday that the June schedule only addresses the issue of standardized testing in admissions. The academic senate will meet on July 22 to decide on a separate approach to the review of the high school courses students must take for UC eligibility.

Although the academic senate has significant authority at UC, it cannot unilaterally reinstate the SAT when admitting students. Only the Board of Regents can. Procedurally, the board must first present an information item and then vote on any proposed policy at a subsequent meeting.

Students again oppose the use of the SAT

The UC Student Association sent a letter to the regents this week resists going back to the SAT. The association, which represents 237,000 UC students, “does not believe the SAT/ACT will result in better-prepared students.” The letter notes that racial and ethnic diversity at UC has increased since 2020, while the system has not seen a drop in graduation rates.

“The role of public education is to ensure that all students have access to their right to a solid, quality education, and UC should not limit the number of students who can enter its halls,” the students wrote.

Students in 2020 called on the regents to eliminate standardized tests from admissions. The Regents confirmed their ban on entrance exams in 2021.

At the meeting, Angiano hinted at his discomfort with the current discourse about the role of testing in admissions. “Recent public conversations have focused on admissions and standardized testing, in my view, too narrowly,” she said Tuesday.

Why Educators Want the SAT Back

More than 2,000 UC science, technology, engineering and math professors have signed a petition urging UC to reinstate the SAT or ACT as undergraduate admissions requirements for STEM majors by fall 2027. Nearly 1,000 additional professors in other disciplines signed a similar letter calling for the full reinstatement of the SAT or ACT in the admissions process.

The petition from STEM educators says high school grades alone are not a sufficient measure of college readiness, citing rising grade inflation and a growing number of students relying on artificial intelligence to complete assignments.

Mina Aganagic, a professor of physics and mathematics at UC Berkeley, spoke out Tuesday in favor of bringing back the SAT. “Without the SAT, our introductory courses are forced to teach the material from elementary and middle school. This is wasting opportunities, misallocating resources instead of increasing access,” she said.

But the leader of an influential nonprofit that advocates for increased UC access said focusing on the SAT is the wrong move.

“This is absolutely the wrong solution to an ill-defined problem,” said Jesse Ryan, president of the Campaign for College Opportunity. “What we do know, based on the UC president’s office’s own research, is that since the move to test-based (admissions), our retention rates have remained stable and our graduation rates have also increased.”

She continued, “If we really want to address college readiness, we shouldn’t be looking to become more selective, but to be more supportive of students across the state. Let’s work with our K-12 partners to improve preparation, not slam the door on thousands of students.”

Critics of the SAT argue that the test is unfair to low-income studentswho are less likely to be able to afford test preparation services to boost their scores.

Standardized tests were just one factor in how campuses decided who to admit. Other considerations include the quality of courses students take, how that load compares to students at the same high school, the applicant’s special talents or accomplishments, and the location of their high school.