University of California cannot accept or consider SAT/ACT scores in admissions, court says

An appeals court has ruled that the University of California cannot consider standardized testing scores in its admissions process.

According to CBS Bay Area, a three-member panel within the First District Court of Appeals made the ruling, which does not allow institutions within the University of California system to use the testing scores for admission decisions for the 2021-2022 academic school year.

The lawsuit, filed against the University of California at the beginning of the fall term, stated that students with disabilities don’t have access to test-taking sites during the COVID-19 pandemic, giving an unfair advantage to those without disabilities. It also claims that the tests are “racially discriminatory” and have a “classist impact.”

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Superior Court Judge Brad Seligman who ruled on the case stated in an August ruling, according to the Los Angeles Times, that the testing policy discriminates against people with disabilities.

“While they decry the asserted racially discriminatory and classist impact of the tests, their primary argument is that the current ‘test-optional’ policy at most of the UC campuses denies admissions applicants with disabilities meaningful access to the additional admission opportunity that test-submitters will enjoy, in large part because they have not taken these tests and will not be able to take them with appropriate accommodation during this Covid-19 pandemic,” Seligman said in the ruling.

Seligman also stated that there isn’t enough data indicating that test results are well-founded or stipulate a student’s performance in college: “In short, applicants with disabilities are denied meaningful access to the ‘aid, benefit or service’ that test-takers have. They are denied a potential second chance at admission.”

Attorney Mark Rosenbaum who helped file the lawsuit stated that the tests are “racist” and that they have deprived students of color, students with disabilities, and low-income families of having a fair chance at getting accepted to the University of California, according to the Los Angeles Times.

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Rosenbaum said that the “historic decision puts an end to racist tests that deprived countless California students of color, students with disabilities, and students from low-income families of a fair shot at admissions to the UC system,” according to the report.

More than half of the UC colleges have agreed to drop the ACT/SAT scores including Berkeley, Irvine, and Santa Cruz.

Campus Reform reached out to UC, Seligman, and Rosenbaum for comment but did not receive responses in time for publication. 

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