Though the system voted last year to do away with asking the SAT and ACT admissions tests, still up in the air was whether the UC would choose to use any other test.
Signs already heavily implied that the answer was no. A December 2020 report and a more recent September report announced that creating a new test and using an existing assessment 11th graders have to take already aren't feasible. On Thursday, UC leaders reaffirmed that the system will be test-free for undergraduate admissions going forward.
"We don't have an assessment now that we believe we can use effectively," announced UC President Michael Drake at Thursday's UC Board of Regents meeting.
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The Board of Regents agreed with the move, said its chair, Cecilia Estolano. "We reached a conclusive decision that there isn't right now a test or an assessment that we feel comfortable using in our admissions process."
"This will have national implications," she continued.
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The SAT and ACT have long been the focus of critics who say they are racially biased and give a leg up to more affluent students whose families can pay for costly test preparation.
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According to a July press statement from President Drake's office, having no testing requirement is likewise seen as one reason why the UC admitted its most diverse class for this fall. The number of low-income students who were admitted to a UC campus has jumped by 10% since 2020.
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The creation of a new test is out of the question because it would take too long to develop, a December 2020 academic report to the UC Office of the President announced. Last year, the Board of Regents' vote to get rid of the SAT included the likelihood of having a replacement test by 2024. Though another academic report implied that creating a new test would take nine years. In effect, the Board of Regents' tight deadline ruled out a new test, according to the December 2020 report.
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The UC's focus then turned to using an existing test called Smarter Balanced. It's an assessment federal law requires that California public school students take for free in classrooms in grades 3 through 8 and 11. Although not like the SAT, the Smarter Balanced isn't a "high stakes" test that determines a student's academic fate. It's mainly used by state and district officials to measure whether students are making academic progress. Generally, it's not a test K-12 students stress about.
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