California State University trustees indicate SAT, ACT requirements will be dropped

California State University trustees this week took a significant step toward permanently dropping SAT and ACT testing requirements for students.

At a board meeting Wednesday, the 12 trustees on the educational policy committee indicated that they were all in favor of a recent recommendation by an advisory council to eliminate the testing requirements, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The advisory council, which consists of students, faculty and administrators, argued that standardized test scores are less important than high school grades in predicting a student’s college academic performance. 

“The issue of SAT and ACT testing has overwhelmed students and families for a long time,” trustee Diego Arambula said, according to the Times. “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.”

The Cal State system, which encompasses 23 campuses and educates 477,000 students, has suspended testing requirements for the past two years as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Times.

More than 1,800 colleges and universities have made the decision to scrap standardized testing requirements, as concerns have been raised about how strong of an indicator they actually are of a student’s college success and how fair they are for underserved students. The pandemic has also pushed schools to make the decision, as seen with Harvard announcing in December that they would drop the testing requirements for the next four years.   

California State University’s Board of Trustees will vote on the recommendation in March, and if adopted, will create a new admissions template and propose a date for when it should be put into action.