Universities Drop Entrance Test Scores: Harvard and Berkeley Lead Discrimination Against Asian

In 2019, the average SAT score among all test-takers was 1059 while the average score among Asian students was a much higher 1223. As a result of superior test performance, Asians, who account for only 5.6% of U.S. population, represent 21% of the Harvard student body and 35% of the U.C. Berkeley student population.

However, even this strong Asian representation at top universities hides the discrimination against Asians in their admission decisions resulting in the current case before the Supreme Court (Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. V. President and Fellows of Harvard College). In June 2021, the justices deferred a decision in this case while they await an opinion from the Justice Department under President Joe Biden. Under Donald Trump, the department sided with the Asian American plaintiffs.

In an effort to hide the overt discrimination, Harvard and more than 1,240 of the nation’s 2,330 bachelor’s degree granting schools, including Creighton University, have ditched required standardized test scores as an element of admission decisions. Joining the avalanche against standardized test scores, U.S. News and World Report ranked test-blind colleges in its 2021 ratings.

Unfortunately by dropping standardized test scores, universities more easily heighten discrimination against high-achieving Asian and Asian American students by relying on high school grades and other less comparable metrics rather than standardized test scores. The irony is that these test scores were introduced in the early 20th Century to reduce discrimination in college admission.

Affirming the importance of Asian’s superior test score performance, Asians have secured 50.1% of jobs in Silicon Valley’s tech sector which is ten times their share of the U.S. population. Importantly, nearby Stanford maintains its use of standardized test scores in admission decisions.

We non-Asian citizens must, instead of abolishing test scores, engage the real enemy, which is the dumbing down of America’s education which produces students with low standardized test scores. Ernie Goss https://tinyurl.com/mr386h6j