How Long Will UC Remain Test Blind? 🎓🦅
And who does blindness serve?
The University of California system famously renounced the use of admissions testing in admissions decisions back in 2020. How is that working out for its students? But first the news…
COLLEGE NEWS
The FAFSA is ready: The 2026–27 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form is available now at fafsa.gov. While most states allow plenty of time to lay bare your assets, some want immediate action (sorry, Washington staters) so get cracking.
One enrollment cliff has arrived: While institutions of higher education are bracing themselves for a demographic decline in domestic applicants, The Global Enrolment Benchmark Survey found that the U.S and Canada both experienced declines in international enrollment. This shift can’t be chalked up to demographics, as schools in Europe and Asia saw increases. Instead, the problems are primarily policy based.
Arms-free in Oregon: After sustained student pressure, the Lewis & Clark College board of trustees approved amendments to its environmental, social and governance investment policy, including a provision explicitly stating the college “shall not directly own any securities publicly issued by weapons manufacturers.” Now how do students feel about crypto?
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BIG IDEA
In May 2020, with the nation rocked by the rise of COVID-19, the regents of the University of California system famously voted to phase out SAT and ACT scores as a requirement for admission—over the unanimous vote of faculty to keep test scores as part of the holistic admissions process. Since then, UC has been waving the banner of test-blind admissions, promoting a form of blindness so selective that it only obscures two tests.
How is that working out? UC San Diego assembled a Senate–Administration Working Group on Admissions to explore that very question, specifically in the context of college readiness among incoming students. The results, particularly in terms of math readiness, weren’t pretty:
The full report, though dense, is worth reading for educators, but the relevant recommendations from AVC of Enrollment Management James Rawlins are easier to understand:
The majority of the workgroup recommends that our representative on the Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools (BOARS) should advocate for a systemwide reexamination of the possible return to standardized testing, following the lead of some other institutions that have recently reinstated such measures. This recommendation follows directly from the findings in this report that high school math grades are only very weakly linked to students’ actual math preparation. In fact, for more than two decades the Mathematics Department has found that out of all available student data, the single best predictor for math placement has been the SAT (math section) score, with the ACT score being an equally good predictor. The Math department still uses these scores as the best predictor for math placement if the student provides this data after they are admitted…
Although many other universities also dropped their standardized testing requirement at about the same time as UC, with the onset of the COVID pandemic, several peer universities have now reinstituted the use of standardized tests for admissions. These universities have found that high school GPA on its own is inadequate for admissions. For example, MIT reproduced the analysis of the UC STTF report and found that at MIT standardized tests provided much needed additional information beyond high school transcripts.
What will University of California do to assess college readiness and ensure that students are ready for higher education? The 2020 vote to ignore SAT and ACT scores came with a claim to create a new assessment test, but UC abandoned that position by 2021, after an internal report stated that neither creating a new test nor using an existing assessment 11th graders have to take already would be feasible. But today, the consequences for making widescale admissions decisions across one of the largest public university systems in the U.S. without objective college readiness data are becoming glaringly obvious. The question is whether an administrative body with an ideological aversion to standardized testing will do anything about it.
NAME THAT SCHOOL
Think you know a lot about colleges? Try to guess this institution of higher education. (Find the answer at the end of the newsletter.)
Founded by an abolitionist in 1855, the school was the first interracial and coeducational college in the American South.
Famous for being a “work college” where students engage in 10-15 hours per week of work study rather than pay tuition
The campus is carbon-neutral, known for many advances such as the “greenest” residence hall in the world.
Tightly connected to serving academically promising students from Appalachia and the U.S. South, with a focus on economic mobility and social justice
Has a long history of crafts, including woodcraft, weaving, broomcraft, and ceramics
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NAME THAT SCHOOL ANSWER
Barrea College is a unique Appalachian liberal arts college known for its progressive legacy, commitment to service, and tuition-free promise. Interestingly, the school has two mascots: the historical Mountaineer and the more recent official mascot, Blue the Bear. Go Mountaineers?
Good write-up, Mike. Living in California, this directly affects my students, and me of course as a tutor.
Another SS I follow is here; the TLDR is yes, tests are important, but this author believes AP tests are the way to go:
https://sfeducation.substack.com/p/how-to-fix-uc-admissions
It's a shame the UCs decided to abandon their idea to develop a more culturally sensitive standardized test, but as much as I love the test-optional movement for the sake of accessibility, I see why the exams are a critical piece of determining college readiness. The pandemic may have been the catalyst to surge forward with test-blind admissions for the UCs, but the desire was there since 2001, when then-UC President Richard Atkinson suggested it--I wish there had been more movement on that front earlier.