Inside Higher Ed Opinion – Colleges Should Admit Students Without the ACT or SAT by Vincent Pan and Mo Hyman

After an unusual-to-say-the-least year and a half, The University of California settled its case with the plaintiffs that took action against their use of the SAT/ACT in admissions and scholarship decisions. CAP was one of these plaintiffs. No one could have anticipated how the world would turn upside down only months after the case was filed in late 2019 nor how the events of 2020 would shake us all, including the universities that were forced to contend with the reality that access to these tests became limited based almost solely on privileged access to testing sites and transportation. The University of California saw these inequities and made the right choice in ending use of the SAT/ACT. We hope that other colleges follow suit.

Ultimately, we know that other measures such as personal statements also pose inequities for low-income students of color, and certainly there is much work to be done to level the playing field where these measures are concerned. But personal essays can provide insight into a specific student’s experience, circumstances, maturity level, and fit for a specific school, while entrance exams say nothing at all about an individual. While perceived as an “objective measure,” they are, in truth, just the opposite: these tests continuously prove in study after study to have no effect on college outcomes; in fact, study after study continuously proves that these tests only consistently measure parental wealth.

Vincent Pan, co-executive director of co-plaintiff organization Chinese for Affirmative Action, and Mo Hyman, CAP’s executive director, penned an op-ed for Inside Higher Ed detailing why they are proud to have participated in this civil rights effort for the students of California. Given the race- and class-based barriers these tests have posed for decades, CAP is honored to have fought alongside our partners in this case.