California State University trustees strongly indicated Wednesday they will permanently scrap SAT and ACT testing requirements for admission — a move that would align the nation’s largest four-year higher education system with the University of California, which dumped the standardized exams it criticized as biased and of little value.
At a board meeting Wednesday, not one trustee on the 12-member educational policy committee voiced opposition to a recent recommendation by a systemwide admission advisory council to drop the tests. The council of students, faculty and administrators found the assessments less effective than high school grades in predicting college success, while producing disparate results for underserved students and creating undue stress.
The full Board of Trustees will vote on the proposal in March and, if approved, the council will craft a new admissions formula and suggest when to begin using it, with Chancellor Joseph I. Castro making the final decision.
“The issue of SAT and ACT testing has overwhelmed students and families for a long time,” said Trustee Diego Arambula, a longtime public school and nonprofit educator. “To see that a GPA alone actually has better predictive power makes it abundantly clear to me that if we can clear this all off of the plates of young people and their families who are already going through such stressful times right now … it’s in the right interest of our communities.”
Read the full story on LATimes.com.