It is as if we are striving for an age of mediocrity, where merits like skills and intelligence are bottom of the priority list in order to get a scholarship, or an admission to a good school. But one has to wonder, if we remove the entry barrier that is based on intelligence and/or skills, why would the institution remain “good.” The institution might remain “good” in a society which values morals based on a social ideology. In the case of removing these entry barrios in order to fill a racial and diversity quota, what is “good” in this society is diversity itself, not what it produces.
Recently a Boston Public Schools suspended their tests for advanced learning, citing concerns about the program’s racial inequities. Apparently, the majority of the students that managed to get in the program are white or Asian, and not enough black students; especially given the fact that whites or Asians make up only the minority of the students in the Boston Public School District.
The next move in the relentless crusade to end academic excellence is a move by The University of California, Berkeley, which announced on Friday that they will stop considering SAT and ACT scores for their admission and scholarships. Why? Because apparently, testing IQ levels is detrimental to minority students, accordingly “mainly Black and Hispanic students.”
The Times reported, “The plaintiffs said that the college entrance tests are biased against poor and mainly Black and Hispanic students — and that by basing admissions decisions on those tests, the system illegally discriminates against applicants on the basis of their race, wealth and disability.”
In this age, it will not really matter if a student can perform academically among their peers and keep up with their workload, what will matter is if they have the right skin color. Granted, that is not what they are openly saying, but that is what common-sense dictates. If you are a student with black or brown skin, you will make up the points where you fell behind your fellow classmates, simply by your racial make-up.
That begs the question, will this same logic be applied in schools where academic excellence is an absolute necessity? For example, medical school? These types of programs will not inspire confidence in those patients that get treated by a doctor who they suspect might have only gotten through medical school because they were the “underprivileged” race.
According to The Times, the College Board, which makes the SAT, said in January that it would get rid of subject tests and the optional essay portion.
In the settlement decided on Friday, the university agreed that SAT or ACT scores would not be used in the future. The settlement read:
For students applying for entry between Fall 2021 and Spring 2025, no University of California (“UC”) campus will consider SAT or ACT scores in determining whether to offer admission. SAT and ACT scores, if submitted by students, will not be provided to admissions readers.
Amanda Mangaser Savage, a lawyer which represented the students who originally had sued for the removal of the test as an admission requirement, said in a statement, “Today’s settlement ensures that the university will not revert to its planned use of the SAT and ACT — which its own regents have admitted are racist metrics.”
One user, reacting to the story online, commented: “I’m thinking that in about 8-10 years I’m going to have to stop driving over bridges and entering large buildings. Our new engineers are not going to be adequately trained because for some reason we think it is “kind” to pass people through their classes who can’t actually do or understand the work. SAT is only one way to assess readiness and aptitude to be successful in college but to completely eliminate any type of readiness assessment is foolish.”
There are those, of course, who do believe that there are racial inequities in American education down to the systemic level, but they argued against removing the SAT as an entry requirement.
“Real inequities exist in American education, and they are reflected in every measure of academic achievement, including the SAT,” the College Board’s executive director for communications, Zach Goldberg, said in a statement. “The SAT itself is not a racist instrument. Every question is rigorously reviewed for evidence of bias and any question that could favor one group over another is discarded.”
One can only hope that the drastic social change in education will not lead to dangerous conditions or societal collapse, but if things keep going the way they are, it’s hard to imagine a scenario where this ends well.
