Several regents praised Napolitano for striking a compromise between the factions.
“She did an excellent job threading the needle,” said Vice Chair Cecilia Estolano,
who called the SAT a “racist test.”
But some members of the powerful UC Academic Senate, which sets admission standards, said they were disheartened by what they saw as disregard of their research report on standardized testing, which Napolitano requested in 2018.
In what researchers called surprising findings,
the Academic Senate’s review found that the SAT helps disadvantaged students gain entry to the selective UC system. That’s because the way UC uses standardized test scores substantially corrects for bias by weighting them less heavily than grades and considering them as only one of many factors in the review process. Campuses adjust for socioeconomic differences and admit disadvantaged students with lower test scores compared with more advantaged peers.
The
task force recommended that the university system keep the SAT and ACT for now while researching alternatives, such as going test-optional or developing UC’s own assessment. That report was
backed by the Senate assembly, made up of faculty leaders and campus representatives, on a 51-0 vote, with one abstention.
Other researchers, however, have criticized the task force’s
findings as erroneous and
ill-founded in rejecting proposals to replace the SAT and ACT with the K-12 assessment.
Eddie Comeaux, a UC Riverside professor who heads the Senate’s committee on admission standards and co-chaired the testing task force, said politics and public perceptions more than data appeared to drive the decision to a preordained conclusion.
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