The whole "we're doing this to make it easier for poor kids to get into Berkeley" line is just so transparently bogus it makes me physically angry thinking about it.
Dropping the SAT doesn't make it easier for poor kids to get into college. It makes it harder.Under the old system, college admissions officers made admissions decisions based on four criteria: Essays, resume, high school GPA, and test scores.
The first two overwhelmingly favor the privileged. You can pay $10,000 to have a college admissions "consultant" literally write your child's personal statement. Or $20,000 to send Little Mary on an all-expenses-paid "internship" extravaganza in Antarctica or whatever.
But high school GPA and SAT scores are at least superficially objective. Yes, there are expensive SAT bootcamps, personalized tutoring, etc. The rich are still advantaged...but the poor have a chance. You can buy a Princeton Review book for $40, or make copies of it at a public library. And there are *tons* of free materials available at places like Khan Academy:
https://www.khanacademy.org/test-prep/sat/full-length-sat-1/paper-sat-tests/a/full-length-sats-to-take-on-paper?modal=1. I know parents hate "drill-and-kill," but you know what's nice about it?
It costs nothing except your kid's time. If a high schooler is bright and motivated, she can get a top SAT score practicing with a paper, pencil, calculator, and watching free YouTube classes. It works: New York's top magnet high school, Stuyvesant, uses a test-based admissions system. ~50% of the kids qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.
https://data.nysed.gov/studenteducator.php?year=2018&instid=800000046741So now we've dropped the SAT. What's left? GPA, which is objective but difficult to compare across high schools...and the resume and essays, which are squishy and subjective and rich people
literally buy.
I assume the University of California system *knows* this, given that their faculty report made the same points:
https://edsource.org/2020/uc-report-upholds-test-scores-in-admissions-while-critics-pledge-to-fight-on/623299. But they don't care, because this isn't about making Berkeley accessible to the impoverished. It's about something else.
And look, I think there are some reasonable moral arguments for affirmative action. But if Janet Napolitano wants to bring it back, she needs to get Proposition 209 repealed. Not do it backdoor by banning the SAT.
This isn't Janet Napolitano's university system. It's the people of California's. And in 1996 they told her that affirmative action is illegal.