California State University trustees have strongly indicated that they will permanently drop SAT and ACT testing requirements for admission.
The move would align the CSU system with the UC system, which dropped standardized exams. The recommendation to drop the tests came from a CSU admission advisory council and at a recent board meeting no one on the 12-member educational policy committee voiced opposition to the recommendation. “The issue of SAT and ACT testing has overwhelmed students and families for a long time,” said Trustee Diego Arambula, longtime public school and nonprofit educator. “To see that a GPA alone actually has better predictive power makes it abundantly clear to me that if we can clear this all off of the plates of young people and their families who are already going through such stressful times right now ... it’s in the right interest of our communities.”
Cal State is the most recent move in a trend seen from over 1,800 colleges and universities that have dropped standardized testing requirements for admissions across the country — nearly 80% of all four-year U.S. campuses that award bachelor’s degrees, most making them optional due to the pandemic.
The full board will vote on the proposal in March.