Are Colleges Finally Admitting Standardized Tests Aren’t Racist?

Did you know that the SAT is racist?

During Woke I, as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez now calls it, “antiracists” said the SAT’s creators “were avowed eugenicists.”   

No wonder black people get lower scores.

Even if the test isn’t racist today, it still gives unfair advantages to white kids because their parents are more likely to afford SAT tutoring.

My new video shows anti-SAT ads from activist groups like FairTest that said, “Real learning is not standardized, so why judge children just by test scores?”

During Woke I, FairTest won. Most colleges stopped requiring the test for admissions.  

That was ironic, given that standardized tests once brought underrepresented groups into colleges. After tests helped Jews get into college in the 1920s, Harvard even reduced focus on tests to “prevent a dangerous increase in the proportion of Jews.” 

I confront FairTest’s executive director, Bob Schaeffer, pointing out that SATs are the best predictor of whether a kid will thrive in college.

He scoffs at that, saying testing companies just want money: “The College Board is a billion-dollar-a-year business … like the tobacco industry—giving you the best spin on what they can do.”

I push back: “If you’re a Latino immigrant who goes to a lousy high school but you test well, you got a shot!”

“There are actually very few examples of that being true,” he replies.

Actually, there are many examples.

College Board data shows students with C+ grades but great SAT scores do better in college than A+ students with lower SAT scores.

Better test scores do strongly predict success.

Nevertheless, during Woke I, cowardly college administrators did what progressives told them to do. Most colleges dropped the test.

It was just unfair.

Jason Riley of the Wall Street Journal points out that dropping the test made it easier for colleges to do to Asians what they once did to Jews. Today, It’s Asian parents who most emphasize learning and who are most likely to make their kids study. But colleges don’t want “too many” Asians.

“It’s about making these campuses look right, using them to make your college catalog look more colorful …” says Riley. “It’s about aesthetics, not about learning.”

Not using tests did make it easier for schools to admit more blacks and Latinos. But many struggled in college. University of California, Berkeley mathematics professor Zvezdelina Stankova says some students “are five to eight years behind in mathematics.”

“There’s this assumption. Just get these kids in the door. They’ll be fine,” complains Riley, who is black. “They’re being set up to fail. I see no progress in getting a bunch of black kids admitted to MIT and then having them flunk out or struggle when they don’t need to be struggling because they could be going to another school and doing quite well and actually graduate. … Eliminate the test, you’re just going to delay where it shows up elsewhere in this child’s life. You’re not doing that child any favor.”

But woke educators cared more about pleasing progressive activists.

Now, five years later, schools finally acknowledge that they made a mistake.

Every Ivy League school is bringing back standardized testing.

Other schools are following suit.

They finally admit what the data always showed: Tests are useful.

It’s cruel and stupid that for years, colleges gave in to woke activists.

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