OAKLAND, CA – The University of California Board of Regents unanimously voted on May 21, 2020, to suspend and ultimately eliminate the SAT and ACT standardized testing requirements for freshman admissions, a decision that has drawn criticism for reportedly contradicting the findings of a UC-commissioned task force. This landmark vote, which occurred after extensive public debate, set the stage for the UC system's current test-blind admissions policy. The policy, effective for fall 2021 applicants and beyond, means test scores are no longer considered for admissions or scholarship purposes.
The 23-0 vote by the Regents came despite a report from the UC Standardized Testing Task Force (STTF), formed in January 2019, which concluded that the SAT and ACT were not biased against racial/ethnic minority or economically disadvantaged students in predicting first-year academic success at UC. The task force had recommended that the university continue to require the SAT/ACT for admissions, albeit with modifications to their weight and context. This recommendation was made public just days before the Regents' decisive vote.
UC Berkeley Computer Science Professor Jelani Nelson highlighted this discrepancy, stating in a recent tweet, > "many UC Regents spoke in favor of keeping the SAT on May 21, 2020, only to unanimously vote to ban it later in the same meeting." He further asserted that the Regents "succumbed to the fad of the moment, despite the taskforce report the UC itself commissioned showing that it was a bad idea." The university's decision was championed by then-UC President Janet Napolitano, who cited concerns about access and equity in her recommendation to suspend the tests.
The move to a test-blind system marked a significant shift in the admissions landscape for one of the nation's most prestigious public university systems. While proponents argued the change would foster greater equity and access for underrepresented students, critics, like Nelson, pointed to the internal task force's findings that suggested the tests were predictive and not inherently biased in predicting UC success. The current policy ensures that standardized test scores play no role in the evaluation of freshman applicants.
