Name: Judge: UC can be sued for discrimination against low-income students due to use of SAT, ACT exams for admissions
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Judge: UC can be sued for discrimination against low-income students due to use of SAT, ACT exams for admissions

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This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateA judge says the University of California can be sued for allegedly discriminating against low-income, minority and disabled applicants by mandating the SAT and ACT as an admissions requirement. The ruling comes as UC prepares to decide whether to stop making standardized tests a mandatory part of the application process.The lawsuit’s allegations, if proven, could show that the university “knew that its policy choice would disproportionately impact minority and low-income students” as well as disabled students, said Alameda County Superior Court Judge Brad Seligman in a ruling made public Tuesday. He said California law prohibits discriminatory government policies even if the bias was unintentional.The regents are scheduled to meet Thursday and consider to eliminate the requirement of the Scholastic Aptitude Test and the American College Testing exam for students seeking admission in the fall of 2021.Her plan, announced May 11, would allow students applying in 2021 or 2022 to submit their SAT and ACT scores. Applications for 2023 and 2024 would not include test scores, and in 2025, Napolitano wants UC either to create its own exam or to eliminate admissions tests.The standardized testing requirements have been suspended for current high school juniors. Tests were canceled this spring but are due to resume in the summer and fall.Advocates for low-income and minority students have long said the tests are unfair to applicants who cannot afford preparation classes or tutors and those whose first language was not English, and exclude many qualified students while reducing diversity. Advocates also question whether Napolitano’s proposal goes far enough.Coronavirus PandemicWhile testing would be optional for 2021 and 2022, upper-income white students would still be more likely to take the exams and submit their scores, and to have access to online exams available this fall, Public Counsel, a law firm involved in the suit, said in comments. What steps will UC take to make sure the results “do not stigmatize students from underrepresented groups?” the firm asked.The lawsuit, if successful, would prohibit use of the exams in UC admissions.Tracking COVID-19 cases across the Bay Area and California.The suit noted that the university’s Academic Senate had refused to require the SAT for admissions in the 1960s, finding that the test scores had little or no relationship to future success at UC, before reversing course in 1979. Seligman, in his ruling, said the evidence could show that the university knew the test had an adverse impact on disadvantaged and minority applicants.Public Counsel attorney Mark Rosenbaum said that “the SAT and ACT in California are on their last legs and that the time has come for the Regents to end reliance upon a discriminatory test that over the decades has fenced out hundreds of thousands of qualified students of color and students from low-income families from the UC system.”UC noted that the judge had only allowed the suit to proceed and had not ruled on the merits of the case. The university said its Academic Senate had established a task force to reconsider the tests in January 2019, 11 months before the suit was filed.“The University is deeply committed to admitting and enrolling a high-achieving student body that reflects the diversity of California,” UC said.Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: Twitter:Tracking COVID-19 cases across the Bay Area and California.

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateA judge says the University of California can be sued for allegedly discriminating against low-income, minority and disabled applicants by mandating the SAT and ACT as an admissions requirement. The ruling comes as UC prepares to decide whether to stop making standardized tests a mandatory part of the application process.The lawsuit’s allegations, if proven, could show that the university “knew that its policy choice would disproportionately impact minority and low-income students” as well as disabled students, said Alameda County...

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Judge: UC can be sued for discrimination against low-income students due to use of SAT, ACT exams for admissions

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