California Reconsidering SAT for College Admissions

The Univ. of California is not allowed to discriminate based on race, so it abolished standardized admission tests. The NY Post reports:

Joel Hass, a mathematics professor at UC Davis, said the results were unsurprising and reflected a growing divide between students who arrive academically prepared and those who struggle with foundational material.

“There is a wider range of interest and preparedness,” Hass said. “We still have a good number of highly qualified students, but also many who are unprepared for college. The preparedness gap between these groups is large.”

Hass said some university instructors were being encouraged to offer remedial courses covering material students should have learned years earlier.

Just 49.3% of California students met or exceeded state English language arts standards in 2025-26, while only 38.4% achieved proficiency in math, according to results released by the state.

Although both figures improved slightly from the previous school year, they remained below pre-pandemic levels. In 2018-19, 50.9% of students met English language arts standards and 39.7% were proficient in math.

The state spent about $134 billion on K-12 schools from all sources in 2025-26, or roughly $26,450 per student, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office.

“The failure of high schools, and more generally K-12 education in California, is a scandal. The state now sends students who might thrive by first going to the community colleges to UC campuses where they are unprepared for a serious academic environment,” Hass told the Post. ...

Hass also pushed back against arguments that the SAT and ACT create barriers for disadvantaged students, saying the exams can help identify talented applicants whose abilities might otherwise be overlooked. 53

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“SAT and ACT tests can open doors for talented students who have suffered from poor instruction in poor quality schools,” Hass said.

Rather than placing students in university courses before they are ready, he suggested that some could benefit from strengthening their academic foundations at community colleges before transferring to a UC campus.

The SAT used to be a decent IQ tests. Changes made it less of an IQ test, but it still predicts college success better than other measures.