Overview
- BOARS, the University of California’s Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools, voted at a Friday meeting to rescind a two-work-group road map that would have studied reinstating SAT or ACT requirements and reexamined UC high-school course rules.
- After the vote, explanatory materials that had briefly appeared on UC websites were taken down and no replacement plan or public explanation has been released by BOARS or UC leadership.
- Faculty who say incoming STEM students show serious math gaps have pushed for faster action and gathered more than 3,000 signatures asking Regents to place a test-restoration item on the September 2026 agenda to take effect for fall 2027.
- BOARS members have warned that UC largely stopped collecting SAT/ACT data after it went test-free in 2020, which limits the system’s ability to run fresh, evidence-based analyses of how reinstated tests would predict student preparedness.
- The decision sharpens a clash between equity concerns about standardized tests and faculty worries about readiness, and it raises the risk of rushed policy choices or prolonged delay because any change requires Regent approval and must match application-cycle lead times.